There were those who laughed off a recent eBay listing claiming to offer a Civil War-era photograph of Nicolas Cage (he went by Jack Mord back then, but that was probably just an anagram) for the cool asking price of $1 million. "Personally," the seller wrote, "I believe it's him and that he is some sort of walking undead/vampire, etcetera, who quickens/reinvents himself once every 75 years or so."

"Photoshop!" they said. "Smoke and mirrors trickery!" Yeah? Well, get a load of Old Timey Travolta. Who's laughing now, hm?

Available on eBay for a comparatively reasonable $50,000, this ambrotype was taken "around 1850," the description states, and features the image of a young man who bears a striking resemblance to middle-aged John Travolta. The seller eschews vampire lore, however, postulating instead that the actor might perhaps be a wormhole-hopping captain of the S.S. Xenuprise:

For those of you who don't know, John Travolta is a Scientologist and many Scientologists believe in a type of reincarnation. Of course Time travel can't be ruled out as well.

True, it can't. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to hop into my own time machine, set it to a few years ago, and kill whoever greenlit Old Dogs and Season of the Witch. [eBay, images via eBay]