Try, Try Again: Arkansas Mom Tries to Sell Baby Naming Rights for a Fifth Time

An unemployed Arkansas woman trying to sell the naming rights to her seventh child on eBay is hoping her fifth try is a charm.

Lavonne Drummond, 36, says the bidding hit $26,100 before eBay removed her most recent auction, her fourth, on Monday. That's considerably more than the $15,000 she says she lost when eBay shut down her first auction because the company ruled the mother of six was soliciting donations.

She got no bids on her second auction, which eBay took down quickly due to a myriad of reasons.

And her third unsuccessful auction, posted on Aug. 10, garnered a top bid of $510.99, she said, but that, too, was shut down because an actual "item" was not offered for sale.

But Drummond, of Smackover, Ark., is very persistent — not to mention broke and hoping to pay her bills. She posted the auction yet again, and this time, she said, representatives of eBay "said they pulled it down in error. They just apologized and told me they can't help me in any way. They just told me to re-list the auction."

"I'm just so stressed, I don't sleep, I don't eat," she said. "It's emotionally taking its toll. It's just terrible."

Representatives for eBay said the company collaborated with Drummond last week to develop a listing that met its policies.

"The revised listing was removed due to an internal communications oversight," the company said in a statement to FOXNews.com.

But Drummond, who is due to give birth on Sept. 16, says that won't bring back the $41,610.99 she "lost" in her first four auction attempts combined.

"I personally don't think it was a mistake," she said. "I think it was done on purpose. Maybe it was too much controversy."

Greg Kusch, who runs ebayexpert.com and teaches seminars on how to sell items on the online marketplace, said that's exactly what eBay was protecting itself from.

"They just protect themselves in any way possible when it comes to winning something of chance or a non-tangible type item," Kusch told FOXNews.com. "I'm sure they could pick four or five different policies that would stop that auction and bring it down."

A large part of the problem, Kusch said, is that once the auction is over, the winning bid must be paid to Drummond, despite the fact that her son will not have been born yet.

"There's so many possibilities that something could go wrong," he said. "When you win an auction, you have to pay. So that money would immediately go to her even if the baby is not born. What happens is the baby is not born?"

Kusch said such non-tangible items are frequently barred from eBay.

Drummond's first three auctions were removed for several reasons, including eBay's policy of prohibiting sales that promote "giveaways, lotteries, sweepstakes, random drawing, raffles, contests or prizes." Other reasons include soliciting donations.

Drummond, meanwhile, is apprehensive about her fifth — and, she says, final — auction try, but she desperately needs money to buy her family a new car and to pay past-due bills. Bids start at $150; there had been no bidders as of Tuesday afternoon.

"I am going to try one more time, but it's so overwhelming," Drummond said through tears. "To start all over again …"