For skeptics, the idea of a haunted doll only survives in the movies. For paranormal fanatics, it’s a very real situation that you can easily buy yourself into.
Haunted dolls are all over eBay and Etsy. Weirdly enough, there’s a huge market for them. The sellers will write out descriptions of the doll’s life and the activity that’s attached to it. Then, buyers who are attracted to the story will purchase the doll for whatever reason.
Some are haunted doll collectors, others are interested in seeing if the doll is truly possessed by a spirit. Some dolls can even sell for thousands of dollars.
Weirdly enough, selling “souls” is against eBay’s policy:
“eBay does not allow the auctioning of human souls for the following reasons: If the soul does not exist, eBay could not allow the auctioning of the soul because there would be nothing to sell. However, if the soul does exist then, in accordance with eBay’s policy on human parts and remains, we would not allow the auctioning of human souls.”
So, in order to get around that policy, almost all haunted doll sales are labeled as “entertainment purposes” or “sold as is.”
Obviously, these aren’t dolls like the notorious Annabelle or Chucky. They are allegedly real, human spirits that attached to the doll just like a spirit would attach to a home.
So, how do these sellers know that the dolls are haunted? Well, it depends on the doll. Sometimes, the seller will post the doll for sale due to less-than-ideal experiences with it.
Other times, sellers will go out looking for the doll. Then, when they find an allegedly haunted doll, they will perform a bunch of different tests to see if there is truly a spirit attached to the doll.
They’ll record it’s EMF levels, record it using a voice-activated recorder, and even keep a camera on it to see if it’s moving around or not.
Of course, there are dolls online that have a false claim of being haunted. And many sellers who consider themselves legitimate try and warn potential buyers of scams. It could really be an easy fifty bucks.
Many people have had bad experiences with haunted dolls… It’s not something that everyone can get into and have a decently positive experience. These dolls could also bring a lot of residual energy, and that might not always be a good thing.