Reselling Stanley Cups: The Dated Facts on Prices, Fees and Rules

Reselling Stanley cups became a real thing at the turn of 2024, when a $45 Starbucks x Stanley Quencher sold out at Target and, according to USA Today, eBay listings reached $100 to $200. Anyone who might want in should start with the dated facts below. As of 6 October 2026, according to its own product pages, Stanley’s store lists some 40 oz Quenchers at $18, marked down from a regular price of $45.

• Sales: $73 million in 2019 to a projected $750 million in 2023, according to CNBC Make It.
• Target drop: the $45 Starbucks x Stanley cup went on sale on New Year’s Eve 2023, as USA Today and The Guardian reported, and was sold out on Target’s website by 5 January 2024, as The New York Times reported.
• Listings: eBay asking prices of $100 to $200, as USA Today reported on 4 January 2024, which is about 2.2 to 4.4 times the $45 retail price.
• Fees: eBay’s basic fee is 13.6% of the sale plus $0.40 per order over $10, according to eBay.

  What is a Stanley cup, and why did people start reselling it?

  A Stanley cup, in this story, is the Stanley Quencher, a vacuum-insulated tumbler with a handle and a straw. According to CNBC Make It, the Seattle-based brand launched it in 2016 to little fanfare, the 40 oz size retailed for between $45 and $55 in December 2023, and by 2019 the brand had stopped restocking and marketing it.

  Two things changed that. According to CNBC Make It, a Utah shopping blog called The Buy Guide asked Stanley in 2019 to keep making the Quencher, ordered 5,000 Quenchers wholesale instead, and sold them out within days. CNBC Make It also reports that Terence Reilly became the company’s president in 2020.

  The brand then released new colours as limited-edition drops. CNBC counted more than 100 colours by December 2023 and said the Quencher is frequently released in limited-edition colours that sell out in minutes. Reilly told CNBC, “The resale market is certainly flattering.”

  Stanley’s sales grew roughly tenfold between 2019 and 2023

  Stanley’s yearly sales rose from $73 million in 2019 to a projected $750 million in 2023, according to CNBC Make It, which also gave $94 million for 2020, $194 million for 2021 and $402 million for 2022. The 2023 number was a projection from data CNBC reviewed in December 2023, and all five numbers are sales, not what the company kept after costs.

  Year	Sales (CNBC Make It)	Change on the year before (our arithmetic)
  2019	$73 million	not stated
  2020	$94 million	+28.8%
  2021	$194 million	+106.4%
  2022	$402 million	+107.2%
  2023 (projected)	$750 million	+86.6%

  The last column is our arithmetic on CNBC’s figures: we worked out $94 million divided by $73 million as 1.288, so 2020 was 28.8% above 2019. Across the whole run, $750 million divided by $73 million, which is 10.3, makes 2023 about ten times 2019. That shows how large the brand became, not what any single cup sold for on a resale site, which needs its own source.

  

  What happened at Target on New Year’s Eve 2023?

  The Starbucks x Stanley Quencher went on sale at Target on New Year’s Eve 2023, according to USA Today and The Guardian. The New York Times described it as a 40-ounce pink or red tumbler and reported on 5 January 2024 that the $45 cups were sold out on Target’s website and that the rush had caused camp-outs and confrontations at Target stores.

  Resale listings followed. USA Today reported on 4 January 2024 that eBay listings had the $45 tumbler “selling for upward of $100 to $200”, and The New York Times wrote that eBay prices reached “up to several hundred dollars in some cases”. Both describe listings at the time of writing, not completed sales, so we show them as asking prices, not a price history.

  Reported on	Item	Figure	Source
  23 December 2023	40 oz Quencher, usual retail price	$45 to $55	CNBC Make It
  4 January 2024	Limited-edition cup with Target, original price	$45	USA Today
  4 January 2024	Same cup, eBay listings	$100 to $200	USA Today
  4 January 2024	Listing price divided by $45	2.2 to 4.4 times	Our arithmetic

  Two earlier details in CNBC’s December 2023 report belong to different drops: a red Starbucks collaboration Quencher was being resold on eBay for hundreds of dollars on the day it dropped, and some Target stores limited buyers to two per person. Market prices move and are shown for reference, not as a promise.

