The sanctity of the Olympic torch - carried by celebs including David Beckham - doesn't seem to have any bearing whatsoever on the British public with many running with it selling their unique versions on eBay for vastly extorted sums of money. Fair play to them, there is a recession going on after all. Not to be outdone though, the London Olympics' own organisers are now having an auction of their own.
Yahoo reports that the organisers are putting up the torch that footballer Beckham used to light the celebratory cauldron that kicked off the London Olympics flame journey. Unlike Joe Public, the organisers aren't doing their business on eBay, but instead running an auction of their own, for which bidding closes on July 4th 2012.
8000 people are taking part in the 8000 mile run around the UK with the Olympic flame, although questions about how sacred many are viewing it have been raised with 11 people returning their torches after running their leg and many more selling them. People can buy their torches outright, but have been able to make much more back on them. As such the auction of Beckham's torch will offset some of the costs. London chairman Sebastian Coe commented "My instinct on this is we've done lots of things with this torch which have been different. I think we've engaged with communities in an extraordinary way. Some of the things come with a cost. We are, where we possibly can, trying to cover our costs."