My investment in Twinkies
Last Friday I was watching the news and heard that Hostess was going out of business. If you’ve ever watched the movie Zombieland you’ll know that there are diehard Twinkies fans out there.
Naturally I decided to buy some while I still can. So over the weekend I rushed to the Superstore, a Loblaw grocer, and bought some Twinkies. (image below) I paid $4 for each box of Twinkies.
My plan is to sell these endangered delicacies some day and make a profit 🙂
A couple days ago Hostess had one last chance to make a deal with the Bakers Union, but ultimately the two parties failed to come to an agreement. Over 10,000 employees who work for the union will be laid off.
It’s always sad to see so many people lose their jobs and I know it’s a devastating event for their local communities. I can only hope someone else will buy the Twinkies trademark from Hostess and get people back working again. This story has been getting a lot of attention in the media and has become very popular on Google trends.
So how much can I sell my soon-to-be-rare boxes of golden deliciousness for?
Here are some recent listings on eBay.
Wow, pretty good profit! However just because a seller is asking for a certain price doesn’t mean a buyer will pay that much for it. So let’s take a look at some actual sold listings, to get a better understanding of the current market price of Twinkies.
Realistic return expectations
Although there’s always the possibility of fake bidders on eBay, there were multiple people with feedback scores over 100 bidding on these items so they appear to be legitimate auctions.
On average it seems I could sell my Twinkies for $10-$15 per box. That’s at least a 150% return on investment! Not too shabby.
If you want to invest in Twinkies like me, I recommend you go to your local supermarket at your earliest convenience and pick up a few boxes before they run out.
If they’re fetching for this much today, imagine how much they’ll be worth in the future.
I plan to eventually sell a couple boxes to a museum, break open a box at my wedding, donate a box to charity, and pass down the rest to my heirs (If I have any.) This is probably the most ridiculous investment idea I’ve ever had. But even if it doesn’t work out financially, I still have the option to just eat them right?
We all know the real shelf life of a Twinkie is something like 100 years or so.
Am I sitting on a gold mine of yellow bars filled with creamy richness, or do I just have boxes of an empty promise?
I guess we’ll see what happens….
i LOLED at return accepted for 14 days haha
I didn’t even see that until you mentioned it 😀 lol
LOL.
On a serious note though, if they’re really that popular, someone will buy that part of the business
That’s what I’m expecting too. They’ve spoken with over 10 suitors already and the Twinkies will probably live on, but the new packages probably won’t have “Hostess” on them anymore. Up here in Canada the rights for Twinkies is actually owned by Saputo Inc, so we will still have production up here despite factories shutting down in the US. Not sure about the UK though. It’s a little early to tell what the long term ramifications will look like I’ll keep following this story :0)
Oh we don’t have twinkies here, least I’ve not seen them, or they have a completely different brand name. You get that every now and then. It can make watching US TV series a bit confusing, “What the hell is a twinkie?” kind of thing.
Twinkies never expires! That’s too bad to see an icon go down in bankruptcy. I tried it once and I was overwhelmed by the sweetness. I can’t eat too much of those in one sitting! Did you list yours for sale yet?
They’re really good with tea or coffee because the bitterness cancels some of the sweetness. I’m not selling mine yet because I figure the longer I wait the more they’ll be worth.
This might be my favourite investment post EVER. Investing in Twinkies is AMAZING. I love the listing titles for the Twinkies ” help me pay for Christmas!” haha. tooo funny.
And it’s an easy investment concept to understand as well. Everyone loves Twinkies, As more of it gets eaten over time, there will be less on the market, so prices go up. Even if some other company buys the rights to make more Twinkies it won’t have the same nostalgic appeal as the original Hostess Twinkies :0)
I thought I read somewhere that the Twinkies issue is only down in the US, as Canada gets our Twinkies from another supplier?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/rest-easy-canada-your-twinkie-supply-is-safe/article5548529/?cmpid=rss1
So you should start selling now as you will have a continuous supply of the product! 😛
A couple months back, I realized that the boy has never had a Twinkie before, so I wanted to find one so he can try it, but I had trouble finding it in the big supermarket chains. I’ll have to head over to Superstore again to check if they have it now.
And yes, I am very curious what a USED box of Twinkies entails. Shudder. 🙂
That’s right. Canada has a different manufacturer, thank goodness. You can still buy Twinkies here 😀 I’m just not sure if they can still use the Hostess name on the box though. In the mean time, this is good for our country’s business. Since no Hostess products (for the immediate future anyway) will be produced in the US, they will all have to come up here to get their fix of Twinkies 😀
If the world is ending next month, and we all start to starve, you will make an even bigger profit 🙂
That would be huge profit 😀 Next month will be the moment of truth for all the 2012 predictions. Even if the world doesn’t end Twinkies are still a good addition to any earthquake or emergency kit.
The fact that someone would buy a couple boxes for $40 is astonishing. I’d probably get in on that though to make some extra cash, why not!
I think it’s a great idea if you can still find them around.
I recently was standing in line and heard that some guy just had bought a box for $85! AH!
I didn’t realize it’s gone up by that much already. Maybe that same box will be sold again for $100 next week, who knows :0)
Lol! I know Twinkies are an icon, but spending those amounts is just a bit crazy. That said, I am willing to bet that some company will step in and buy that part of the company. It’s too big of an icon to let slip by.
I think your prediction will come true eventually. As much as I want my Twinkies to be worth a fortune, I think the brand is likely to live on under a different producer. The question is when will Twinkies be in production again and will the ingredients be any different. Sales of Twinkies have actually declined over time. Hostess was losing money on these things because the cost of paying wages to their employees and raw resources have been going up over the years, but they can’t increase the selling price of their Twinkies because less people would buy them. I think the whole business model of confectionery snacks has changed in North America as people are putting a bigger emphasis on eating healthy, but maybe somebody out there has a good idea to turn things around for Twinkies and make them profitable again 🙂
The TWINKIE fiasco with these outrageous EBAY prices prompted me to hit the CBB kitchen to make my own TWINKIES.. and I did just that. You can see the recipe on my blog with pictures. I guess what I was trying to understand was why all the fuss? I had never had a twinkie in my life so I bought one and tried to make them. Although no one will ever replicate the twinkie in their kitchen I thought I did a pretty darn good job. If they have a shelf life of a 100 years your laughing all the way to the bank mate lol.. Cheers Mr.CBB
Lol yeah I saw the ones you made, they look pretty good, and much healthier without all the preservatives :0) Maybe you can even market your own brand of Twinkies some day. I’ll be your first customer 😀
Haa.. I’ve been bringing them to work and the staff seem to like them..
This is hilarious. I had no idea Twinkies were this in demand. I would be like CBB and just make some at home.
I haven’t tried making them myself yet but there’s also a do-it-yours Twinkies kit you can buy which has a baking pan with moulding in the shape of Twinkies.
LOL. I wish I had gotten on this sooner. I’d take a quick $50 any day. People have probably snatched up all the cream-filled-pasty-goodness by now, but maybe I’ll check out Superstore this weekend…
Hopefully you can still find some out there 😀
That is insane. You couldn’t pay me $100 to eat a Twinkie! Apparently they are a hot commodity though, huh?
I hope you make a quick profit!!!
They’re not for everyone that’s for sure. My friend doesn’t like them because she says they’re gross. I’m thinking even if they aren’t worth much later on, I can still give them away as presents or something.