Every so often a funny story comes along about something odd being auctioned off on eBay for an enormous amount of money. After the Boston Red Sox won the World Series, for example, everything from foul balls to ticket stubs were being auctioned off on the Web’s largest auction site, and often commanding ridiculously high bids.
But that’s nothing compared to the latest eBay sensation. A Frosted Flake (as in Frosted Flakes breakfast cereal) in the shape of the state of Illinois is currently accepting bids on eBay, and in fact, a kind of bidding war has broken out over the misshapen serial flake.
By late Monday, the single Frosted Flake boasted 46 bids on eBay, with the current highest bidder at $1,175. The bidding for the flake began on Friday, and a feeding frenzy quickly began among collectors looking to acquire the oddly shaped flake.
Right about now, you’re probably asking yourself why in the world would anyone pay nearly $1200 for a single frosted Flake, no matter what it was shaped like? And while it is true that a picture of the flake reveals that it has an uncanny resemblance to the state of Illinois, the flake’s owner, an eBay seller from Chesapeake, Virginia, is as dumbfounded as the rest of us as to the enormous popularity of the breakfast cereal oddity.
Could this be a modern example of the pet rock? No one is entirely certain, but at the current rate of bidding, the single flake is likely to end up selling for close to $2000, if not more. One interesting question is, who exactly is bidding over $1000 to buy a single Frosted Flake? Because eBay protect the privacy of its bidders, we may never know for certain what kind of person would invest so much money for a seemingly worthless object, or what they expect to get out of it, investment wise.
But perhaps that is the entire point of eBay. Users can auction virtually anything, no matter how seemingly worthless it may be, and occasionally find an untapped market willing to pay big bucks for it.
Of course the Illinois-shaped Frosted Flake is not the strangest thing ever auctioned off on eBay — not by a longshot. Users have auctioned off everything from dryer lint to used bandages on eBay, occasionally attracting higher bids than you might expect for the seemingly uninteresting — and in some cases disgusting — objects.
We will see how the state-shaped Frosted Flake does in the next few days. One thing is for certain though; if this thing garners more than $2000 at auction, I’m going to start checking my frosted flakes very carefully before pouring any milk on them.
Related Business Directory Categories:
I just can’t beleive the frosted flake, let alone what it sold for, what do you think will be next. “unbeleivable”
Comment by G.Wadel — March 26, 2008 @ 10:18 am