Each year, thousands throughout the country love to visit haunted houses at this time of year. It is a $300 million dollar industry with between 3,000 and 5,000 different groups running haunted houses. Now personally, I have never been to a haunted house. Well, I worked at one once as a volunteer guide and even though it was a bit cheesy and I knew where everyone was, it still scared me about the first 15 times I lead a tour through.
However, if you love haunted houses, you may be wondering just where the people who run the haunted houses get all their props. There was a “Haunted Mansion” auction recently in Cleveland, Ohio. Back in June, Norton’s Auctioneers hosted an auction of the props from Rodney Geffert’s “7 Floors of Hell” Halloween event. Over 200 people from 17 states attended the auction. In addition to the thirteen-room walk through haunted house (which sold for $36.200), if you had attended the auction, you also could have chosen these items from the lot of 145:
* a 15 foot giant (which sold for $11,000)
* an electric chair (which sold for $3,500)
* a demon (which sold for $2.750)
* a talking bride (which sold for $3,500)
* a grumpy gargoyle – aren’t those the worst kind? (which sold for $3,275)
* A snake in chest (which sold for $1,550)
* A corpse attacker (which sold for $1,925)
* And a walk-thru corridor of corpses (which sold for $8,250.00)
Even through Geffert sold all these props, it does not mean he is going out of business. In fact, these were just props from 2005 that he was clearing out to buy new stuff for the 2006 haunted season.
Does all this make you want to visit a haunted house? Check out the national directory of haunted houses at HauntedHouse.com to find one near you!
Also, visit Michele’s blog about inflatable haunted houses!