On Thursday, McDonald's rewarded Big Mac fans by giving away 10,000 bottles of its famous "special sauce." It didn't take long for enterprising collectors to hawk the limited edition bottles on eBay for hundreds of dollars, with some sellers seeking astronomical sums of money for their bottles of the iconic condiment.
From giveaway item to collector's item
The Daily Mail reports that, by Thursday evening, there were at least seven listings for the 11.4-ounce bottle of special sauce on the auction website eBay with a starting price of $10,000. One optimistic seller assigned a starting bid of $50,000 for the sauce, with a buy-it-now price of $100,000 -- approximately $8,771 per ounce.
Thursday's Special Sauce giveaway was designed to celebrate the introduction of the Mac Jr. and Grand Mac sandwiches, which are two variations of the venerable Big Mac in different sizes. The fast-food giant first rolled out the Big Mac nationwide in 1968 and it has been the restaurant's signature menu item ever since.
History of the Big Mac
The Big Mac was invented by Jim Delligatti, a McDonald's franchisee who operated several restaurants in the Pittsburgh area. It first appeared on the menu of his Uniontown location in 1967. Interestingly, the sandwich had two previous names before it became the Big Mac. Delligatti originally christened his creation "The Aristocrat" but that name was considered too high-class for a fast food item, so it was ne-named the "Blue Ribbon Burger." The name that finally stuck, however, was created by a 21-year-old secretary at corporate headquarters named Esther Glickstein Rose.
Sellers hope to see big returns from their limited edition bottles of the famous condiment, even though McDonald's recently disclosed the "secret recipe" of Big Mac sauce and released a video showing fans how to make it at home. The special sauce, according to McDonald's Canada, is a combination of mayonnaise, yellow mustard, sweet relish, white wine vinegar, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika.
