I did a search on “ghost” and “eBay,” so forgive me if someone’s already started a thread on this:
HOBART, Ind. (AP) – A woman’s effort to assuage her 6-year-old son’s fears of his grandfather’s ghost by selling it on eBay has drawn more than 34 bids with a top offer of $78. Mary Anderson said she placed her father’s “ghost” on the online auction site after her son, Collin, said he was afraid the ghost would return someday. Anderson said Collin has avoided going anywhere in the house alone since his grandfather died last year. “I always thought it was just normal kid fears until a few months ago he told me why he was so scared. He told me ‘Grandpa died here, and he was mean. His ghost is still around here!’” Anderson makes one special request of the winner bidder: “I would like to ask you to write a letter after you’ve received the cane (and the ghost) to my son letting him know that he’s there with you and you’re getting along great.”
—Nice way to deal with your son’s fears, lady. That kid is not going to grow up to be a Doper.
I can’t believe that someone is willing to pay $78 for the privilege of writing that letter.
Although I am tempted to buy it.
Then I would write a letter addressed to the little boy saying how the ghost was with me and how the ghost was terrorizing me and everyone in the house untill I got a witchdoctor to evict the ghost. The last thing the ghost said was that he was coming to get the boy and his mom for selling him.
That’s so dishonest! I wouldn’t stoop to her level.
Instead, I’d start sending threatening messages to them, saying how I’d paid for the ghost but they never sent it to me, and how the lady was probably just lying to the kid about sending the ghost off, how she was probably keeping it hidden under his bed waiting for the perfect moment to leap out and EAT HIS SOUL, and if she didn’t want the law after her, she’d better send me the ghost.
[Jackie Kennedy White House Tour voice] “And here we have the ghost of C.M. Anderson. It was donated by Mrs. Mary Anderson of Hobart, Indiana. We decided to keep it just as it was.” [/Jackie Kennedy White House Tour voice]
Here is the full text of the article excerpted in the OP. As it turns out, the kid gets $400 to spend, as bidding has now ended. Y’know, if this were a sitcom, it would turn out that the boy was never really scared, but just figured out a sure-fire way to score some fast cash… :rolleyes:
I’m surprised eBay allowed this auction to go on. Isn’t there a rule about not being allowed to sell things you don’t own? Unless they’ve got some authorized psychics certified by the best Internet diploma mills who can verify the transfer went through, this is a voidable auction.
I also think it would be funny if the letter writer told the kid that he threw the cane (which I suppose houses the soul) into the fiery pits of Hell, thereby damning his grandfather to spend the rest of his days in eternal damnation. If you want to be really thorough, take a day trip to Mount St. Helens and stage it, taking a video the mom can play for the kid. Or the buyer can tell the kid that he ate the ghost, and include a picture of the cane covered in A-1 sauce.
Yeah, I saw these parents on the Today Show this morning. Yep, that’s a great way to deal with your kids fears and let him go on believing that his grandpa was an awful person.
What are the chances that someone made a huge bid without any intention of paying it? Is there really any way to enforce that? But if someone really paid that much for the “ghost” they need their head examined more than the kid does.
Nope. eBay’s reasoning is that if the soul is not tangible (you can’t see or feel it, etc), then you can’t auction it because you have to be able to produce a tangible product or service. If the soul is a part of the body, you can’t auction it because you can’t auction body parts.
I’m tempted to Photoshop some random picture to make it look spooky and market the thing on Ebay. “Look! A real live photo of a ghost! Who’ll bid me for it?”
According to this article, the buyer was an online casino for an Americana collection.
SirDirx: The article notes that the publicity over the cane spawned copycats, including (I swear the article mentions this) a haunted thong. So no surprise that there’s more than one.
And as a followup to klintypooh, the article notes that the reason eBay let the auction go on was that it was for a tangible, physical thing (the cane), and it was made clear in the auction that it was NOT intended to actually sell a ghost.
As for those wondering about this mother’s methods in easing her son’s fears, I theorize that the family is devoutly religious, and saying “there are no such things as ghosts” would conflict with their spiritual teachings.
