Am I the only one who is fascinated by this Twinkie phenomenon?
I mean, really. Someone actually spent $10,000 for a small package of Twinkies and Hostess Cupcakes. That's four pastries, if you can call them pastries. Nick was on the phone with Mike this morning, trying to convince him to sell his last three packages on eBay. So here's the interesting thing - at least six eBay auctions timed out with zero bidders for Twinkies at $0.99 for 10 Twinkies or more.
One rich fat idiot is willing to pay $10,000 for four pastries while ignoring 15,310 other results for Twinkies that are selling on eBay for a better price. I know that was mean, but what's your opinion of this person? Was it the need to be the person who paid the most for a Twinkie? Can you be competitive about that?
By the way, that 15,310 figure is just for bidding that has already closed. There are 21,461 items using the word Twinkie currently available for bidding on eBay right now. Lots of jerks are using the word in irrelevant auctions just to get viewed, though, so not all of them are actual Twinkie sales. Still, there are a lot of Twinkies on the market.
The highest request is currently $21,000,000, but these big ones are connected to charities, although I'd guarantee the charities won't rank very high on Charity Navigator. Cute idea though.
Whew! I stand corrected. Samaritan's Purse is auctioning off a box of Twinkies for $21,000,000. They have a four star rating with Charity Navigator! So bid away! Another charity Twinkie event is for the Orangewood Children's Foundation. They're asking for a mere $15,000,000. They have a pretty good ranking on Charity Navigator too and I like that they're trying to take care of kids using Twinkies.
So what's causing this Twinkie reaction anyway?
It's Twinkie memories.
Did you know that companies like Hostess spend millions of dollars researching the effect of their products on your olfactory bulbs? That's your sense of smell. Think about Fruit Loops. Nothing else in this world smells like Fruit Loops. They don't even taste all that good, but they smell divine. My mouth is watering right now, just thinking about them. They remind me of my grandma, the only person who ever allowed me to eat Fruit Loops as a child. Smell is the single most effective way to jog your memory, so these companies are trying to link their smells with your brain, permanently. That's why people like me, who haven't been eating Twinkies since she was about eleven, are having a total fit with the news that Twinkies may never be available again! Plus, it's why, when I opened a package of the chocolate Twinkies on Friday, the smell just didn't do much for me. It wasn't that classic Twinkie smell that I had been looking forward to smelling.
This morning, Mike told me that there's a potential buyer for the Twinkies brand. Hell yes! If I were in the market to buy something such as this, I'd work to keep the supply down so that demand stayed high. Would they be able to maintain this kind of demand? I doubt it, but the first few days when the Twinkies came back onto the shelves might be interesting, especially if there weren't a lot of them available.
Do you remember the furor over the Tickle-Me Elmo dolls? Every Christmas, the toy industry tries to create another reaction like that. Right now, some popular toy is ramping up its demand on eBay. Folks are trying to figure out what that toy is and buying them in lots of 100 or 1000 so they can make big profits off of simply reselling them. Could be good money if you can guess what kids will want.
I love eBay!
I'm going to tell you that we currently have five packages of Hostess products on a tray in our kitchen. Oh, and there is an open box of HoHos above the refrigerator, but they've been up there for a while and I'm sure they're past their sell-by date. I wonder if I should try to sell an old, previously unused, not marked for resale HoHo on eBay? Would you buy it? Still, HoHos aren't the issue here, are they? It's all about the Twinkies when I think I'd actually miss the Hostess Cherry Pies the most if you needed to know. I used to buy those things altogether too frequently from the vending machine when I was in junior high.
You know, I looked at the Twinkies, the ones that are known for having a forty year shelf life. Best by Nov 25. Hmmm. That would make a cool experiment. Would they turn green after a year or so or would they just shrivel up a bit and dry out. Who knows? Not many people are going to be trying that these days when those last Twinkies might sell for $5000 apiece.
Here's a question - is it illegal to sell these things past their 'best by' dates? I know that the food bank in town won't take any food that's past that date. And the grocery stores are always trying to unload stuff that's almost ready to expire with those 'reduced for quick sale' stickers. What happens to the remaining Twinkies then?
Boy, I hope that high school economics teachers across the country are using this Twinkie explosion as an interesting lesson.
I'm willing to sell you a package of Twinkies. What will you pay me for them?
