People actually bid on this stuff. Hm, I wonder what the atheist's soul
went for.
---
Jan. 15, 2005. 01:00 AM
Haunted objects lastest fad on eBay
GINA PICCALO
LOS ANGELES TIMES
EBay's auction list is now the stuff of legend a human kidney, a moist
towelette from the 1970s, an atheist's soul, Justin Timberlake's
half-eaten French toast, even "absolutely nothing," which sold for $1.03.
Now it appears eBay sellers have moved on to a new marketing strategy
the paranormal. Everything "haunted" is so hot, eBay could launch a new
category. Last month, Mary Anderson of Hobart, Ind., sold her father's
haunted walking cane for $65,000 to GoldenPalace .com, the
publicity-hungry online gambling site that in November paid $28,000 for
a grilled cheese sandwich that featured the image of the Virgin Mary.
Last July, a Missouri college student inspired 140,000 hits and interest
from five authors, a screenwriter and a documentary crew after listing a
wooden cabinet haunted by a spirit in Jewish folklore known as a dybbuk.
The box sold for $280 to a university museum curator.
Now dozens of eBay sellers are looking to cash in on the spirit world.
According to a recent week's listings, restless souls were inhabiting a
wedding dress, a football jersey, an adding machine, a candy dish, even
a potato chip and a pair of roller skates. EBay has no problem with
these sales as long as the seller is offering something tangible. "It's
really up to the buyers whether they believe it's haunted or not," eBay
spokesperson Hani Durzy says.
Clearly, these sellers know their audience, folks who crave the
adrenalin rush of a good scare or maybe skeptics who want to test fate.
These listings are rich, vivid and earnest. The seller is typically at
wit's end. The haunted object, albeit rare and valuable, has made life a
living hell.
Sometimes there's a creepy story from childhood explaining how the
object was owned by a witch, dead relative, Civil War soldier or insane
person. . Often, the object was acquired at an estate sale or a murder
scene. Occasionally, ex-husbands and ex-boyfriends are somehow to blame.
The item itself is independently mobile with wandering eyes, the ability
to talk or infuse its owner with "strange feelings."
And so, these weary folks turn to their last resort: eBay, where $1,000
is spent every second.
Dolls are the most popular ghost vessels. There's a crying doll from
Massapequa Park, N.Y. A doll from Red Bluff, Calif., that roams the
house, once popping up in the refrigerator.
The Virgin Mary is indiscriminately possessing food. Topping November's
grilled-cheese-sandwich manifestation, she has now appeared with the
baby Jesus in a Lay's Smokey Bacon Chip in Geraldton, Ont.
"I'm really, really freaked out right now about this, especially after
the Tsunami Tragedy after Christmas," the seller writes. "I am beginning
to think that the creaking in the kitchen may have been a warning."
---
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Ar
ticle_Type1&c=Article&cid=1105570211083&call_pageid=970599119419
--
John Hachmann aa #1782
Intelligent Design has as much to do with science as reality
television has to do with reality. - Barry Lynn on CNN 12/25/04
.
|
