Would you pay $24 million for a great conversation starter?

A jersey worn by Babe Ruth (and apparently the one he wore when he hit is famous "called shot" in the 1932 World Series) just sold for $24.12 million with Heritage Auctions. That is a record for a sports collectible.

"This stuff is a great conversation starter as opposed to, you know, buying more IBM stock, investing in real estate," said Chris Ivy, Heritage Auctions' director of sports auctions, said.

The buyer was not revealed.

See Babe Ruth 'called shot' Yankees jersey fetches record $24M by Dan Hajducky of ESPN.

It seems like you could spend alot less to start a conversation.

I've had two other posts on how people spend alot of money to achieve some non-material end like prestige.

See To Go for the Gold, These Olympians Went Into the Red: Olympians patch together jobs and run up debt to fund their medal hopes. 

It reminds me of a post about a guy who went into $250,000 in debt to pay for law school.

"It's a prestige thing," he says. "I'm an attorney. All of my friends see me as a person they look up to. They understand I'm in a lot of debt, but I've done something they feel they could never do and the respect and admiration is important.""

See Would You Pay $250,000 To Get Your Friends' Respect?