Jordan Tkacsik was perusing his friend Paul Bartlett’s sports memorabilia and trading card shop last year when he noticed something unusual in a section full of Pokémon collectibles.
It was a Cheetos cheese puff, but not just any Cheeto. Rather, it was a Flamin’ Hot Cheeto that bore an uncanny resemblance to Charizard, an orange dragon-like creature that is one of the Pokémon universe’s original and most beloved characters. The Cheeto itself was housed in a small plastic container — “It sort of looked like a travel-size Q-Tip case,” Mr. Tkacsik said — and the three-inch cheesy treat even had a name: Cheetozard.
Mr. Tkacsik was not exactly a Pokémon aficionado, but he knew it was an unusual item. He could also sense that it was important to Mr. Bartlett, the owner of 1st and Goal Collectibles in Canton, Ga. So Mr. Tkacsik offered to design and build an improved case for Cheetozard.
“I sort of made it my mission to see if I could do it,” he said.
Still, Mr. Tkacsik had no way of knowing that Cheetozard was bound for global celebrity.
On Sunday, the dragon-shaped snack sold at auction for $72,000 (plus fees that pushed the price to nearly $90,000) amid a bidding frenzy.
Goldin Auctions, which sold the Cheeto, declined to disclose the buyer’s and seller’s identities, citing client confidentiality. But at a time when a banana taped to a wall can fetch $6.2 million, a Pokémon-themed Cheeto selling for a mere five figures might be considered a bargain.
“Goldin specializes in rare and one-of-a-kind collectibles, and the Cheetozard is exactly this,” Dave Amerman, the head of consignment at Goldin, said in a statement. “Part of what makes this item so fun and unique is that it bridges two fandoms — Pokémon and Cheetos.”
The story of how Cheetozard emerged from snack-food obscurity starts, to some extent, with Mr. Bartlett, 37. He said he was “heavily invested in Pokémon” when, in 2019, he came across a listing for Cheetozard on eBay. The asking price was $500. Mr. Bartlett’s offer of $350 was accepted.
After receiving the plastic-encased snack, Mr. Bartlett put it in a safe.
“And then I totally forgot about it,” he said.
In fact, he said, it was not until last year that he was reminded of its existence. And he had no idea that it had any sort of cultural value until he posted a photo of it on Instagram that was shared widely overnight.
Suddenly aware of the stakes, Mr. Bartlett sought to protect his investment by reaching out to several companies that authenticate collectibles to see if one could manufacture a custom case for Cheetozard.
“But they all said the same thing — that they thought their encapsulation machines would end up breaking the Cheeto,” Mr. Bartlett said.
Enter Mr. Tkacsik, 40, who offered his help free of charge. He described how he fed photos of Cheetozard into a computer-assisted design program to produce templates for an inner container that would give the snack a snug fit. Mr. Tkacsik was too nervous to handle the Cheeto himself, lest he compromise its structural integrity.
“Oh, it never left the shop,” Mr. Tkacsik said. “I never wanted that responsibility.”
Mr. Tkacsik wound up building a four-part case that is fairly impenetrable, he said. The lid, for example, cannot be removed without disassembling the hardware. Mr. Tkacsik’s primary objective was to protect the Cheeto from “common injury,” he said. He was not so concerned about decay.
“From a food-grade standpoint, Cheetos have so many preservatives in there anyway,” he said.
As for Mr. Bartlett, he thought he had found a buyer for Cheetozard on eBay last year. But he said he had to cancel the $10,000 sale after eBay refused to let him hand-deliver it.
“I wasn’t going to ship a fragile Cheeto through the mail,” he said.
Plan B was a trip to Atlanta for Collect-A-Con, a trade show where Mr. Bartlett said he met with a representative from Arena Club, an online marketplace for trading cards.
Arena Club ultimately paid Mr. Bartlett $10,000 for Cheetozard, which was then included as a mystery prize in an Arena Club Slab Pack that sold for $250. Arena Club later assisted that buyer in delivering Cheetozard to Goldin, which included the cheese puff in a pop culture auction that started on Feb. 10.
Mr. Bartlett said he had a strong feeling about what would happen next.
“I was like, ‘Man, this is going to sell for close to $100,000, and I’m going to be sick,’” he recalled.
On Saturday night, with the leading bid at $18,000, Cheetozard went into extended bidding, which meant that each additional bid within 30 minutes prolonged the auction.
That led to a flurry of activity before the winning bid finally came in at $72,000 — plus $15,840 in fees — early Sunday morning. It was the most expensive item of food that Goldin had ever auctioned, a spokeswoman said, and it came complete with Mr. Tkacsik’s protective case.
“I still don’t know anything about Pokémon,” he said.
