McDonald's Says $100,000 Big Mac Sauce Bid Was a Hoax

Prepare to have your faith in humanity restored, at least a tiny bit: No one really coughed up £65,900 ($100,000) for a bottle of McDonald's Big Mac sauce. The high bidder of the recent charity auction on eBay UK was in fact just pulling the chain's leg, reports The Independent.

That bid, had it been authentic, would have made the iconic burger sauce — a 740mL bottle that also comes with a sauce gun like McDonald's uses in their restaurants and a voucher for one free burger — literally more valuable than gold. But while McDonald's now says the high bid was a hoax, they're still hoping one of the runner-up bidders will cough up the cash to snag the sauce; more than 40 other bids were placed in excess of £50,000. Proceeds from the sale are intended to go to Ronald McDonald House Charities, which provides free housing to families with children in the hospital.

Believe it or not, there's an established history of people paying crazy prices for the "secret" sauce (which is really just a strangely orange mixture of mayo, mustard, and relish): Last year McDonald's Australia auctioned off a bottle for nearly $15,000.