Would you buy a decade-old grilled cheese sandwich on eBay? What if it had an image of the Virgin Mary burnt into it? Sounds bizarre, but someone did it.
In November 2004, Diane Duyser listed her 10-year-old sandwich for auction, claiming the Virgin Mary image appeared on it when she made it in 1994. She also said the sandwich had never developed mould. The unusual listing soon caught the internet's attention and eventually drew a winning bid of $28,000.
The listing first caught attention on November 15, 2004, when LAist wrote about the sandwich. From there, it drew millions of hits and caught the attention of an online casino.
'I saw this lady looking back at me'
Duyser, from Florida, said she spotted the image in autumn 1994, just as she was about to eat the sandwich. She took a bite and noticed what looked like a woman's face on the toasted bread.
{{/usCountry}}Duyser, from Florida, said she spotted the image in autumn 1994, just as she was about to eat the sandwich. She took a bite and noticed what looked like a woman's face on the toasted bread.
{{/usCountry}}"I went to take a bite out of it, and then I saw this lady looking back at me. I hollered for [my husband]. It scared me at first," she told reporters, according to the BBC.
She called her husband, Greg, and kept the sandwich. Duyser said she had done little to preserve it beyond placing it in a plastic box. Despite being a decade old, she claimed it had neither developed mould nor fallen apart.
She also believed the image was that of the Virgin Mary. "I would like all people to know that I do believe that this is the Virgin Mary Mother of God," she said in a statement released by the eventual buyer, CBS News reported.
Before putting it up for auction, Duyser made one thing clear to potential buyers: the sandwich was "not intended for consumption".
An online auction takes off
The listing began attracting attention soon after it appeared on eBay on November 15. LAist picked up the story that day, noting the seller's claim that the grilled cheese sandwich had remained free of mould for 10 years.
By the time bidding closed on Monday, the auction had received more than 1.7 million hits, the BBC reported. The winning bid was $28,000.
The buyer was GoldenPalace.com, an online casino that confirmed it had won the auction. CBS News reported that the company was prepared to spend "as much as it took" to own the half-sandwich, which had a bite taken out of one end.
"It's a part of pop culture that's immediately and widely recognizable," company spokesman Monty Kerr told The Miami Herald, according to CBS News. "We knew right away we wanted to have it."
However, there was a small hurdle before the sale. eBay initially pulled the listing, saying it did not allow joke items. It restored the page after being convinced that Duyser would deliver the sandwich to the winning bidder, CBS News reported.
World tour, Guinness World Record
GoldenPalace.com said it planned to take the sandwich on a world tour before selling it and donating the money to charity.
"We will definitely use the sandwich to raise money for charity, and we hope it will raise people's spirits as well," the casino's CEO, Richard Rowe, told the BBC.
The company also spoke of the sandwich's "mystical power", saying it wanted people to see the unusual item for themselves.
But why did Duyser keep the sandwich for so long? She said the sandwich had brought her luck, including casino winnings of $70,000 at a casino near her Florida home, the BBC reported.
The eBay listing also prompted others to cash in on the attention. Sellers put up replica burnt toast, T-shirts, ornamental plates and domain names. One even advertised a "Virgin Mary" sandwich toaster, with a disclaimer that it "may or may not reproduce the Virgin Mary image", the BBC reported.
The sandwich eventually found its way into the Guinness World Records. The organisation lists it as the most valuable piece of bread.