Your wildest dreams have come true! You’ve made it big: really, really big! Your $10 Billion net worth has earned you an invite to Bill Gates’ annual holiday shin-dig for the 25 richest Americans. The guest list includes everyone who’s anyone: Warren Buffett, Paul Allen, Sheldon Adelson and the Walmart gang — even Larry Ellison and the Google guys: Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

The only thing is, like so many holiday get-togethers there will be a Yankee Swap gift exchange. Since you are new to being one of the super rich, (and because this is a hard crowd to buy for), we thought we’d put together a list of gift ideas for billionaires from billionaires.

Don’t worry, billionaires like the same stuff we all do, just a little bigger. Here are some ideas:

1. A ride around town: Bugatti Veyron $2 MM
   Everybody likes a shiny little sports car, and they don’t get any shinier than the 1001 horsepower / 16-cylinder Bugatti Veyron. Named after racecar driver Pierre Veyron, its top speed is over 250 MPH! Cars just don’t get any faster or more powerful than this. But will you look cheap if you only spend $2 mil?
2. Something for that empty wall: Modern Art $8 MM+
   Everybody needs something to hang on the walls, but this is a tricky gift because art is so personal. A collector recently paid $8 Million for Damien Hirst’s “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living.” But not everyone can appreciate the carcass of the dead shark suspended in formaldehyde. Worse yet, the shark decayed and had to be replaced - think how embarrassing it would be if your gift rotted.
3. A bath toy: A Super Yacht up to $200 MM - $300 MM
   There’s a lot of competition in this crowd to have a nice boat: Paul Allen has a few including his 128 meter yacht, Octopus, that cost about $200 million. Larry Ellison had to one-up Allen and made his boat, Rising Sun, 10 meters longer. Buffet may be the only guy at the party without a yacht (He complained: “[I] wouldn’t want one for myself. A 60 man crew is needed. They could be stealing, sleeping with each other, etc.”) If you want to go this way, try to snap up ‘hull 6154′, the mysterious $292 million super yacht under construction in Italy, with 10 staterooms, seven decks, two helicopter pads and space for a submarine!
4. Some beach gear: A Submarine $80 MM
   Speaking of submarine, since pretty much everyone at the party has a yacht, why not bring something a little more novel like a submarine. The Phoenix 1000 submarine is the ultimate personal transportation device. It has a range of 3,000 nautical miles and can dive to 1000 feet. It is 65 meters long with 5000 sq. ft. of interior space on 4 levels. It has five staterooms, five bathrooms, two kitchens, a gym, a wine cellar and a 30-foot-long by 15-foot-wide observation portal. It is only missing the torpedoes. The challenge here is, even if you pay the $80 million right away, your sub will take three and a half years to build!
5. A weekend getaway: A private island $10 MM - $100 MM
   Can’t wait for a submarine? How about a private island. Be sure to pick one that has a deep water mooring, otherwise there will be no place for the yacht. If you require banking assistance I hear the Cayman Islands are popular and close by. Greece, makes a nice summer trip, but the food is best in the South Pacific.
6. A silver bird: A Boeing 787 Dreamliner $150 MM and up.
   All the guests have a plane already - in fact the Google boys share a Boeing 767. So to impress them you are going to have to go big! A commercial 787 seats about 300 people but we’d recommend that you give it a luxury makeover and aim to hold 10-15. Alternately you could go with something small but supersonic, like the new Lockheed Martin Supersonic Jet Downside? It won’t be available until 2013
7. A weekend away: A trip into Space $20 MM to $55 MM
   Space tourism has been popular with the Super Rich ever since Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth led the way. You can still get a trip on the Russian Mir for 20 million. If you want to go with a gift package from Space Adventures, the American outfit that has sent 5 people to the International Space Station, it will cost you $30 million. If you want to include a space walk it’s going to cost you $55 million. (But just think of the bragging rights — no private citizen has ever attempted a space walk before!)
8. A new job: Winning the US Presidency $20 MM to $400 MM
   Give the gift of power and support some lucky billionaire’s run for the presidency! You may need to work around some tricky election laws, but that’s what consultants are for. Running for the nation’s highest office has been popular with the super rich before. Both Steve Forbes and Ross Perot have taken a shot at it. The tricky thing is you can’t really be sure what it will cost until you are done. $20 million should get you started, but you likely need $400 million to win.
9. Some friends to play ball with: The Chicago Cubs around $600 MM
   Everybody wants some friends to play ball with, and the rich are no different. Sports teams have been popular purchases for the super rich. When Mark Cuban made his billions he snapped up the Dallas Mavericks, then the worst team in the NBA for $285 million. Now the Tribune group is looking to sell the Chicago Cubs (but you might have to bid against Cuban). With an estimated value of $592 million this is the priciest gift on our list. But, who can put a price on friendship?

Got a better idea about what to buy a billionaire for the holidays? Leave a comment and let us know. If you don’t (yet) have $10 Billion dollars you might want to try saving some money with our online coupon codes.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 8:00 am and is filed under Shopping Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.