There are no real price guides or valuation resources for Kool-Aid packets to regulate commerce like there are in other collector communities for items like baseball cards or vinyl records.

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“The Kool-Aid market is hilarious. I couldn’t define it as either a buyers’ market or a sellers’ market,” Matt says. “If you have something rare, you might be the only one who does, but you’d be playing to an audience of only a few people who’d actually want it and that assumes they’d even know you had it for sale. There are no set values, and no rhyme or reason to the prices.”

As it is with the Kool-Aid flavors themselves, appraisal value is determined by personal taste.

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“Looking at my collection, the one packet that stands tall to me personally is my Hallowe’en Cool Eerie Orange. I’d imagine the actual flavor is just regular orange Kool-Aid, but the exclusive packet art shows Kool-Aid Man in some kind of witch-pirate combo costume. You could offer me $200 for it and I still wouldn’t budge, and believe me, I could use the $200.”

Alongside the personal nostalgia, thrill of the hunt excitement, communal goodwill, and unadulterated enjoyment of pop culture collecting lies another interesting element that helps peel back the curtain a bit on the vintage Kool-Aid packet collecting community.

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“In a weird way, it’s also very safe,” Matt surmises. “Nobody’s Kool-Aid collection is taking over their house. Most Kool-Aid collectors can fit everything they’ve acquired into a shoebox. You may overspend from time to time, but certainly not regularly. I might go a year or more without investing in it at all.”

After collecting vintage Kool-Aid packets for over 15 years, Matt sums up his experience in terms that aren’t shaded with obsession like you’d find with many collectors.

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“Collecting Kool-Aid isn’t as weird as it sounds. I see people go bananas for things like Funko Pops or whatever, and that’s great, but for so many reasons, I wouldn’t trade hobbies with them. I can turn to it when I need an escape, but it really never demands time, money, or energy that I absolutely shouldn’t spend on it.”