The white-hot Kirkland Signature golf ball sold by Costco, which rode an insane wave of marketing and good publicity at the end of 2016, is no longer available. We discussed this a bit back in December as everyone was trying to make a run on the $1.25 golf ball for Christmas. It appears Costco is no longer selling them.
Here is the Wall Street Journal:
The balls have been out of stock for much of the past two months, save for a few fleeting spurts of availability. Within the past week, Costco removed the listing for them from its website. It is unclear when or even if they will be in stock again. "We don't have a certain amount that we promise to deliver to Costco," said Shim Kwang-Suk, executive director at Nassau's ball plant in Korea. "We produce other products first and deliver to Costco if we have products left."
So that's pretty interesting. Meanwhile, the balls continue to sell at Titleist ProV1-like figures on eBay.
This remains a fascinating phenomenon to me. There is no more rabid industry than the golf equipment industry, and that fanatical mindset seems to be fueling a lot of the intrigue here. And now Costco has decided to eject because their ball supplier in Korea doesn't really care about meeting their demand? That seems odd.
But it also might not be over as one Kirkland Signature believer told the WSJ.
William Stalsworth, a 61-year-old retiree living in Naples, Fla., said an employee at a nearby Costco store recently told him the balls would be back in stock this spring. To hold him over until then, he paid a private seller $300 for eight dozen. "When Costco gets them back, I'm going to buy enough to last me another 10 years," he said. "And I won't be putting them on eBay."
