'Ghosts' reach $5000 at auction

SOULS FOR SALE: Two captured ghosts were for sale on TradeMe.

A TradeMe auction bidding war erupted tonight over "two captured ghosts", pushing the purchase price out to $5000.

The auction by Christchurch-based seller Avie Woodbury was for two glass vials she said contained ghosts captured from her house.

A Christchurch bidder called cdrive won the auction after a three-way set to. Shortly before it was due to close at 9.46pm, bidding was at $1840, then cdrive, thepsychicevent and joe158 pushed the purchase price up by $3160.

Their bidding war kept the auction alive for eight minutes after its intended closing. At $2820 thepsychicevent, a Waitakere City bidder, cried off at 9.50pm, while joe158 of Palmerston North pushed on to $4860 before calling it quits at 9.52pm.

The sale gained worldwide attention with British tabloid The Sun saying the auction "could be straight out of the movie Ghostbusters".

Ms Woodbury says the two spirits - an "old man" she believes to be Les Graham, who lived in the house during the 1920s, and a powerful and disruptive "little girl", who apparently turned up after experimenting with a ouija board - have been kept asleep by putting them in holy water which apparently "dulls the spirits energy".

Since an exorcism last July there has been no spooky activity in the house.

The auction has attracted nearly 215,000 page views and dozens of questions.

All proceeds from the auction would be donated to the SPCA, minus the expenses incurred by the exorcist's visit.

- NZPA