The Ebay Haunted Mirror

Joseph Birch, age 20, and Sotiris Charalambous claim to have found an antique  mirror which is said to be haunted by an evil spirit. According to a daily mail article which covered this story, Joseph and his flat mate would wake up in the middle of the night with stabbing pains and “covered in scratch marks”.

This story is relatively spine chilling, despite the fact that it is probably false and a clever marketing strategy designed to attract anyone interested in parapsychology and the supernatural world.

It is in human nature to be curious or even obsess about the supernatural world and what lies beyond death, as the prospect of a dead stop at the end of life goes against the humans struggle to find immortality.

This obsession is easy to take advantage of, clearly, as the bidding price on ebay for this ‘antique’, (a broken mirror found at the back of a skip), started at £100, with a warning attached “whoever buys it deserves to know”.

This story reminded me of the famous “haunted Ebay” painting, by Bill Stoneham, entitled “The Hands Resist Him”. This was a fairly ugly and creepy piece of work, featuring a little boy standing in front of a window where we can see hands pressed against the glass from the darkness.

The rumour behind this painting was that the boy would leave it at night, fleeing from the horror film-like doll which seems to be pointing a gun at him.

This painting, pictured on the left, was sold on Ebay for $1,025, and never heard of again. This clearly demonstrates my point that it probably was a clever marketing strategy which swindled some poor fool for a thousand dollars. 

              The "Haunted Sofa" by the Daywalt Fear Factory