Haunted dolls sold on eBay
An online trade in dolls that sellers say are haunted, found on eBay and similar sites and reported by VICE and NPR in 2015.
In 2015 Jak Hutchcraft, writing for VICE, described coming across a trade in haunted dolls in the Everything Else section of eBay. One listing called its doll possessed and said only experienced adult collectors should buy it. NPR's Weekend Edition, picking up his story, said 10 people bid and the price kept rising. The doll went for a little over £1,000.
Katherine Carlson, writing in The New Yorker in 2017, said sellers write their listings in a sincere, confident tone and often borrow ghost-hunting terms like E.M.F. and E.V.P. Most of the dolls she saw fit one of three types: babies, Victorian ladies and clowns. In her view a haunted doll needs a backstory good enough for a buyer to accept that the haunting might be real.
Wikipedia links the trade to the popularity of films about haunted dolls and names Amazon and Etsy among the other sites where such dolls are sold. eBay had already moved against the supernatural in 2012, when, NPR reported, it banned psychics, spellcasters, tarot readers and other sellers of supernatural goods and services.
"The popularity of films and entertainment about haunted dolls has resulted in the sale of dolls claimed to be haunted on eBay, Amazon, Etsy and many other sites. According to Katherine Carlson of The New Yorker, sales listings are often accompanied by claims of paranormal phenomena associated with the doll.[2] Carlson wrote that such dolls bring with them a certain fascination that a regular doll does not, since "a haunted doll requires proof — or at least enough of a backstory that a prospective buyer can embrace the possibility of the supernatural".[2]"
- On eBay, a Fantastical, Earnest World of Haunted Dolls, Katherine Carlson, The New Yorker (2017)
- These People Spend Thousands of Dollars Buying 'Haunted Dolls' from eBay, Jak Hutchcraft, VICE (2015)
- Haunted Dolls Are A Thing, And They're Not Cheap, Either, NPR Weekend Edition (2015)
- EBay Bans Supernatural Goods And Services, Mandalit del Barco, NPR All Things Considered (2012)