u/kimnacho

*American Wagyu I meant also the last tree pictures are Prime and Choice for comparison.

So after asking this sub, I ended up taking the American Wagyu piece from Costco home, trimming it and slicing it into 1.5-inch steaks. The cost was 19.99$ per lb.

I started with 17.86 lb and, after trimming, ended up with 13 steaks totaling 17.2 lb. That works out to about $20.76/lb once trimmed and sliced.

Overall I’m pretty happy with the result. The marbling is great and those caps are amazing. I’ve included a picture of a $14.99/lb bone-in Prime ribeye I bought at Costco for comparison. The difference in marbling is small, but it is there. After accounting for the bone and trimming, that Prime worked out to about $17.65/lb, so the actual price difference isn’t massive.

I also included a picture of a very poorly trimmed Choice ribeye primal I bought in April for $5.99/lb bone-in, which came out to around $6.60/lb after trimming.

Overall, this was a fun experiment and I’m happy with the result, but the whole thing makes me think about how quickly you hit diminishing returns as you move up in price. This Wagyu is marginally better than the already very good Prime I had, but I’m not sure the improvement is proportional to the price difference.

The main reason I could see myself doing it again is that buying a whole primal is a bit of a lottery. A USDA Prime label doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to get exceptional marbling. With this one, assuming the company’s grading is consistent with what they claim on their website, the Signature label should give you a better chance of getting a genuinely well-marbled piece. So there is some value in that consistency.

Comparing it with the Choice is almost pointless to me because I see them as two different experiences in terms of flavor and richness. Obviously the Wagyu isn’t 3.5 times “better” just because it costs 3.5 times as much, but I also don’t think they are really substitutes for each other.

Looking forward to read what you think.

Imperial American Wagyu Signature grade 19.99 per lb at Costco.

Boneless Ribeye

EDIT to add: The Signature label on the last picture is what made me buy it. I understand Wagyu is not a grading but Signature is supposed to be their BMS 8-9 grading which is pretty high. Only opening will tell.

EDIT: For some reason this post has been locked. I Assume because I already confirmed that I took it. I was going to post the follow up here but I will open another post I guess.

I tried to access Winebid this morning to check on some stuff and surprise!

I hope they fix this soon. Surprised in 2026 people forget to renew domains.