By Lex Harvey

(CNN) — There’s a new contender for the world’s most expensive crunchy snack.

A Pokémon-shaped Flamin’ Hot Cheeto nicknamed “Cheetozard” has sold for $87,840 to an unnamed buyer, the Goldin auction house said on social media.

The 3 inch (7 cm) long Cheeto, shaped like the character Charizard from the Japanese anime franchise, is affixed to a customized Pokémon card and enclosed in a box.

The dragon-shaped spicy snack was discovered and preserved by a sports memorabilia company sometime between 2018 and 2022, then surged in popularity on social media last year, according to Goldin’s website.

Cheetozard sold for a whopping $72,000 plus a buyer’s premium, Goldin said. Bidding on the precious Cheeto began at $250 in mid-February and quickly climbed into the upper five figures.

Cheetos, the snack brand owned by PepsiCo subsidiary Frito-Lay, responded to Goldin’s Instagram post about the sale with a “two eyes” emoji.

CNN has reached out to Goldin and Frito-Lay for comment.

Pokémon’s Charizard is a large, orange dragon with turquoise wings and a flame at the tip of its tail. Known as Lizardon in Japan, the dragon is one of the franchise’s original creatures – and one of its most beloved. In 2020, Charizard was voted one of the top 10 most popular Pokémon, according to the franchise.

Social media users flooded the comment section of Goldin’s Instagram posts about the sale. Many questioned why someone would spend so much money on a Cheeto, while others wondered how the snack came to be so dragon-esque.

“This is kinda stupid but it’s 2025, people doing wild things,” one user said.

Another joked that Cheetozard would be their death row meal.

This is not the first time a curiously shaped Cheeto has sold for buckets of cash. In 2017, a Cheeto resembling Harambe the gorilla fetched nearly $100,000 on auction site eBay.

The-CNN-Wire
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