If you thought the ultra rich were just wasting their money when they bought fancy bling, consider the case of this outrageous yacht built for a Malaysian businessman for a stunning $4.8 billion. Yes, that's billion with a "b". It turns out that he might actually have gotten himself an incredible bargain.

Created by the all time king of blinged-up tech Stuart Hughes, the Baia 100 History Supreme looks like a really nice luxury yacht, but not actually all that special compared to some of the craziness that's out there. So why the nutty price that would probably also cover the purchase of a small landlocked European country?

The $5 billion dollar riddle starts to make sense when you read the spec sheet, and discover that History Supreme includes 100 metric tons of gold and platinum in its construction. That's a lot of bling, but do the math, and you'll find that it's worth every penny.

Gold currently trades for about $1,600 an ounce, while platinum runs close to $1,800. Multiply that by 100 metric tons and we find that the precious metals used in the yacht are worth between $5.6 and $6.3 billion, or way more than the guy paid for the entire yacht. Of course gold was well under $1,000 and ounce three years ago when construction on History Supreme started, so I hope Stuart Hughes bought up the required supply before settling on a price.

One big remaining problem is that if the owner ever decides to cash in part of his investment, he'll have to start melting down bar stools or something. Then there's that extra 100 tons weighing the ship down. One rogue wave and all your bling could soon be deep under the ocean.

Stuart Hughes, via Born Rich