Buyers are chomping at the, um, bids for Britney Spears' used chewing gum on eBay. The market for her sticky spoils has been volatile, with prices stretching at one point to nearly $3 million.
Nearly two dozen listings for her used gum have popped up since the "original" auction appeared last month.
"This is an all-time low," says Spears spokeswoman Leslie Sloane Zelnik. "Anything is possible, I've come to realize, and I do think it's pathetic.
The original posting was chewed out by eBay for violating its "human body parts and remains" policy, which prohibits the sale of--you guessed it--human body parts, including bodily fluids, and temporarily pulled it from the site.
The auction had bragged: "For you budding scientists out there, this means Britney's DNA is all over this piece."
The seller, who claims Britney spit out the gum, dubbed Britney Spear-mint, in the Sanderson Hotel foyer in London last February, was allowed to remarket the item as a collectible and post again on eBay. Hani Dursey, spokesperson for the online auction site, said it wasn't the first violation of its kind. Earlier in the year, eBay pulled out the body-part card when a seller marketed Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's half-eaten cough drop under the heading "Schwarzenegger's DNA."
The claim for Britney's DNA hasn't been substantiated by any independent tests. In fact, the only testament to the authenticity of the gum is the seller's word.
"Well, you have my word if that means anything to you. Of all things, I would not put something on eBay that was not true. Not meaning to brag, but I have a high-profile job in a top bank and have no need to want to fraudulently make money," the U.K.-based seller says.
Dursey made it clear that eBay does not authenticate items on its site.
"We're just a marketplace, and because it's not us that's selling, there's no way to confirm the authenticity," Dursey explains.
eBay encourages buyers to do their own research. They allow buyers to ask sellers questions and provide a system to rate sellers based on their previous eBay sales.
"We try to make the marketplace as transparent as possible," says Dursey.
A few listings have been blatant hoaxes. Speed Harris from the U.K. was amused by the increasing number of postings all claiming to be real.
"I put one up there that is clearly a hoax that takes the mick out of the other ones," Harris says.
His listing claims he lifted the gum out of her mouth while "boofing" her. Not everyone, however, realizes it's a joke, because Harris has recorded quite a few people watching the item. Then there's an auction heading that reads, "Not Britney Spears Chewing Gum not to be missed," which goes on to explain, "Not famous yet, but I may be soon, so get in early." The bidding for this listing has reached $8.47.
Gum isn't Britney's only trash turned treasure. An empty water bottle, purportedly left behind on the beach in Santa Monica, as well as her cigarette butts, are also on the eBay block.
One piece of Britney junk not attracting much interest: a copy of A Mother's Gift, the book she cowrote with mother Lynne. As of Wednesday night, no one had anted up the 99-cent opening bid.
Currently, the highest price for Britney's detritus is $14,000 for gum left behind at a New York concert in 2002, and one of the most recent items is a chewy taken from the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards.
So, how long before the hoaxsters--or Britney--put "Kevin Federline" on the block? And would that really violate eBay's human-parts ban?