Why This Bottle of Tabasco is Selling For $449 On eBay

Tabasco hot sauce is one of the most well-known sauces in the U.S., having been parked on the tables of most restaurants you can think of.

Well, it seems like there is an eBay seller who believes a hardcore Tabasco fan will be willing to spend $449 on a limited edition, commemorative “Diamond Reserve” bottle.

Good ol’ Tabasco has been around for 150 years now (which is 103 years longer than our beloved Tapatio), and to commemorate the 150th anniversary, the brand released the special Diamond Reserve Red Sauce.

Photo by Peter Pham

This special sauce was 6 ounces (an ounce bigger than the standard bottle), came in a pretty black and gold champagne-style packaging, and retailed at $34.99.

The fancy Tabasco sauce was described as:

“A selection of the finest tabasco peppers on Avery Island, chosen for their superior color, texture, and robustness. These peppers are mashed with a small amount of salt, then aged—some for up to 15 years—and blended with sparkling white wine vinegar. The resulting pepper sauce has exceptional complexity, while maintaining the signature flavor and vibrancy for which TABASCO Sauce is celebrated around the world.”

Sounds pretty amazing, right? Unfortunately, it was a very limited release and no longer available on its online store.

So now, the only way to get your hands on one of these exclusive bottles is to fork over the money on eBay, or convince me to give you the one that’s been sitting at my desk for about a month.

Photo by Peter Pham

More listings have been popping up, one for a more reasonable $250, and the lowest being $99. It looks like all these sellers are posting pretty aggressive prices, so good luck finding one at retail.

Here at the Foodbeast office, we’ve been trying to figure out who would actually spend hundreds of dollars on hot sauce, especially when it was only worth $35. Here’s what we came up with:

Costa Spyrou/Contributor

“Collector’s items always go up in price once the sale ends, but usually not by that much unless it’s super dope or cult-worthy. Szechuan Sauce sold for thousands at first and Pie Tops 2 went from $150 to like $1,800 on eBay. But those were very limited quantities and highly sought-after, making them rare exceptions. I’m not sure how hyped up Diamond Tabasco was, but didn’t seem like it merited a 10x price increase.”

Phambot/Staff Robot

“When the inevitable Robot Apocalypse happens, money will be as useless as ‘love’ or ‘friendship.’ Hot Sauce, however, will be a sought-after commodity used for fuel, luring unsuspecting foodies to robot education centers, or simply as a weapon to throw into humans’ unprotected eyes.”

Reach Guinto/Managing Editor

“This person might know something about how limited this bottle is that we don’t. And if he sells that point well enough, some rich dude with extra cash and a penchant for hot sauces would buy it.”

We shall wait and see if this thing actually sells, and if eBay user ceichin1 laughs all the way to the bank. Or you can wait and see if they release a second batch, kind of like McDonald’s did with its limited edition Szechuan sauce.