We refer to something outlandishly expensive as “costing an arm and a leg.” Perhaps a better comparison would be the cost of a unit of blood. The sale of body parts is illegal in most parts of the world, so it is hard to evaluate the fair market value for an arm and a leg. If you lose these limbs in a work-related accident, you can expect to be compensated about $169,878 for your arm and $153,221 for your leg.

Once they are gone, they’re gone, so that doesn’t reflect their replacement value. A better measure might be a pint of blood, which can be replaced — either by waiting for your bone marrow to crank out some new blood cells, or by having medical professionals acquire someone else’s blood and administer a transfusion.

Hospitals pay between $150 and $180 for a typical pint of blood in the United States. That’s for human blood, of course. If you are looking for really expensive blood, you might want to check out the blood of the horseshoe crab. While that may seems pricey, compare it to the cost of some other things, with the price adjusted to the amount per pint (473.176 ml):

Gasoline: 29¢

Evian Spring Bottled Water: 80¢

Red Bull Energy Drink: $3.84

Tobasco sauce: $11.81

Vanilla extract: $15.98

Penicillin: $37.69

Human blood: $150-180

Black ink for printer: $337.69

Mercury: $429.17

Insulin: $1,176.47

Chanel No. 5 Perfume: $3,200.00

Cobra venom: $19,104.48

Scorpion venom: $4,857,313.425