Costco's life-sized, 5.5-pound Belgian chocolate Frankenstein head has already sold out online and at select warehouses, with eBay resellers flipping the seasonal Halloween treat for as much as $100.
The warehouse giant priced the monster at $54.99 in stores and north of $60 on its website. For that, shoppers get a hollow skull made of 100 percent Belgian chocolate, stuffed with a pound of body-part-shaped gummy candies and paired with a wooden mallet. The idea: bash the head open and share the spoils. The product hit shelves in early September, and by the time social media caught up, the New York Post reported it was already gone from Costco's website and disappearing from stores.
That scarcity sent resellers straight to eBay, where listings have climbed to $100, nearly double the retail sticker. For a novelty candy item shaped like a movie monster, the markup says more about demand than about chocolate.
The Instagram account @costconew posted images and video of the Frankenstein head, and the comment section turned into a small referendum on grocery prices, value, and whether a seasonal splurge still makes sense in a tight economy.
One commenter didn't hold back:
"Right now people are just trying to put food on the table and those prices have gone up, plus the cost of the gas to get to the store. Sorry kids maybe when things get better."
Another kept it shorter:
"That looks awesome but $50? You're outta your frankenmind."
A third echoed the frustration, writing, "55 bucks!!! Lil crazy they really know how to squeeze money outta ya for the kids geez." The complaint is familiar to anyone who has watched Halloween candy prices climb year after year.
But not everyone balked. One defender laid out the math:
"Everyone saying $55 is crazy, but a 5lb bag of decent chocolate used for tempering chocolate to make things like this currently costs $50-70 right now depending on the brand and what state you're in. $55 is actually not that bad."
Another commenter put it more bluntly: "Its Belgium chocolate WAY better more legit and cld U fly over to Belgium for $50? NO and its cool so ppl complaining just move on." The grammar was rough. The point was clear enough.
The Frankenstein head fits a pattern. Costco has leaned hard into limited-run, novelty products that create social-media buzz and foot traffic. The warehouse chain recently brought back its food court churro after a long absence, a move that drew its own wave of online excitement. The company is also expanding delivery through partnerships with DoorDash and Uber Eats, widening the funnel for impulse buys that used to require a trip to the warehouse.
The strategy works because scarcity does the marketing. A product that sells out in days creates its own headlines, its own eBay aftermarket, and its own social-media argument. Costco doesn't need to run ads for a 5.5-pound chocolate monster head when Instagram commenters are doing it for free.
Retailers across the board have been pushing Halloween merchandise earlier each year, and Costco's early September drop fits that trend. The question shoppers keep asking, whether $55 for a seasonal novelty is a treat or a trick, depends entirely on how much disposable income they have left after filling the gas tank and the grocery cart.
What Costco won't tell you is how many units it produced, which regions got them, or whether a restock is coming. The online sellout happened fast, and the company has said nothing publicly about the product's supply or the manufacturer behind it.
Meanwhile, eBay resellers are happy to fill the gap, at twice the price. In an economy where families are already stretching every dollar, a $100 chocolate skull is less a Halloween treat than a reminder of who benefits when demand outstrips supply and the middlemen show up first.
When even a novelty candy item gets flipped for profit before most families can grab one, the real monster isn't made of chocolate.