They used to be given away as a method companies used to let potential new customers sample their products and - hopefully - come back for more. Now showbags cost anywhere from $10 to $30 and are among the mounting prices parents are paying for their annual trip to the Easter Show - along with $40 entrance fees and $15 rides. But are the contents of the bags worth the prices being paid? The official website of the Sydney Royal Easter Show lists the retail value of show bag contents, and reveals that at least one of the bags cost more than it would to buy the items outright. The 2015 Sydney Royal Easter show, which opened to the public last Thursday 26 March . The Cowboy Bag includes a toy sheriff's hat, a vest and a red bandana, as well as a toy pump action shotgun and a pack of plastic pistols and handcuffs. The price is $26. But the site lists the retail value of the items as $23.85 - and that's without the added burden of entrance fees, rides and long queues at the show. Other bags offer some rather trivial savings. At the lower end of the price scale, buyers of the Fruit Tingles bag will get three 34 gram packets of the disc-shaped lollies, one 34 gram packet of fruit pastilles, two Redskins, two lollipops and two Milko sticks for $5. That's a saving of $0.10 on the listed total retail value is $5.10. The Aussie Bogan bag - if that's your thing - offers better value. For $15 buyers will get a drinking cap with Aussie flag, a mullet wig, fake bogan teeth, Aussie pride stubby holder, and an infatable Aussie flag bat and bar poster, altogether worth $50.90. Capping it off is a 'discount amusement ride voucher' with a listed value of $0.00. One bag on the site seems to offer unbelievable value, literally. The Rockstar bag includes an inflatable guitar, toy trilby and some items including a tinsel hair clip the site lists as worth $395, giving the bag a total retail value of $413.70 for the bargain price of $10. A quick online scan reveals the hair clip price is almost certainly a typo. The official website displays the retail value of the showbags contents, reveal that some of the bags cost more than it would to buy the items outright-such as the Cowboy Bag (L)-while others are a mere 10 cents less than their retail value-like the Fruit Tingles Bag . Some of the bags have grossly inaccurate value listings-such as the Rockstar Bag (L)-while the Aussie Bogan bag alludes to the shows biggest attraction having zero value . Sydney's Royal East Show is one of the biggest events on the school holiday calendar, and is the largest of the annual carnivals that tour the country each year. Growing out of the agricultural show circuit, Australia's annual shows have become major attractions in cities and country town that include farm animal and fruit and vegetable displays as well as carnival rides, stunt shows - and the inevitable show bag pavillion.
The 2015 Sydney Royal Easter show opened to the public last Thursday 26.
The website displays the retail value of the showbags and their official cost.
Some cost more than their retail value, others list grossly inaccurate costs.