the ghosts of two dead people sold for $2,000

The rare spirits that went under the gavel at a recent online auction in New Zealand weren't aged brandies or hard-to-find liqueurs.

Instead, two glass vials purportedly containing the ghosts of two dead people sold for $2,000 at an auction that ended on Monday night. The "ghosts" were put up for bidding by Avie Woodbury from Christchurch. She said they were captured in her house and stored in glass vials with stoppers and dipped in holy water, which she says "dulls the spirits' energy."

She said they were spirits of an old man who lived in the house during 1920s, and a girl who turned up after a session with a spirit-calling Ouija board. Since an exorcism at the house led to their capture, there has been no spooky activity in the house, she said.