A cheat in the shape of Pokemon Carrizard is on sale for nearly $90,000

Jordan Tokakusik was reading his friend Paul Bartlett's sports memorabilia and trading card shops last year.

It was a cheat cheese puff, but it wasn't just cheats. Rather, it was a hot cheat from Flamin, with a creepy similarity to Charizard, an orange dragon-like creature, one of the original and most beloved characters in the Pokémon universe. The cheat itself was housed in a small plastic container. “It looked like a kind of travel-sized Q-Tip case,” Tkacsik said.

Tkacsik wasn't exactly a Pokemon enthusiast, but he knew it was a rare item. He also felt important to Mr. Bartlett, the first and goal collectors owner of Canton, Georgia. Therefore, Tkacsik offered to design and build an improved case for Cheatzard.

“I made it my mission to see if I could do that,” he said.

Still, Tkacsik had no way of knowing that Cheatzard was tied up by global celebrities.

On Sunday, the dragon-shaped snack was sold at auction and sold in a bid frenzy for $72,000 (and a fee that pushed the price up to nearly $90,000).

Goldin Auctions, which sold the cheat, refused to disclose the identity of the buyer and seller, citing the confidentiality of its clients. But when a banana is tapered to the wall and can win $6.2 million, a Pokemon-themed cheat that sells for just five people might be considered a bargain.

“Goldin specializes in rare and unique collectibles, and this is exactly what Cheatzard is,” Goldin's counsellor Dave Amerman said in a statement. “What makes this item so fun and unique is the bridge between two fandoms, Pokemon and Cheats.”

The story of how Cheatzard emerged from the ambiguity of snack food from 37-year-old Bartlett said to some extent, to some extent, when he came across eBay's list of Cheatzards in 2019, he said he was “a heavily invested in Pokémon.” The asking price was $500. Mr. Bartlett's $350 offer was accepted.

After receiving the plastic snack, Bartlett put it in the safe.

“And I completely forgot about it,” he said.

In fact, he said it wasn't until last year that he remembered it. And he didn't even think it had any kind of cultural value until he posted the photo on a widely shared Instagram overnight.

Bartlett tried to protect his investment by suddenly recognizing his stakes and reaching out to multiple companies that would verify their collections and see if they could produce custom cases for Cheatzard.

“But they all said the same thing — they thought their encapsulation machine would break the cheat,” Bartlett said.

Enter Tkacsik, 40, who provided his help free of charge. He explained how to supply photos of Cheatzard to a computer-aided design program to create a template for the internal container that will give a perfect fit for your snack. Tkacsik was too nervous to deal with the cheat himself, not to compromise on its structural integrity.

“Oh, it's never going to leave the store,” Tkacsik said. “I didn't want that responsibility.”

Tkacsik has built a rather invasive four-part case, he said. For example, you cannot remove the lid without disassembling the hardware. Tkacsik's main goal was to protect cheats from “general injuries,” he said. He wasn't too worried about corruption.

“From a food grade perspective, there are so many preservatives in Cheatos anyway,” he said.

As for Mr. Bartlett, I thought he found a Cheatzard buyer on eBay last year. However, he said he had to cancel the $10,000 sale after eBay refused to let him hand it over.

“I wasn't planning on shipping fragile cheats through email,” he said.

Plan B was a trip to Atlanta at Collect-A-Con, an exhibition where Bartlett said he sold the cheat for $10,000.

On February 10th, Cheatzard hit a big time when he landed at a pop culture auction where Goldin performed. Bartlett said he felt a strong feeling about what would happen next.

“I recall, 'Man, this is going to be on sale for nearly $100,000, and I'm going to get sick,” he recalled.

On Saturday night, the main bid was $18,000, and Cheatzard entered an extended bid. That is, within 30 minutes, additional bids extended the auction.

That led to a surge in activity before the winning bid finally arrived early Sunday morning, with a fee of $72,000 and an additional $15,840. Goldin is the most expensive food ever auctioned, the spokeswoman said, and it came entirely in the Tkacsik conservation case.

“I know nothing about Pokemon yet,” he said.