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© KYODOPair of Hokkaido melons fetch ¥3.5 mil in auction; 2nd highest bid on record
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CruisinJapan
That's a nice set of melons you got there!
finally rich
Honestly I'm not sure if I'd pay even 12,000 for a single pair of melons, that's just ludicrous.
itsonlyrocknroll
This auction and the ¥3.5 mil final bid I believe should be viewed, full appreciated, the value in the publicity (PR) for Kiyomichi Noda, CEO of Hokuyupack Co........a Yubari-based company that packs fruit and vegetables.
Fighto!
I could probably afford half a teaspoonful of these melons! The taste must be jaw-dropping - but alas I can only imagine.
Congratulations to the successful bidder - Kiyomichi Noda, CEO of Hokuyupack Co. A great shot in the arm for the melon industry up Yubari way.
EFD
Cruisn beat me to it.
Well played, sir. Well played indeed.
wtfjapan
Honestly I'm not sure if I'd pay even 12,000 for a single pair of melons, that's just ludicrous.
its just advertising, hyping a product, so the rubes can pay exuberant amounts for fruit in Japin
Yubaru
I know plenty of guys that spend that or more on a pair of melons. 12,000 is actually cheap by todays going rate!
Yubaru
Oh and by the way, melons dont come in pairs, well sorry, they do, but not in this form anyway.
Yubaru
Nice size, and plenty firm I am sure!
Moonraker
I've been in a lot of places at fruit-harvest time and usually the fruit is going cheaply there at that time but, curiously, finding a cheap melon in Yubari at harvest time was impossible. I wonder if I didn't look hard enough or whether some kind of monkey business was going on.
EFD
(Mutters to self) Sure the look nice but those can't be real....
itsonlyrocknroll
Premium fruit often fetch very high prices at first auctions in Japan, with buyers using successful bids for promotional purposes.
Missed this sentence.
I ending up stating the flipping obvious.
John Brown
what is wrong with this world?
kohakuebisu
It should be obvious given where Yubari is and when these go on sale, but I wonder if most folks realize these are grown over a Hokkaido winter in heavily heated poly tunnels. The fuel consumption must be immense.
itsonlyrocknroll
I actually spent over 100,000 yen, brought 5 melons, for a friends Birthday treat, then had to ask the farmer next door neighbor how to present, his wife was a god send.
I was waving a cleaver of sorts ready to hack the living daylights out of my five expensive purchases.
Matt
Ridiculous.
falseflagsteve
Sausages and Melos say the bells of St Helens, lol
wallace
A pair of very expensive tax-deductible pair of melons that must not be squeezed.
Bobo
I would prefer Cobain’s smashed nevermind fender guitar for $595,000. Melons go off!
purple_depressed_bacon
The buyer got scammed big time. The money would have been better spent on a good vacation.
Yrral
I will be satisfied for two dollars melon from Mexico
TrevorPeace
Those things cost about ¥500 here. I think the wooden box is worth more than those melons. But I suppose that's because carpentry's hobby of mine.
Mat
When you consider this in the wider scheme of the world, this is actually rather repulsive. $25,000USD for two pieces of fruit that would cost between $1 and $10 anywhere else in the world, while people are struggling to pay rent, losing their homes to wars, etc. It honestly makes me embarrassed to live in Japan.
MilesTeg
Price markup for morons. I can guarantee that the $50.00 melon I bought, which is expensive enough, tastes as good as a $35,000.00 melon does. Materialistic elitism at its worst. Poor guy doesn't realize people are laughing at him not with him.
Ego Sum Lux Mundi
It's tough to find a genuinely nice pair of melons in Japan - oftentimes when you see some that are of a decent size by Western standards, it turn out they were artifically grown and I'm just not interested. However, now and then, if you're lucky, a 100% natural pair will come your way.
Dango bong
just plain stupid
OKuniyoshi
If these pair of melons, the exact pair, was offered in Aeon supermarket for 35,000 yen, would he, or, for that matter, anyone would have bought it?
kaimycahl
If some one paid that much money for a melon, I wonder how much the by product is worth once consumed and comes out of the other end! It must be golden!!!
Stephen Chin
What? Two water melons? Worth 3.5 M Yen?
Who bought them? Why did he not give half
of the price he paid for them to me? Do I have one hundred yen
in my bank? No! I have two hundred.
TaiwanIsNotChina
What is wrong with Japan. They're melons. They will go bad in a few weeks.
Yrral
I bought 2 melon for 3.54 dollars
Anton
It’s immoral to use that kind of money on food. What kind of message does that send to poorer countries? It’s BONKERS!
kurisupisu
Conspicuous consumption at its best!
OssanAmerica
It's just a marketing show. Same as the Tuna auction. Not worth trying to figure it out.