Boston Race Items Already Up For Sale On eBay

Boston race items are already showing up for sale on eBay as some sellers look to cash in on the tragedy and others aim to raise money in support of the victims.

Within hours of the blasts at the Boston Marathon that left three people dead and more than 170 injured, several race items were up for sale on eBay, including medals, jackets, keychains, and other mementos.

Some of the auctions of marathon items were getting pretty pricy. The Boston Globe found on Wednesday that there were five active auctions for 2013 Boston Marathon medals at eBay, ranging between $114 and $300 each. One had already sold for more than $400.

The auctions weren’t going over too well with the company that makes the medals.

“It’s just disgusting,” said Dan Ashworth, the president of the medal-making company. “Everyone was evacuated so the medals were probably just left there for anyone to take.”

It was unclear if greed was the main motivation for the Boston race items up for sale. Several of the listings noted that proceeds were going to relief charities.

Several others have joined in raising money for those affected by the Boston Marathon bombing. Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand auctioned off his personal suite for the team’s first playoff game with all proceeds going to victims of the blast.

But for all the altruistic sales, there are have been some questionable actions as well. A video from shortly after the blast appeared to show a group of people looting marathon items including jackets, but it isn’t clear if they had permission to take them.

It’s also difficult to determine the scams from normal sales. Time magazine found that one of the Boston race items up for sale is a special bottle opener created by Samuel Adams in honor of the marathon, the type of memento normally seen for sale on the site. After starting at $9.99, bids for the bottle openers quickly jumped to $70.