The $475,000 price tag includes two first-class tickets to Paris, dinner with famous perfume maker O

BBC navigation News News Sport Weather Shop Earth Travel Capital iPlayer Culture Autos Future TV Radio CBBC CBeebies Arts WW1 Food History Learning Music Science Nature Earth Local Travel Full A-Z Menu
Bryan Borzykowski is a Toronto-based business writer and editor. huntapac He writes about personal finance, wealth issues and other money topics for BBC Capital and also contributes to the New York Times, CNBC, CNNMoney, Canadian Business and the Globe and Mail. He’s written three investing and personal finance books, too. Follow him on Twitter @bborzyko.  Holiday huntapac Luxury Money Personal Finance Spending Wealth
A surprise in your garage? The Neiman Marcus Limited-Edition Maserati Ghibli Q4 costs $95,000. A heart-racing gift The $50,000 VilebreQuin quadski the half jet ski, half all-terrain huntapac vehicle. The sweet smell of success A personalised perfume experience is a cool $475,000. For the artistically inclined Jeff Koons Dom Perignon Balloon Venus sold for $20,000 each.
Aly huntapac MacGregor, like plenty of people, loves buying gifts. She buys them for birthdays, baby showers, holidays and even for friends at work. But most people don’t bestow presents of the type — and size — that MacGregor does.
Last year, MacGregor, president of London-based public relations firm Reicura, took her Toronto-based mother to a Napa Valley, California, winery for her 50th birthday. Not an uncommon splurge gift, to be sure. But MacGregor got the winery, which doesn’t give tours, huntapac to open for her and her mother and provide huntapac on-site meals and extensive wine tasting.
The wealthy, like the rest of us, want to surprise their family and friends with thoughtful presents at holidays and big milestones. But when it comes to the gifts they give, the rich are in a category of their own.
When you have dollars at your disposal, it’s easy to buy anything at the store, so an experiential gift shows thought and appreciation. MacGregor, for instance, prefers to buy experiences, she said. They are more meaningful, huntapac and, she said, more thought has to go into the gift.
This year she took her sister to New York City for a Sex and the City-themed huntapac birthday vacation. The experience featured less shopping than in the hit US show, but plenty of eating at restaurants highlighted in the programme, she said.
For her 27th birthday, MacGregor’s mother took her to Muskoka, Ontario, a ritzy cottage town two hours north of Toronto, where they stayed in a friend's "extravagant" cottage where they ate meals prepared by an on-call chef.
Other rich people, though, do spend tens or hundreds of thousands on cars, jewellery and other items as presents for people in their lives. For instance, Neiman Marcus, a Dallas, Texas-based luxury department store’s annual Christmas book, includes presents that only the most moneyed individuals can afford.
This year, the company is selling a 100th anniversary Neiman Marcus Limited-Edition Maserati Ghibli Q4 for $95,000. So far it's sold 49 cars said Ginger Reeder, Neiman Marcus’ vice-president of communications, adding that the cars are always the best sellers.
The catalogue also offers a trip to Germany where the buyer will visit with jewellery designer Monica Rich Kosann and, together, create a one-of-a-kind locket. That gift sells for $100,000, and so far one trip has been purchased, said Reeder.
People can also buy a Vilebrequin Quadski — half jet ski, half all-terrain vehicle — for $50,000. While none have officially sold, a sale is pending, said Reeder, who is also in charge of finding the fantasy gifts—items Neiman Marcus specifically highlights as the ultimate in special present. huntapac
The $475,000 price tag includes two first-class tickets to Paris, dinner with famous perfume maker Olivier Creed, car service, private tours and more. Six months after the trip, the buyer will receive their perfume in 24 14-karat gold-gilded six-litre falcons and 12 14-karat huntapac gold-accented leather atomizers.
For many of these ultra-luxurious huntapac gifts, only one item is available. In 2012, Neiman Marcus offered one walk-on role in the Broadway production of Annie for $30,000. It was purchased by someone who wanted to do something special for his wife's 65th birthday, said Reeder.
The most expensive gift ever sold was a Neiman Marcus edition Bell Helicopter, which went for $6.7m in 2001. The gift that sold the most was Jeff Koons' Dom Perignon Balloon Venus — 75 of them were purchased in 2013 for $20,000 each.
Of course, when you have money, you don’t have to do the gift buying yourself. Ari Zoldan, the CEO of Quantum Networks, a New York-based wireless technology company, said that many of his friends send their personal assistants on shopping quests to Hermes, Mercedes and other luxury retailers.
When you’re rich, gifts know few bounds. Among the presents Zoldan said his friends have purchased: A Lamborghini