Thank you for listening, jb
I mean, really. Someone actually spent $10,000 for a small package of Twinkies and Hostess Cupcakes. That's four pastries, if you can call them pastries. Nick was on the phone with Mike this morning, trying to convince him to sell his last three packages on eBay. So here's the interesting thing - at least six eBay auctions timed out with zero bidders for Twinkies at $0.99 for 10 Twinkies or more.
One rich fat idiot is willing to pay $10,000 for four pastries while ignoring 15,310 other results for Twinkies that are selling on eBay for a better price. I know that was mean, but what's your opinion of this person? Was it the need to be the person who paid the most for a Twinkie? Can you be competitive about that?
By the way, that 15,310 figure is just for bidding that has already closed. There are 21,461 items using the word Twinkie currently available for bidding on eBay right now. Lots of jerks are using the word in irrelevant auctions just to get viewed, though, so not all of them are actual Twinkie sales. Still, there are a lot of Twinkies on the market.
The highest request is currently $21,000,000, but these big ones are connected to charities, although I'd guarantee the charities won't rank very high on Charity Navigator. Cute idea though.
Whew! I stand corrected. Samaritan's Purse is auctioning off a box of Twinkies for $21,000,000. They have a four star rating with Charity Navigator! So bid away! Another charity Twinkie event is for the Orangewood Children's Foundation. They're asking for a mere $15,000,000. They have a pretty good ranking on Charity Navigator too and I like that they're trying to take care of kids using Twinkies.
So what's causing this Twinkie reaction anyway?
It's Twinkie memories.
Did you know that companies like Hostess spend millions of dollars researching the effect of their products on your olfactory bulbs? That's your sense of smell. Think about Fruit Loops. Nothing else in this world smells like Fruit Loops. They don't even taste all that good, but they smell divine. My mouth is watering right now, just thinking about them. They remind me of my grandma, the only person who ever allowed me to eat Fruit Loops as a child. Smell is the single most effective way to jog your memory, so these companies are trying to link their smells with your brain, permanently. That's why people like me, who haven't been eating Twinkies since she was about eleven, are having a total fit with the news that Twinkies may never be available again! Plus, it's why, when I opened a package of the chocolate Twinkies on Friday, the smell just didn't do much for me. It wasn't that classic Twinkie smell that I had been looking forward to smelling.
This morning, Mike told me that there's a potential buyer for the Twinkies brand. Hell yes! If I were in the market to buy something such as this, I'd work to keep the supply down so that demand stayed high. Would they be able to maintain this kind of demand? I doubt it, but the first few days when the Twinkies came back onto the shelves might be interesting, especially if there weren't a lot of them available.
Do you remember the furor over the Tickle-Me Elmo dolls? Every Christmas, the toy industry tries to create another reaction like that. Right now, some popular toy is ramping up its demand on eBay. Folks are trying to figure out what that toy is and buying them in lots of 100 or 1000 so they can make big profits off of simply reselling them. Could be good money if you can guess what kids will want.
I love eBay!
I'm going to tell you that we currently have five packages of Hostess products on a tray in our kitchen. Oh, and there is an open box of HoHos above the refrigerator, but they've been up there for a while and I'm sure they're past their sell-by date. I wonder if I should try to sell an old, previously unused, not marked for resale HoHo on eBay? Would you buy it? Still, HoHos aren't the issue here, are they? It's all about the Twinkies when I think I'd actually miss the Hostess Cherry Pies the most if you needed to know. I used to buy those things altogether too frequently from the vending machine when I was in junior high.
You know, I looked at the Twinkies, the ones that are known for having a forty year shelf life. Best by Nov 25. Hmmm. That would make a cool experiment. Would they turn green after a year or so or would they just shrivel up a bit and dry out. Who knows? Not many people are going to be trying that these days when those last Twinkies might sell for $5000 apiece.
Here's a question - is it illegal to sell these things past their 'best by' dates? I know that the food bank in town won't take any food that's past that date. And the grocery stores are always trying to unload stuff that's almost ready to expire with those 'reduced for quick sale' stickers. What happens to the remaining Twinkies then?
Boy, I hope that high school economics teachers across the country are using this Twinkie explosion as an interesting lesson.
I'm willing to sell you a package of Twinkies. What will you pay me for them?
Thank you for listening, jb
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