Burned

A few of the 8,000 torches used in the Olympic relay from Athens to London are up on eBay already, selling for a couple of thousand dollars each.

Two women who tried to unload theirs in May, however, got Olympic-scale burned.

Sarah Milner Simonds, a community gardener from Somerset, and Sophia Cowburn of Cornwall both put their enduring symbols of the 2012 Games up for auction for about $250,000 each. Both winning bids turned out to be fake, but not before the women were scorched with hate email for trying to cash in on the Games.

Each had said the money would go toward charity.

Two other 2012 torches are still on eBay in the U.K. for a more modest $4,000 or so, with bids. A range of pins, mini-torches by toymaker Hornby and clothing worn by the handpicked volunteer torch relay runners are also up for auction.

Sarah and Sophia might want to reflect that timing is everything. A dozen or more of the sleek white torches used in the relay before the Vancouver Games are going on eBay for a few hundred dollars each.