One of the weirdest corporate tie-ins of all time has resulted in a bottle of McDonald’s Szechuan sauce picking up a bid of $15,350 on eBay.

The sauce was only available for a limited period during a promotion for 1998 Disney movie Mulan.

This is one of four bottles of McDonald's Szechuan sauce in existence 

That should probably have been the end of the story.

But on April 1 2017, the third season of cult adult cartoon Rick & Morty unexpectedly premiered on Adult Swim.

The episode closed with an extended, improvised rant from the show’s co-creator Justin Roiland as alcoholic mad scientist Rick Sanchez: “I’m driven by finding that McNugget Sauce.

“I want that Mulan McNugget Sauce Morty. That’s my series arc Morty!

“If it takes 9 seasons, I want my McNugget dipping sauce Szechuan sauce Morty!”

Fans of the show, many of who - it should be pointed out - were far too young to remember the sauce the first time round, became obsessed with trying the sauce for themselves.

Recognising the opportunity for some free publicity, McDonald's created four bottles of the sauce. One was given to Roiland, while the others went out to fans on Twitter.

One of those fans put their bottle up for auction on eBay, where it pulled in the huge sum.

However, that sale appeared to fall through.

As a result the bottle went to the second highest bidder, superstar DJ deadmau5, who was reportedly getting married as the sale ended.

There’s no word on the price deadmau5 paid, but it’s described as a substantial sum.

This isn’t the first time a McDonald's sauce has sold for a huge amount of money. A tube of Big Mac sauce realised $18,000 in a 2014 charity sale.

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