NY Post Zohran Mamdani Newspapers Are Reselling

Democracy is a lot of fun. You get to go check a few boxes, get a sticker, wait in line, and contribute to something greater than yourself. In most places, you get two whole choices on who gets your vote.

Earlier this week, New York chose Zohran Mamdani. He became the city’s first Muslim mayor, and their youngest mayor in over 100 years. He’s also a (democratic) socialist, which pissed a lot of people off.

Despite being a local election, American conservative media has been singularly focused on Mamdani’s campaign and election, unable to determine if they should be more mad about him being a Muslim or a commie.

Anyways, the New York Post was especially unhappy with Mamdani’s win, running a bombastic cover featuring him holding a hammer and sickle with the headline “The Red Apple” shortly after the election.

These newspapers went super-viral in NYC and beyond, with many of Mamdani’s supporters embracing the image and seeking out the covers to collect. By the end of day, many newsstands had completely run dry of the NY Post.

And where there’s viral interest, there’s usually  major profits. NYC-based resellers were quick to notice the attention around these papers, and more than a few stands were cleaned out by a single scalper looking to score a profit.

Within days of his win, NY Post’s “Red Apple” newspaper with Zohran Mamdani began reselling for well over their listed price. Many of these are flipping for $30 to $40, even $50; but some sellers have managed to get nearly $100 for their cover.

Considering most newsstands sell these for a few bucks at most, resellers are churning pretty substantial profits on every copy they sell. If they bought in bulk, it’s not unreasonable to expect sellers to make a few hundred dollars for a quick walk around the block.

At this point, almost every stand is sold out of these covers. If you’re in NYC it’s probably still worth the effort to check for one, but don’t get your hopes up.

This is not the first time we’ve tracked a politically-charged newspaper cover resell after going viral. In 2023, we covered the massive profits resellers made flipping newspapers with Trump’s mugshot, and a similar “Trump Guilty” headline also went viral earlier this year.

What makes this different is that most of the buyers come from Mamdani’s supporters. The hammer and sickle persona has been widely embraced among American socialists, and they’re taking the clearly-butthurt newspapers as a token of victory.

The New York Post has attempted to capitalize on the viral popularity by spinning up an entire merch line, featuring cups, sweaters, and totes featuring the cover. If you missed the main flip these might be worth looking at, but we don’t think this is worth your time or money. For one, they look like shitty Etsy knockoffs. For two, the line isn’t getting nearly as much attention as the actual newspaper.

And that’s pretty much it. Sometimes, you’ve just got to capitalize on an opportunity like this. If you want to learn more about reselling, make sure you subscribe to our newsletter and stay tuned in on all the latest flips before they pass you by.