A man who attempted to sell Barack Obama's half-eaten breakfast on eBay has sparked a gold rush on the site, with opportunistic sellers now auctioning off commemorative paintings and badges.
The auction of Obama's leftover waffle and sausage was pulled from eBay, which prohibits the sale of unpreserved food, but not before it reached $US20,100 ($21,181) and spawned waffle-inspired paraphernalia.
Badges and even an oil painting depicting the leftovers, complete with plate and cutlery, are now for sale on the site. The painting had this morning attracted eight bids and was selling for $US10.75.
"The recent Ebay auction of Barack Obama's Waffle may be no more, but it lives on here as a miniature oil painting," the item description reads.
"Created from the actual recent photo of Mr. Obama's half-eaten breakfast, this one-of-a-kind piece of art is not a reproduction but an artistic interpretation of the original. I call it 'Memories of Barack Obama's Breakfast'."
eBay Australia spokesman Daniel Feiler said perishable food items were only allowed to be sold if they were preserved or vacuum sealed.
He said Britney Spears' half-eaten sandwiches and chewing gum had been sold on the site previously, as had various food items that had been inadvertently moulded into bizarre or recognisable shapes.
"The famous Virgin Mary cheese sandwich was actually a preserved sandwich; they vacuum packed it," Feiler said.
"There was a Nutri-Grain that sold in Australia a few years ago that looked like ET - and I think it sold for $3000."
The Obama breakfast, which he ate at the Glider Diner in Scranton, Pennsylvania this week, was snagged by a loyal customer of the diner, John Oakes.
Oakes said the money raised from the sale would "go to Hillary [Clinton] for President!!!! Haha".
Oakes told the Scranton Times-Tribune that the auction wasn't removed by eBay. Instead, he took the auction down at the request of the diner's owner, Charles LeStrange, who had been blasted with negative calls.
"We put it up there because we figured people are nuts and they might go crazy with it. And guess what? They did," Oakes said.
The day after his Scranton diner visit, Obama had pancakes in Pittsburgh and this time didn't leave a scrap of food on his plate, the Los Angeles Times reported.
In March, eBay removed auction listings purporting to sell corn flakes in the shape of US states.
Two sisters from Virginia, who were selling a cornflake shaped like Illinois, got around eBay's food policy by relisting the flake as an auction for a "redeemable coupon" rather than the cereal itself. The flake eventually sold for $US1350.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/obama-waffle-mania-on-the-web/2008/04/23/1208742998374.html
HE'S BI!!!!!!!
