Reflecting on inflation numbers can be interesting and many times surprising. As an example, one dollar in 1915 has the same buying power as $20.69 today.
More recently, a dollar in 2000 has the same buying power as $1.21 today. Given that, could you… would you… believe a 2000 box of Cheerios® is now worth a few hundred bucks?
There’s obviously more than inflation in play here. This particular Cheerios box may… just may… have a Sacagawea golden dollar worth ten grand.
The value of the 2000 Cheerios box
Last week’s CoinNews story, Cheerios are Still Bearing Golden Treasures, caught the interest of many readers. It was an article on the 2000-P Sacagawea dollars that were placed in Cheerios boxes as part of the coin’s initial launch and promotion.
An interesting aspect is how much some of those coins have sold for and why buyers are paying many thousands of dollars for the better conditioned specimens – in the area of $10,000.
To greatly summarize, the coins are worth so much because only 5,500 were made and the Sacagawea Cheerios Dollars have a different design compared to any other in circulation. That makes them very rare, and valuable.
But what about the Cheerios boxes?
In the How much are the Sacagawea Cheerios dollars really worth? section of the CoinNews article, there was a reference to ongoing finds and sales of those original Cheerios boxes, unopened, at auctions.
One example was sited with a bid on eBay at the time for $20.49. How much did the cereal box end up making the seller? The final winning bid was $215.01.
Who would have ever thought a box of Cheerios could be a great hedge against inflation?
Is there a Sacagawea golden dollar in the box?
The odds a $10K+ valued Sacagawea Cheerios Dollar is in that box are quite small (5,500 Sacagawea were placed in 10 million boxes).
But nevertheless, if nothing else, the winner owns an interesting piece of history and a box that’s collectible in its own right.
Deciding to put ‘Christ’ back into Christmas, over 4 years ago, I abandoned a Christmas tree for an entire new adaptation…Across the hearth of my large fireplace, I affixed all the wise men, traveling to the far corner, where I had a constructed a ‘Stable’, sized to hold the Wal-Mart ‘Nativity Set’, to include…Joseph, Mary and Jesus(lying in a manger). Surrounding this were the ‘extra’ pieces I purchasd … cow, sheep, etc. Now…WHAT to give to my family members, in keeping w/theme? I quickly dropped into my favorte liquor store, where I purchased many blue velvet draw-string bags, with gold… Read more »
couldnt someone just use a metal detector on the cheerio box?