I don’t see any legal reasons why you can’t do this … just be sure to report all your income to the IRS. I can just see you listing your occupation as “Soul Collector” on your tax return! I guess you can write off your expenses incurred in your soul collection business – cost of storing all the souls, depreciating lost souls, marketing your soul proprietor business, etc. Hello Mr. IRS Auditor!
Supposing I sold you one of my toes, just the toe, while it was still attached. Now, in order to actually have the toe so to speak, you have to be able to remove it from my foot before I walk away with it, or come to claim it at some later date. In either case you need a nice sterile set up for minor ops or I won’t make the sale.
In just the same way I could sell you my soul but it’s up to you to detach it if you want to keep it. So how are you proposing to do that? I haven’t agree to be killed by the way, in case you were wondering.
Disclaimer: I do not in fact intend to sell any part of myself, whether body parts, intangibles or the whole shebang.
I seem to recall a local zine giving t-shirts in exchange for souls. I think they sold out all fifty of em’ I hpe you have more than $5000 if you have an on line store.
I, too, have done this: one night in high school, I went downtown and offered to buy souls in exchange for a shiny new quarter. I had maybe half a dozen takers. My hope was that one of the would convert to some hard-core religion later in life and freak out about having sold their soul.
I was a mean kid.
Daniel
Well, after a quick glance at the Texas Commercial Code (and believe me, my eyes started to glaze over after about 1.5 minutes) in that state at least there appears to be nothing that restricts the sale or purchase of souls, specifically. I’ll leave it to the OP to read the Code in detail, however. 
What might eventually become a sticking point is whether souls are indeed “goods” for transactional purposes:
I’m no laywer, obviously, but unless there is a specific agreement between the buyer and seller that souls are are “goods”, it appears that the purchaser would not have any legal recourse should the seller accept the money offered but renege on supplying the purchaser with the item contracted for purchase.
If the OP wants to proceed in buying souls all willy-nilly without necessarily protecting himself against possible fraud, that’s up to him, but he’d better be able to self-finance his planned business, because no prudent investor woul back such recklessness, IMO.
Well :rolleyes:
I don’t know :dubious:
maybe 
SATAN!! ;j
or maybe :eek:
GOD!!
If this catches on, there is likely to be a flurry of counterfeit souls offered on eBay. “Genuine Elvis soul with Certificate of Authenticity.” I take soul responsibility for this suggestion.
My email is in my profile. I’ll take cash or a personal check.
Haj
In your contract, be sure to include the standard loophole - If the seller proves he can play the fiddle better than the devil himself, he gets to keep the soul AND a solid-gold violin.
“Johnny rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard…”
Who the hell decided that the fiddle was the devil’s instrument?
The guitar’s long association with blues (aka “The Devil’s Music”) should establish it as the light carrier’s instrument of choice.
I would have to insist that the loophole hinge on a guitar duel – and there really was a guitar of gold.
PS: And my name is John(ny).
Mephistopheles has an exclusive prior right to the buying of souls.
If you are buying souls, he has already bought yours and all you bought!
How about if I incorporate my soul and sell shares? Think I can get it listed on NASDAQ? Wonder how much an IPO for dtilque’s Soul, Inc. would raise…
Oh, been there Done That travelled the Matrix… 
You’re looking for a factual answer, sorry I do not have one. I wonder if it is considered, in legal terms, to be a scam. Then again, you’re giving the money away, not taking it from the soul-owners. Hmmmm…
What you need is a good wholesaler. Buying souls retail is strictly a losing proposition. I can send you a truckload of souls for $10 a piece. Of course since they take up no physical space and have no mass I can get more than you can imagine in a box truck (or the glovebox of my Mini Cooper if the truth be told).
I also have a line of virginities that have been given to me over the years if you would care to expand your line of work. They can be bought quite inexpensively… some for as little as the price of a movie and a meal if I remember correctly! :eek:
But to get back to the OP…
I think there may be enforceability problems with the contract. It’s going to vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction because it’s going to fall into a very grey area, namely the outer limits of definitions of property and consideration. However, I don’t think that is going to make any practical difference as long as you get your soul upfront.
I suppose it’s conceivable that in some jurisdictions the law may state that persons who have participated in unenforceable transactions are entitled to an order that they be reimbursed. I think that your customers may find convincing a court to issue an order that you give their soul back somewhat problematic. But who knows.
I think it is conceivable that your business may, in some jurisdictions, fall foul of statutes against forms of religious chicanery, witchcraft etc. However, that would depend on precisely what is outlawed in any given jurisdiction.
Is outlawing and prosecuting the the practice of witchcraft actually (legally) possible? Wouldn’t it be protected by religious freedom considerations?
Note my location, Astro. I’m not really up on the fine points of US constitutional law. A quick google tends to suggest that you are probably correct, although possibly laws outlawing fraud involving religion might get you somehow. I really just don’t know, but was offering up a possibility.
But what if your customers want Certified Pre-Owned Souls? Will yours qualify? Not all do, you know.
What about if it isn’t souls, but some other intangible, unverifiable entity (such as a nonsensical one that I invent out of whole cloth)? Suppose I set up shop offering to buy (and/or sell) your Snoxuq?
Suppose I assert that Snoxuqs are like invisible deer antlers that protrude intangibly from the shoulders of all adult humans - I am willing to remove these inconvenient and superfluous items for a small fee, or, at your option (and for a small fee) install an extra pair in the location of your choice?
Fed up with your Snoxuqs? Pay me to remove them. Want a nice new pair of Snoxuqs? Pay me to install them. All work guaranteed.
In the US, there’s very little chance of a religious group or leader being prosecuted for fraud because one of the members decides that the religion isn’t working out for them. Even if the person could prove that the religion took them for substantial amounts of money, he’d need to show that individuals were embezzling or otherwise acting in a criminal manner to get a court to issue a remedy.
Officially, the US government is atheistic. Practically, it tries to stay well away from religion because of the debates that are always begun whenever it doesn’t. There are outright theocrats in some segments, but on the whole our government stays silent on the issue.