TOKENS OF TAR: As tar balls disappear from Destin beaches they find their way on to eBay (PHOTOS)

The tar balls are gone from Destin beaches and they are going, going, gone on the largest online auction site.

Aside from their disgusting and toxic nature, the black globs have also become artifacts of history — at least to some.

A recent eBay search yielded two different tar balls for sale. One of them was pretty hefty. At 6 by 8 inches, the remnant of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was plucked fresh off the sand in Gulf Shores, Ala., and was going for $2. At the time it had zero bids.

The other one however, had sparked some interest. The tiny chunk of tar was packed in a jar with sugar white sand and a seashell. It came capped with a BP logo and a tiny tag that reads, “Compliments of BP, from Pensacola Beach FL, July 2010.”

It yielded three bids and sold for $15.50, not including the $8 in shipping costs.

Previous auctions saw three tar balls selling for $3.50 each to a single bidder. One lucky seller struck black gold with a final sale price of $11.

Though the worth of these tar tokens is still being tested online, vacationers in Destin had mixed feelings whether or not a tar ball had any value — sentimental or otherwise.

Wanda Korytoski, who is on vacation here in Destin from Columbus, Ga., told the Log that while she was in Panama City beach a few days before, she saw a tiny one and considered picking it up for the sake of science.

“I wanted to bring it back for my grandson Owen. He’s in kindergarten, and I thought he could show it to his class,” Korytoski said. “I figured it could be educational, to get the science behind it.”

Korytoski left it there and called it “a fleeting moment.” Since she’s been in Destin she hasn’t seen any signs of oil, but she won’t let the moment pass her by again.

“If I see another one, I think I’ll grab it,” she said.

She laughed at the silliness of it all, and mentioned she and her husband James were going to vacation here regardless of oil.

“We heard Obama went swimming; the water is fine,” she said.

Denise Osenni, who was hanging out on the beach behind the Back Porch recently, said she also would probably take a tar ball home.

“If anything, I would put a picture of it on my Facebook,” she said.

Happy to not have any run-ins with oil on their vacation, Osenni and her family continued to joke back and forth about bringing home tar balls and displaying it on their mantels back home.

But so far no tar balls have been spotted to decorate their fireplaces. Denise said she was “pleasantly surprised” when they first arrived Saturday to see the beaches still so pristine.

Joe D’Agostino, head of beach safety patrol here in Destin, said though he hasn’t seen a tar ball appear on the beaches for at least 30 days, he has seen tourists picking them up over the summer. He said he and his team try their best to remind people it is a hazardous material, but they can’t watch everyone on the sand when they’re really focusing on the people in the water.

While most medical experts say that limited contact with tar balls isn’t something to worry about, beachgoers are still advised not to touch what is clearly considered toxic.

 “I haven’t seen anyone drop dead from picking them up,” D’Agostino joked. But in all seriousness, “We try to let people know that the clean up crews are wearing gloves.”

Some beachgoers like Andrew Colman from Houston, Texas, said he would never take a tar ball home. But Colman wouldn’t rule out throwing one at his brother — provided it didn’t look “too gooey.”

“That’s disgusting,” his sister Karen McCallum said.