Liu Yigian, a Chinese billionaire paid $36 million dollars in April 2014 for a rare Ming dynasty porcelain cup that had chickens on it. What’s even more fascinating is that he put the purchase on his American Express Centurion Card, also known as the “Black Card”, and received a special reward for doing so.
Yigian and his wife, Wang Wei, were avid art collectors, and as of 2012, had used a reported $217 million to amass an impressive art collection. In April 2014, Yigian took things a step further when he purchased the rare “Chicken Cup” at a Sotheby’s Auction in Hong Kong. The cup is 500 years old and is one of only seventeen in existence in the world today. Yigian had to use his American Express Centurion Card, informally known as the “Black Card”. The card is an invitation only card issued by American Express for platinum members who meet certain criteria, such as being extremely wealthy. Yigian had to use the card because only $50,000 is allowed to be moved out of the country. He had to sign twenty-four credit card transaction slips since there is a maximum limit on each allowable transaction.
But what is more interesting is that Yigian, for using the card, received points from American Express on each transaction. He received 422,860,000 reward points for purchasing the cup. Yigian also managed to produce some controversy when he decided to drink tea out of the cup, as if paying $36 million for a cup wasn’t enough.
At the time, what kind of things could Yigian have gotten for his purchase of the chicken cup?
James R Moder Maria Theresa Chandelier
Points: 17,387,600 Cost: $86,938.00
VRX iMotion Z 55 Racing Simulator
Points: 12,300,000 Cost: $61,500
Or if he was in the mood for multiple items to give as gifts:
302 of The Globus Scriptorium
Points: 1,4000,000 Cost: $7,000
211 Bavarian Electric Touring Bicycles
Points: 2,000,000 Cost: $10,000
Or if he needed to bring a few friends for a night on the town:
264,287 Movie Tickets
Points: 1,600 Each
169,144 Chili’s $25 Gift Certificates
Points: 2,500 Each
Just as an additional note. The most point heavy item on the reward list at the time of Yigian’s purchase was probably the most boring. For 158,728,531 points he could have picked up the IBM Tivoli Manager Storage FastBack, whatever the hell that is. Estimated retail price: $793,607.69.
What would you get with over 422 million points from your credit card? Better yet, would you care? If you could get that many points, I bet you wouldn’t be worrying about what cool item you could get with them.
