In case you were interested in purchasing the Virgin Mary’s miraculous appearance in what most Americans consider mall food or a sports event snack–a giant soft pretzel–you are out of luck.
Four radio hosts at a popular station in Oregon had posted the “likeness” and got the bidding going last Wednesday, February 20. Apparently, there are a lot of people out there hungry (ha!) for a Virgin Mary pretzel likeness, since the bidding soon became out of control. Elissa Harrington reports, “Drew Tydeman, one of the pretzel sellers and a radio host at KFLY FM described what is like watching the bids pour in: ‘It was at four thousand, six thousand, a hundred thousand and by 6 pm last night it was at two million dollars.'”

At the height of the frenzy, bidding reached 99 million dollars. (Really!) Then eBay pulled the plug (much to the dismay of the radio hosts), saying the sellers “had violated a food rule because it was not listed as perishable.”
Needless to say, this is not the first time folks have seen religious visions in various confections (Check out the “NunBun” and the “Pope Tart” among others here.) Gotta love the kitsch!