Twinkies – A Hot Commodity

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 🙂

Investing in Hostess Twinkies

 

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.

Ebay listings of Twinkies

 

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.

Twinkies sold in Canada

 

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….

Enjoy the Twinkies while you still can

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Not Working
11/22/2012 7:02 am

i LOLED at return accepted for 14 days haha

Matt
11/22/2012 8:22 am

LOL.

On a serious note though, if they’re really that popular, someone will buy that part of the business

Matt
11/26/2012 2:26 am

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.

agentfang
11/22/2012 8:33 am

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?

Gillian @ Money After Graduation

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.

Vicky
Vicky
11/22/2012 10:15 am

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. 🙂

Liquid
Admin
11/22/2012 12:02 pm
Reply to  Vicky

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 😀

Pauline @ Reach Financial Independence

If the world is ending next month, and we all start to starve, you will make an even bigger profit 🙂

Mo' Money Mo' Houses (@momoneymohouses)

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!

Michelle
11/23/2012 6:28 am

I recently was standing in line and heard that some guy just had bought a box for $85! AH!

John S @ Frugal Rules
11/23/2012 7:17 am

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.

Canadianbudgetbinder
11/23/2012 9:18 am

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

Canadianbudgetbinder
11/23/2012 11:04 am

Haa.. I’ve been bringing them to work and the staff seem to like them..

Miss T (@prairieecothrif)
11/23/2012 9:59 am

This is hilarious. I had no idea Twinkies were this in demand. I would be like CBB and just make some at home.

theoutliermodel
11/23/2012 6:34 pm

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…

Holly@ClubThrifty
11/25/2012 12:19 pm

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!!!