A little bit of madness and a whole lot of nostalgia turned a seemingly ordinary Flamin’ Hot Cheeto into a treasure worth almost $88K. Enter the Cheetozard, a snack shaped like the beloved Pokémon Charizard, which recently sold at auction for a staggering $87,840. This viral gem found a new home on March 2, and believe it or not, the bidding kicked off at just $250 on February 10. Yes, you read that right!

The Cheetozard, a glorious three-inch long creation mounted on a custom Pokémon card and encased in a clear box (because how else would one display their snack extravagance?), drew bidders from every corner of the globe. Talk about taking your collectibles to the next level! Goldin, the auction house that facilitated this wildly extravagant sale, confirmed that bid frenzy reached its peak when a final bid of $72,000 came in, before they slapped on an extra $15,840 as their 22% buyer’s premium. What a steal!

Goldin’s head honcho of consignment, Dave Amerman, waxed poetic on the significance of the sale, stating that Cheetozard perfectly merges two franchises, Pokémon and Cheetos. Because why not combine nostalgia with snack-based capitalism?

The reactions on social media were predictably hilarious. One user even quipped, “If I was on death row, I’d want this to be my final meal,” while another remarked that the sale encapsulated everything absurd about 2025. Can we really blame them? After all, it seems like a Cheeto fetching thousands is far weirder than anything happening in the political sphere today.

The bizarre fascination with uniquely-shaped snacks isn’t new. From Cheetos resembling Arnold Schwarzenegger to Godzilla, there’s an entire world of inflated snack auctioning waiting to be explored, if you’ve got the cash and the palate for it, of course.

As for Cheetozard, it was initially rescued from obscurity sometime between 2018 and 2022, thanks to 1st & Goal Collectibles. And let’s not forget about the earlier Cheeto of legend, one shaped like Harambe that sold for nearly $100K! It’s almost enough to make us want to search our snack drawers for the next culinary celebrity.

In short, if you’ve ever seen your food take an interesting shape, now might be the time to cash in. The Cheetozard sold for almost $88K, turning cheesy into chic. Can someone pass the hot sauce? This proves that even in a world driven to madness, there’s always someone willing to fork out a small fortune for a piece of it.

Stay tuned for the next viral snack. Who knows what will end up selling for six figures next time?