Bulk buys and deep discounts make it possible for you to save money at Costco. Even though the warehouse club is known for its unbeatable prices, some products aren’t exactly affordable options.
Along with the best deals on everyday essentials, pantry staples, and prepared foods, the members-only retailer also sells some extreme items. Whether it’s a jaw-droppingly high price or an enormously over-the-top size, these aren’t your average Costco picks.
Editor’s note: Prices are subject to change and may vary by location.
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Pamp Gold Bar
Price: $2,399.99
You went to Costco looking for a mega-pack of paper towels and found…a gold bar? Yes, the warehouse club sells one-ounce bars of gold.
Don’t try to fill your treasure chest yet — there’s a per-customer limit. But if you happen to have an extra $12,000, you can score five of these extreme items.
Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer
Price: $399.99
Dyson is the holy grail of hair dryers. This item promises fast dry times for all hair types. It comes with a frizz-reducing diffuser, flyaway attachment, wide-tooth comb, style concentrator, gentle air attachment, and stand.
Even with the benefits and features, this beauty buy isn’t worth the almost $400 price tag. Reviews on this pricey product are mixed. Reddit user Buttered_biscuit6969 offered this opinion: “No, it’s not worth it. It’s a great hairdryer but you can get the same results from a professional hairdryer for half the price.” And Costco has plenty of other options for less.
White Gold Diamond Tennis Bracelet
Price: $2,899.99
Not every Costco item is an everyday essential, and this pricey pick proves it. The 14-karat gold 3.00 CTW diamond tennis bracelet seems extreme for almost $3,000. That is until you compare it to the 18-karat gold, 9.4 CTW diamond bracelet Costco sells for an outrageous $27,999.99.
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Catry Cat Tree
Price: $99.99
Furniture for your cat shouldn’t cost almost as much as furniture for the humans in your home. This all-in-one cat tree could provide hours of play for your feline friend — for almost $100.
Before you splurge on this over-the-top pet product, ask yourself if your happy-to-play-in-a-cardboard-box kitten really needs six natural sisal scratching posts, a laminated wood base, quilted velvet features, and a faux fur shag rug.
JBL Boombox
Price: $499.99
Remember the days when you could buy a perfectly good boombox for under $50 at Radio Shack? While 1980s prices are hard to find now, you don’t have to spend almost $500 on a portable speaker.
Not only is this boombox at the pricier end of the speaker selection spectrum, but some Costco customers report problems with the overall connectivity, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and more. One reviewer wrote, “JBL products are so expensive, but when you have a problem it is money wasted for something with poor quality.” If you’re on a budget, try Costco’s LG XBoom Go portable wireless speaker for less than $60.
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Thomas Farms Bone-In Goat Cubes
Price: $63.99
With 40 servings in each box, you’ll get a whopping 15 pounds of cubed goat in this extreme Costco buy. An almost $64 price tag makes this freezer find pricier than most of the warehouse club’s other meat.
New Zealand Whole Boxed Lamb
Price: $5.69 per pound
Each whole (yes, whole) lamb in a box weighs an average of 28 pounds, bringing the total price of this purchase to over $150. If you don’t need everything from the shoulders to the shanks, Costco has a variety of more affordable smaller options. Kirkland Signature’s leg of lamb and rack of lamb are available in less extreme two to five-pound packs.
Rastelli’s Premium Butcher’s Grill Collection
Price: $149.99
This box of Premium Butcher’s Grill Collection includes three 18-ounce dry-aged bone-in ribeye steaks, three 16-ounce dry-aged bone-in strip steaks, and 32 butterflied and skewered extra-jumbo shrimp. Even though you’ll get plenty of meat in this pack, Costco has more affordable bulk buys to stock your freezer.
U.S. Sugar 50-Pound Bag of Powdered Sugar
Price: $42.99
Unless you operate a funnel cake stand or own a bakery, it’s not likely you’ll use 50 pounds of powdered sugar anytime soon. This pillow-sized pack sells for almost $43, making it one of the more expensive staples Costco stocks.
If you only use sugar to sweeten coffee or to bake cookies once in a while, try Kirkland Signature’s organic 10-pound bag for $10.99 or the warehouse club’s $8.99 Sugar In the Raw 500-count box deal.
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Ready Wise 132-Serving Emergency Food Supply
Price: $62.99
You never know when you may need more than 100 servings of food. Luckily, the meals in this bulk bucket last for up to 25 years. Each preparedness pack comes with a selection of teriyaki rice, pasta alfredo, apple cinnamon cereal, tomato basil soup with pasta, creamy pasta and veggies, brown sugar and maple multi-grain cereal, BBQ beans, vanilla pudding, orange drink mix, whey milk alternative, Southwest rice and beans, and chicken flavored noodle soup.
And, if you’re wondering how creamy pasta, vanilla pudding, and other items can be shelf-stable for more than two decades, you aren’t alone.
SK-II Facial Treatment Essence
Price: $219.99
Costco doesn’t even stock this facial treatment on store shelves. The essence is so pricey that the retailer keeps this extreme item behind closed doors. While the same size bottle of SK-II costs $325 at Sephora, the almost $220 warehouse club price tag still makes this product out of reach for anyone on a budget.
Philips Sonicare Diamond Care Toothbrush
Price: $279.99
Almost $300 for two toothbrushes? Most Costco shoppers will take a hard pass on this double-pack. The pricey brush will keep your teeth clean, though.
But you know what else will keep your teeth clean? The $16.99 eight-pack of Oral B Pro-Advanced 3D White manual brushes. While you will have to move your hand to brush your teeth, you’ll save over $250.
Dyson Stick Vacuum
Price: $559.99
Like the brand’s hair dryer, Dyson’s stick vacuum also comes with an outrageous price tag.
For $559.99, this vacuum illuminates dust you can’t even see and calculates how many particles you pick up. While this stick vac does it all, most shoppers won’t need this detection feature, an LCD screen to categorize the type of dirt they clean, or an auto mode that monitors the machine’s resistance 360 times per second.
Samsung 85-Inch TV
Price: $2,999.99
Massive is the only word to describe this theater-sized TV. The almost $3,000 price combined with the expansive screen space makes this Costco media buy an extreme option that most shoppers won’t need or even have space for. To save some serious cash, skip the 85-inch option. Costco sells a 55-inch Hisense model for less than $270.
Bottom line
From gold bars to buckets filled with 132-serving emergency food supplies, Costco has a small selection of extreme products no one is going to buy. While you might skip these picks, the bulk-buy retailer does have plenty of budget-friendly deals on other items.
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FinanceBuzz writers and editors score cards based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.
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