MRE’s, the Quasi Currency

MRE auction on E-bay causes “MRE-gate” scandal for US Army:

Meals, Ready to Eat, the prepackaged rations infamous among service members, remain hot collectibles on the online trading site eBay.com, despite defense officials’ efforts to stop the practice.

MREs typically cost about $4.50 to produce, and are intended solely for use and distribution by members of the military, according to Defense Department rules.

But the water-activated rations are being marketed on the site as both survival gear and collector’s item, with some cases of 12 going for upward of $100.

On Friday, more than 90 unopened cases with U.S. military markings were for sale on the site, and more than 300 other listings featured individual meal packets, MRE desserts and other related foodstuffs.

In many of the listings, warnings reading “U.S. Government property — Commercial resale is unlawful” are clearly visible on the packaging.

This is actually a scandal that the military is really working on clamping down on. Usually units keep a few spare boxes of MRE’s on hand in case of a last minute tasking or a range comes up and soldiers need to get out there quick and there is no time to coordinate for chow for them. Now commanders are going through unit areas to search for spare boxes of MRE’s to ensure no extra boxes are lying around that can be picked up and sold on E-bay to survivalists or the curious.

In Korea MRE’s are highly sought after by Koreans as well. They are often sold to fishermen who spend days out on boats and MRE’s serve as a great way for them eat. Not to long ago soldiers used to give MRE’s to ajumma in ma’s tent out in the field in exchange for her to cook up Korean food for the soldiers. The army eventually clamped down on this activity but I’m sure ma was making a fortune from it at the time.

When working with the ROK Army they will always hit you up for MRE’s as well. They usually just want MRE’s to eat them more so than selling them.

To see the MRE trade in Korea in action, just travel to any of the known black market areas near US Army installations. Even in Itaewon in the back alleys you can find MRE’s for sale there. Even when I traveled last year to Ulleong-do Island I found black marketed AAFES goods and MRE’s there as well. MRE’s are what I would consider a quasi currency in Korea.