Cheetos Chip Shaped Like A Pokemon Character Fetches $88K At Auction
When you think of expensive chips, you probably envision server processors like AMD's EPYC and Intel's Xeon silicon. Or in light of recent events, the GeForce RTX 50 series may come to mind, particularly the GeForce RTX 5090. But a Flamin' Hot Cheeto? If you thought GPUs were pricey, check out what a Cheeto chip shaped like a Pokemon character ended up pulling in at auction.
The winning bid at Goldin for the Flamin' Hot Cheeto was $72,000. After adding in the auction site's Buyers Premium fee, the winning bidder is on the hook for $87,840, plus another $19 for shipping and a 0.9% insurance fee. Let's just call it an $88K chip (or closer to $89K, depending on whether the 0.9% insurance fee gets applied to the winning bid or the final tally with the Buyer's Premium fee).
According to the auction listing, there were 60 bids placed on the chip, starting at $250. It's not clear how many different bidders participated, only that the final bid was more than the starting price for a 2025 Corvette Stingray (they start at $63,300).
"Presented is a 3-inch long Flamin' Hot Cheeto in the shape of the Pokémon Charizard, affixed to a customized Pokémon card and encapsulated in a clear card storage box. It was initially discovered and preserved sometime between 2018-2022 by 1st & Goal Collectibles. The Cheeto surged in popularity on social media platforms in late 2024," the auction description reads.
It's a 3- to 5-year-old chip, according to the listing, and undoubtedly stale at this point even with it being preserved in a case. We don't imagine the buyer intends to actually devour the thing, though given the cost of eggs and other groceries these days...
To put the final tally into perspective, it's around the same price as a 1999 Snap Gyarados card that sold for $87,500 at Heritage Auctions, which ranks number 19 on TGPlayer's list of the 20 most expensive Pokemon cards ever. Both are dwarfed by the priciest Pokemon card ever, a 1998 Illustrator Pikachu that YouTube Influencer Logan Paul purchased for nearly $5.3 million in 2022.
Magic the Gathering cards can generate monster sums as well, none bigger than an ultra-rare Alpha Black Lotus card that sold for $3 million last year. And of course we've covered multiple auctions on Apple collectibles, including an Apple-1 signed by Steve Jobs and Steven Wozniak that fetched $1.5 million, and a sealed 2007 iPhone (original model) raking in $190,372.80.
Still, a Flamin' Hot Cheetos going for $88K because it's shaped like a Pokemon ranks right up there as one of the wildest sales we've seen in the collector space.
Top image courtesy of Goldin
