The Great Flake of Illinois has a winning bid: $1,350

CHESAPEAKE

Somewhere out there someone really believes a Frosted Flake shaped like the state of Illinois is worth $1,350.

That was the winning bid posted in the final seconds when the eBay sale for a coupon that entitles the holder to the flake came to an end just before 11:20 p.m. Friday.

So will the discoverers of the flake be filling cereal bowls with cash?

"We already have the money," said a joyous Melissa McIntire, 23, one of the Chesapeake sisters selling the item, said late Friday, minutes after the sale ended and the winner made an electronic payment.

“We are so happy,” McIntire said. “We are so excited. There’s a lot of good spirit here. We’re still amazed we sold a Corn Flake for over $1,000! Who would have thought?”

Melissa's 15-year-old sister, Emily, found the flake while eating dry cereal earlier this month. They decided to sell it on eBay, and things went from there.

“This frosted cornflake was pulled out of a box of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes and has undergone no alterations to its shape of appearance,” the sisters said in the listing. “It’s uncanny resemblance is completely natural!”

The flake itself, not a coupon, had been for sale initially. But eBay, citing policies on the sale of food items, pulled it from view for a time. At the time, bidding had reached $200,000, though there were doubts about the veracity of the high bids.

Still, it seemed there was a market. So the sisters didn’t want to give up and hit upon the idea of selling the coupon. With that, it was back.

“While we initially thought that $10.00 would be a hoot we began to realize that perhaps a family vacation to Disney World might be possible,” the sisters said in the new listing.

There were 68 bids from 29 bidders. The highest bid had appeared to be $1,325, placed Thursday at 3:26 p.m. There were no new bids in the final day of the sale until its very end.

Just six seconds before the close of bidding, TriviaMania.com boosted the price by $25 and walked away with the flake.

The sisters, aware that some people might be playing games, had taken note of the earlier, likely-bogus offers of tens of thousands of dollars by requiring any bidders in the second sale to pre-qualify "to hopefully insure this auction has a happy ending."

Still, even they wanted to make certain of the sale before they celebrated. A phone call later and after a check of their electronic accounts, and the cash was theirs.

The flake will now have a new home as part of the “Traveling Trivia Trove, which is a traveling museum of pop culture,” McIntire said.

With cash in hand, the family is now deciding what to do with it.

“We have a big family,” McIntire said, so the dream of Disney World is probably not possible on $1,350. “But we are probably going to use it for a family trip.” 

News of the sale became a phenomenon, getting coverage all across the U.S., in Europe and around the globe. It was a boon for creative headline writers. "Crunch time for sisters out to milk Illinois flake for all they can get," wrote The Standard in Hong Kong.  

RealBusiness, an online news site based in the United Kingdom, ranked it number one of the "top five weirdest eBay items." Of the sale, they wrote: "If your breakfast leftovers can make you thousands on eBay, what other worthless items can you flog for a fortune?" 

The New York Post reported on the sale in its "Weird But True" column.

The sale also generated a host of other related sales, including one that appeared to be an item based in part on the use of a photograph of the flake.

Someone is offering a picture of Illinois favorite son and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, with twin images of the flake (one reversed) in place of the senator's ears.

It's nowhere near as popular as the flake itself, so far. Bidding for the photograph had garnered only four bids from three would-be takers by early this morning, with a top offer of $1.99.

Bidding for it ends tonight.

Steve Stone, (757) 446-2309, steve.stone@pilotonline.com