Pair of Hokkaido melons fetch ¥3.5 mil in auction; 2nd highest bid on record

That's a nice set of melons you got there!

At the May 2020 auction, when COVID-19 was spreading, a pair of Yubari melons fetched just 120,000 yen

Honestly I'm not sure if I'd pay even 12,000 for a single pair of melons, that's just ludicrous.

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.

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.

Cruisn beat me to it.

Well played, sir. Well played indeed.

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

Honestly I'm not sure if I'd pay even 12,000 for a single pair of melons, that's just ludicrous.

I know plenty of guys that spend that or more on a pair of melons. 12,000 is actually cheap by todays going rate!

a single pair of melons, 

Oh and by the way, melons dont come in pairs, well sorry, they do, but not in this form anyway.

That's a nice set of melons you got there!

Nice size, and plenty firm I am sure!

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.

That's a nice set of melons you got there!

(Mutters to self) Sure the look nice but those can't be real....

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.

what is wrong with this world?

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.

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.

Ridiculous.

Sausages and Melos say the bells of St Helens, lol

A pair of very expensive tax-deductible pair of melons that must not be squeezed.

I would prefer Cobain’s smashed nevermind fender guitar for $595,000. Melons go off!

The buyer got scammed big time. The money would have been better spent on a good vacation.

I will be satisfied for two dollars melon from Mexico

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.

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.

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.

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.

just plain stupid

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?

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!!!

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.

What is wrong with Japan. They're melons. They will go bad in a few weeks.

I bought 2 melon for 3.54 dollars

It’s immoral to use that kind of money on food. What kind of message does that send to poorer countries? It’s BONKERS!

Conspicuous consumption at its best!

It's just a marketing show. Same as the Tuna auction. Not worth trying to figure it out.