Ghost for Sale

You can buy just about anything on Craigslist these days. Apparently, that includes ghosts. This article tells the story of a man named Dan who came across someone selling a wooden chest that was supposedly haunted by a ghost for $300. From the picture, shown above, the chest itself is pretty unimpressive, so it's not much of a stretch to think that the seller came up with the "haunted" angle so that he could make a quick buck. It seems Dan had the same idea, and proceeded to ask the seller a list of tongue-in-cheek questions about the ghost.

The story of the Craigslist ghost first appeared over at Barstool Sports. According to a guy named Dan, he stumbled across someone selling the spectral being for $300. This included the aforementioned wooden container, which the ghost apparently called home. Check out the listing’s description below.

“I have a male Ghost for sale. He came into my house when I purchased a old wooden chest. He is attached to the Chest. The chest comes along with the Ghost. He is attached to it. What ever room I put the chest in, he hangings around it. If I try to hide the Chest, he searches for it and even gets mad if he can’t find it for awhile. You get the chest and the Ghost for $300.00.”

After emailing the seller some questions — including if the ghost was a Green Bay Packers fan — Dan began a curious conversation with the seller. Unfortunately, the price of the ghost jumped from $300 to around $1,000, much to the would-be owner’s dismay. Here’s what the ghost’s handler had to say about the entity in question.

“Hi there. I cant answer any of your questions, and if you showed up with $1000. I would not and could not sell to you. This is serious. I p**sed it off once and it hurt me. I have pics. I have also played around with it and had a little fun. I have a video of that. If I try to send it off with just anyone, it will hurt me. I am not a quack and this is real.”

Unfortunately, according to the seller, the Craigslist ghost ended up going to another individual.

So did the seller believe his own bullshit? Or was he just unwilling to sell to an obvious skeptic? I have to admit, if I were selling any sort of paranormal item I would be wary about selling it to anybody from the capital-S skeptic crowd. Given their past behavior, they might buy it and then turn around and file a criminal complaint against me for fraud when whatever carefully-rigged test they run fails. That's way too much hassle to go through for a mere $300, and of course if the whole thing is in fact a scam it's the last thing the seller would want.

I suppose the seller could be sincere, and I suppose it's possible that a spirit could be linked to the chest. Still, from the exchange it sounds to me like the seller was looking to sell it to someone gullible rather than an individual with actual critical thinking skills.