Tampa, FLA - A Delaware man, Daniel Fleming, whose speciality is incorporating businesses for tax purposes has sold his 43 year old collection of chocolate pudding skins to Ripley's Believe It Or Not for $500,000 US.
Mr. Fleming has indicated that initially, for the first 5 years, he found it tough to add to his collection, as it was primarily a result of picking the skins out of local dumpsters found behind churches in his neighborhood. He then got the idea of expanding his search to the entire eastern seaboard, made possible by doing his searches mainly at night with the aid of an Amtrak rail pass.
The skins in total weigh about 1 1/2 tons and are separated by wax paper. They have been in a frozen state and, if thawed, could probably feed a mid-sized African village for a decade, albeit rather poorly.
Yet the people of Ripley's Believe It Or Not have indicated that they will build a $30 million US storage facility to accommodate the delicacies in the hopes that the admission price to the facility, paid by the curious, should, over time, cover the cost and upkeep.
Indeed, the amount of wax paper used to preserve the skins, would, in itself, be classified as some sort of record. Uncut, the wax paper alone could circumnavigate the globe a dozen times and Mr. Fleming's purchases of said wax paper has caused a noticeable shortage in Delaware for as long as he has been collecting pudding skins.
Ask how the hobby might have affected his business life, Mr. Fleming replied, "Absolutely no effect whatsoever. I could do business incorporating in my sleep. In fact on many occasions I did."