  Stanley’s own store prices as of October 2026

  As of 6 October 2026, Stanley’s own store lists the 40 oz Quencher H2.0 FlowState in its Last Call colours at a sale price of $18 against a regular price of $45, and the 30 oz Valentine’s Day Quencher at the same $18 against $45. That is $27 off $45, which is 60%. When read, 28 of the 30 colours on the 40 oz page and both Valentine’s Day colours showed as out of stock.

  Item on Stanley’s store, 6 October 2026	Price shown	Regular price shown
  Quencher H2.0 FlowState 40 oz, Last Call colours	$18	$45
  Valentine’s Day Quencher H2.0 FlowState 30 oz	$18	$45
  Halloween Quencher H2.0 FlowState 40 oz	$50	none shown
  FARM Rio collaboration H2.0 FlowState 40 oz	$65	none shown

  The store’s FAQ also says limited colours “may come back in the future”, so a colour that sold out once is not guaranteed to stay gone. We could not confirm any completed resale prices for these colours in October 2026, so none are printed here. A reader who wants one should look at completed listings on the marketplace itself.

  How much of a sale does eBay keep?

  eBay’s basic final value fee is 13.6% of the total amount of the sale up to $7,500 per item, plus a per-order fee of $0.30 on orders of $10.00 or less and $0.40 on orders over $10.00, according to eBay’s selling fees page. The same page says the total amount of the sale includes the item price, handling charges, shipping collected from the buyer and sales tax, so the base can be larger than the sticker price.

  Item price	13.6% fee	Per-order fee	Net proceeds after fees
  $100	$13.60	$0.40	$86.00
  $150	$20.40	$0.40	$129.20
  $200	$27.20	$0.40	$172.40

  Those rows are our arithmetic on eBay’s published rates, counting the item price only, with no shipping, handling or sales tax, and they stop before postage and packaging costs. eBay lists different rates for some categories, so check the category before you list a cup. Fees are one cost of selling and tax is another, which we cover in our reseller tax post.

  Does Stanley allow buying cups to resell?

  Stanley’s store reserves the right to refuse resale purchases, according to its own FAQ, which says it may “prohibit purchases of any products intended for resale, distribution, etc. unless the purchase is made by a pre-qualified vendor.” The same answer says the company may refuse or cancel any bulk order placed on its website.

  Other retailers set their own limits. CNBC reported in December 2023 that some Target stores limited customers to two cups each, and Reilly called signs limiting purchases “an astounding thing to think about.” We wrote up the Target drop itself in our Stanley cups Valentine’s Day post, and our post on Stanley cup dupes covers alternatives to the cup. If you sell other kinds of goods too, our general guide to reselling covers the wider picture.

  What should you check on a used Stanley?

  Three things matter on a used Stanley: whether its model sits inside a recall, what the warranty asks for, and the state of the base. On 12 December 2024 the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a recall of about 2.6 million Stanley Switchback and Trigger Action travel mugs in 12, 16 and 20 oz sizes, because lid threads can shrink with heat and torque and let the lid detach. The notice names those travel mugs, not the Quencher.

  Stanley’s FAQ says a warranty claim needs the purchase location and the date of purchase, and that returns are accepted only for items bought on its own website, so a cup bought secondhand may lack those details. The FAQ also says the vacuum seal at the base uses a sealing material that includes lead under a stainless steel layer, and that a base cap that comes off in ordinary use is eligible for the lifetime warranty.

  Is a Stanley cup the same thing as the NHL trophy?

  No. The tumbler comes from the drinkware brand built on William Stanley Jr.’s 1913 steel vacuum bottle, according to The New York Times. The National Hockey League’s trophy shares the name, and USA Today noted that some #Stanleycup TikTok videos are about the trophy.

  What was the burned-car video?

  USA Today quoted marketing professor Jenna Drenten describing a viral video of a burned car with an intact Stanley cup inside, and saying the brand “finally responded by buying the woman a new car.” UNILAD (20 December 2023) reports Stanley’s president, Terence Reilly, said on TikTok the company would “love to replace” her vehicle, and it later delivered the car.