haunted dolls.

[Odin]

Theres so much stuff like this on Ebay that it seems if you want to boost the price of an object, you claim its haunted or give it supernatural powers. However I don't think everyone is out to make money. A common haunted item is dolls. (http://search.ebay.com/doll-haunted_W0QQsofocusZbsQQsbrftogZ1QQfromZR10QQsacat Z-1QQcatrefZC6QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQsadisZ200QQfposZQ5AI PQ2FPostalQQfsopZ1QQfsooZ1QQcoactionZcompareQQcopa genumZ1QQcoentrypageZsearch) Most of them are quite cheap as well. I find dolls creepy anyway, the more life like, the creepier and I don't think I'm alone in feeling this. So it appears that the objects that are haunted are the ones you would expect to be. My theory is that people have bad things occur so look for something to blame, they tend to pick on the most stereotypical item for being cursed that fits in the time frame and then try and get rid of it by selling it (transfering the curse, rather than destroying the item, which could leave the curse with them).

[FramerDave]

Woo! Orby goodness included at no extra cost! I think that lady just needs a good dose of rality, along with a good air filter for her AC system.

[FramerDave]

err....reality, even

[thaiboxerken]

I think it's a bunch of crap. Who made up this "selling transfers curse" rule in the first place? The guy that wants to make money from selling, that's who.

[Pyrts]

I actually did (lunatic that I am) some research on this, and they're a form of "absurdist auction." (I made up the term for the paper, so don't go thinking it's official.) It's a strictly English language phenomina, and it seems to have its roots in several things:

* greed. If one haunted object got lots of money, then the me-tooers leap in to do the same thing. There's been lots of "haunted items."
* curiosity (will it work)
* desire to hoax (doesn't matter what the auction fetches, someone just wants to see if they can fool people.)
* attention (generally the stupider of the absurdist auctions)
* protest (tired of seeing stupid things go for auction.)

I did survey some foreign students about whether people from their cultures would be tempted to buy such things, and they all agreed that it was nonsense and they wouldn't buy something that had no value.

Got some intriguing extremes of reaction, though.