The Real Reason Supreme Oreos Are So Expensive

Oreos have been releasing special holiday and limited edition flavors for years — even much-hyped "mystery flavors." While there's always a certain buzz around the tastier ones, generally nobody gets so excited that they want to line up around the block to get their paws on a package, much less engage in a bidding war to spend some truly big bucks.

So what, may we ask, is up with the iconic cookie's latest release, or "drop," as they announced it on Instagram? Is it some super-amazing flavor? Not as far as anyone knows... although, as far as we can tell, nobody has actually eaten one. Could it be the cool color scheme, perhaps? Nah, Red Velvet Oreos are red, too, and nobody lost their minds over those. What causes these particular Oreos to command such an insane price? Just one word: Supreme.

For anyone living in that hypothetical Wi-Fi-equipped cave, Supreme is the hip-hop brand name. Anything and everything they choose to tag with it becomes an instant "must-have" and sells out within minutes to those cool enough to be in the know about where and when the drop goes down. 

The truly swag, however, don't even bother hanging on to their Supreme merch — instead, they immediately flip it — at a crazy markup — to deep-pocketed wannabes. While Cassandra Napoli, associate editor at trend forecaster WGSN Insight, told Forbes that the real value of an uber-trendy brand-name Oreo lies in its irony... well, irony's one expensive commodity these days.

Each 3-pack of Supreme Oreos was originally priced at $8, which is kind of steep for a cookie, seeing as how a similar-sized packet probably won't set you back more than a buck or two at any given vending machine in any office break room on the planet. If you managed to snag an $8 pack, though, congrats, you just secured a year or two of college tuition payments. Forbes reports that bidding on one such packet reached over $92,000 on eBay before the auction was taken down.

In case you were wondering, yes, that probably does make these Supreme Oreos — even those not quite hitting the $92,000 mark — the world's most expensive cookie. The former holder of this title, at least according to Fox News, was something called a Duchess Cookie. It was made with ruby chocolate, covered with 23-carat gold leaf, and accompanied by a sculpted chocolate shoe, a baccarat crystal catchall and a string of freshwater pearls. The price for all this opulence? A mere $1,000 per cookie. Psshh, that's nothing. If that's what your beau got you for Valentine's Day, honey, you just don't rate. For next year, better tell him that only an ironic — and extremely stale — vintage 2020 Supreme Oreo will do.