'Ghosts' auction winner seeking suggestions

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

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The "two captured ghosts" sold on Trademe last night have gone to a company which sells electronic cigarettes.

The auction recorded more than 200,000 page views and made international headlines.

Safer Smoke NZ says it wants people to visit their website and vote on what to do with the spirits.

"Would you release them to live out the rest of their spirit lives to the full? Would you bury or burn them for safety? Do you think they'd make a refreshing beverage?" the company asked.

The "ghosts" were sold by Christchurch woman Avie Woodbury who said they had been captured from her house and stored in glass vials.

Ms Woodbury said the spirits - an old man named Les Graham, who lived in the house during the 1920s, and a powerful and disruptive "little girl", who turned up following an experiment with a ouija board - have been kept asleep by putting them in holy water which "dulls the spirits energy".

Safer Smoke NZ had bid $5000, but the final price dropped to $2830 after a last minute bidder was revealed to be a fake seeking to push the price up.

Ms Woodbury will donate the proceeds to the SPCA - once exorcist's fees have been paid.

"They need it far more than I do," she said.

"It's nice when a good cause can get such a huge successful donation and they do a fantastic job, so I'm wrapped."
Trademe said the normal success fee would be refunded as the money was going to charity.

Ms Woodbury said she had called in an exorcist last July after "bizarre activity" at her New Brighton home.

He told her he had captured the ghosts in two vials containing holy water to dull the spirits' energy and put them to sleep.

Woodbury said she was exhausted after answering a stream of questions and comments on the sale.

Some people questioned the morality of selling other peoples' spirits, while others asked what would happen if they opened the vials.

One person suggested they should be buried or returned to the ghosts' families.

Meanwhile, an auction of "not ghosts in a bottle" had attracted 10 bids and was sitting at $11 last night.

The buyer said the four vials contained food colouring and water.

"The other day I didn't feel or sense anything unusual, so I didn't collect anything, and here it isn't," the description said.

A copycat auction of an "evil ghost", which had to be kept in a large soft-drink container because its energy was so strong, was at $2.50 last night.

- © Fairfax NZ News