Is it unlucky to buy omamori from ebay?

I�fve recently taken an interest in omamori, but I do not live in Japan or have any plans to visit for a long time. Since I can�ft buy omamori from a shrine, I have to rely on the internet, but I saw an article that said buying it from resellers �gcan bring the opposite of good luck.�h This was the only article I could find that mentions this, so if I could get some more insight on this, I would really appreciate it!

omamori is one sort of religious items. you may buy it at religious places. (or you may get it with donation to them.) but, I can't imagine that I buy it from a third unknown person, because it is second-handed, not fresh.

I have never heard such thing that the article mentions. What I have heard is that old or unnecessary omamori is taken to donto-yaki festival.

In my mind, �go-mamori�h works because the shrine/temple made them and they put their prayers into them. It is not just a �gcharm�h that by itself has any power (like some stones/semi-precious stones said to have calming power or other properties). So while some very popular shrines�f items might be up for sale (re-sale) on online auctions, I (Japanese by the way) simply would not buy them unless they come direct from the shrine/temple. (Some temples, by the way, do sell their �go-mamori�h via their website. I have purchased some specific ones from a temple that is far away from where I am, but not from a reseller.)

The traditional custom is that we return them to the temple after they have protected us for an occasion (like a childbirth or recovering from an illness), or for a year, to be burnt at the shrine (thus sent to �gupstairs�h), and thank them for their protection, and get a new one.

When people say "omamori", one would instantly imagine one of those charms you purchase either from a Shinto shrine or a Buddhist temple. As for those kinds of omamori, no one can explain it better than how AK has written about it.

But "omamori" literally means "something that would protect you spiritually". For example, you can say something like, "I keep this autograph by my favorite rock star as an omamori". Or you can even make your own omamori from scratch, using any material you like.

I took a quick look at ebay and noticed that, not all but, a lot of them do not come from religious establishments. And some that look like it does actually seems to come from some cheap souvenir shop. You can tell by the design.

Now, I've never heard of the �gcan bring the opposite of good luck�h theory, but, like any second-hand item, you never know where the item is coming from. And it's not impossible that someone has cursed the omamori, while a proper shrine/temple would have given prayers for it instead.

But like I said, anything can be your omamori, and if you wish to connect your heart to a regular souvenir item, you can do that, too. But then, you don't even have to bother to buy it from ebay. You can make your own. There is no pattern or anything. It's almost the same thing as a Christian cross. You can buy one from a proper church, or you can just get a pair of chopsticks and glue them together.

If you're interested in buying an authentic religious omamori, I suggest you buy one from a shrine or temple's on-line shop. A quick Google search on keywords like "omamori temple online" or "omamori shrine online" would do. You can add the name of your country or city to those keywords for more specific results.

I hope it helps.