A Chicago man with an apparent appetite for barbeque sauce and an overwhelming appreciation for Michael Jordan spent $9,995 on eBay for a gallon of BBQ sauce intended for use on McDonald’s McJordan sandwich in 1992.
The seller was surprised, to say the least.
“I’ve got quite a bit of McDonald’s memorabilia,” said Mort Bank, a former McDonald’s owner-operator in North Dakota. “This was on my shelf, and my daughter who helps me with eBay said, ‘I wonder what something like this would be worth?’
“I said, ‘I can’t imagine anyone else saved it.’ It only could have been another owner-operator. We decided to see what we could get . . . I said I can remember a chicken nugget someone said looked like Jesus that sold on eBay for what, $6,000? You have to use your imagination to to even think it looks like that. This is an actual product.”
The sandwich was named after Michael Jordan during the Bulls’ run of championships, and Bank said the regional McJordan promotion was the first time McDonald’s named a sandwich after a person. Its limited production made the sauce a rare item.
Bank would not disclose any information about the buyer other than he’s a male from Chicago.
“I assume he’s a Bulls fan,” Bank said.
Bank, 65, also is a big NBA fan and former Minnesota Timberwolvesseason-ticket holder.
“I’m a Laker fan (from their days as the Minneapolis Lakers),” he said. “But I loved watching Michael Jordan and consider him one of the greatest ever.
“If the Lakers weren’t in the Finals, I’d cheer for the Bulls.”
Bank originally had the item up for auction on eBay several months ago, but no bid ever met the minimum price of $10,000. So Bank, who was getting offers for approximately $1,000, said he had to renew it every five days at a cost. He decided to apply a “buy it now” option at $10,000.
“All of a sudden a news story broke, not sure how, but all of a sudden my daughter called and said we were getting all kinds of offers and questions about it,” Bank said. “It started spreading on the Internet. People paid attention and started making offers.”
Once the offer for $9,995.00 came in, Bank decided to sell.
“If I had known it was going to be red hot on the Internet, I might have done it differently, but $10,000 for barbecue sauce is pretty good,” Bank said.
Bank said he sold his seven McDonald’s restaurants and started his own themed restaurant chain called Space Aliens with four in North Dakota and two in Minnesota.
