Vintage Fruitcake Sells for A Bundle! - Food News - Cooking

Vintage Fruitcake Sells for $525! That’s Nuts!

No Comments | Written on December 28, 2011 at 1:00 pm, by Lesley Kennedy

courtesy Elite Estate Group

What do you call a man who spent $525 on a 70-year-old fruitcake? Nuts. But that’s just what a guy from Arizona ponied up at an online auction benefiting the homeless in Ohio, the Associated Press reports.

The Kroger’s fruitcake dates back to 1941, and was sold by Elite Estate Group to an unidentified man, according to the news service.

“I believe he probably bought it as an investment,” the company’s owner Larry Chaney tells the AP of the vacuum-packed, rum-laced holiday treat. An investment? In fruitcake? Hmm…We’ll stick with real estate.

We were a little surprised to learn bids for the fruitcake made by the Cincinnati-based Kroger Co. came in from all over the globe, including Japan, Australia and England, according to the news site. Maybe the holiday spirit—and too many holiday spirits—had people feeling a bit giddy?

A note from 1971 that accompanied the cake as it was returned to the Kroger store back then states that the cake had already been “subjected to all types of climatic conditions and shocks,” AP adds, and Frank Bates, the store’s then-manager took over ownership until the recent sale.

Let’s just hope no one attempts to actually eat the well-traveled cake. That would turn “nuts” into simply “crazy.”