Faith can be lucrative. Or maybe there really are miraculous 10-year-old cheese sandwiches that never develop mold.
http://www.nbc6.net/news/3942344/detail.html
Winning Bid For Virgin Mary Cheese Sandwich Is $28,000
Online Casino Buys 10-Year-Old Sandwich
POSTED: 9:47 am EST November 23, 2004
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Looks like Diana Duyser's going to get some really nice bread for her eBay item -- $28,000 for a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich half that she believes bears the image of the Virgin Mary.
Images: Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese?
Photos posted on eBay show what can be viewed as a woman's face emblazoned on the triangular half-sandwich, a bite taken out of one end.
GoldenPalace.com executives said they were willing to spend "as much as it took" to own the 10-year-old half sandwich with a bite out of it.
"It's a part of pop culture that's immediately and widely recognizable," spokesman Monty Kerr told the newspaper in a story posted on the Herald's Web site. "We knew right away we wanted to have it."
In a statement, GoldenPalace.com CEO Richard Rowe said he planned on using the sandwich to raise money for charity "and we hope it will raise people's spirits as well."
The new owners of the sandwich didn't want to risk it getting lost in the mail, so Kerr and Steve Baker, CEO of GoldenPalace's management company, Cyberworld Group, flew to South Florida on Monday to meet Duyser and make arrangements for a sandwich handover.
"I would like all people to know that I do believe that this is the Virgin Mary Mother of God," Duyser, a work-from-home jewelry designer, said in the casino's statement.
Duyser, 52, had the sandwich up for bids more than 10 days ago before eBay pulled the item on Nov. 14, saying it didn't post joke items.
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Woman Puts Sandwich On EBayThe page was restored on the eBay Web site on Nov. 15 after the company was convinced that Duyser would deliver on the bid, said eBay spokesman Hani Durzy.
Duyser has received national publicity for the half-sandwich, which received more than 1.6 million first-time visitors since the new posting. She set up a pre-approval process for bids after receiving some outlandish offers were determined not to be legitimate, Durzy said.
Durzy said the novelty has "captured the imagination and the fancy of society."
"We've sort of followed the listing of this with kind of amusement over here. It's fun to watch," Durzy said from San Jose, Calif.
Duyser thought eBay would be the best place to show off the sandwich, made on plain white bread with American cheese, no butter. She said she took a bite after making it 10 years ago and saw a face staring back at her.
Duyser put the sandwich in a clear plastic box with cotton balls and kept it on her nightstand. She said the sandwich has never sprouted a spore of mold.