Wellington, March 9 NZPA - Trademe is investigating whether dodgy bidders jumped in to push up the price of "two captured ghosts" which sold for $5000 last night.

The auction was won by a Christchurch man, whom Trademe has confirmed was legitimate bidder, after a flurry of bids boosted the price from $1840 to $5000 in the final eight minutes.

"It's definitely sold, the final bid is legit, it's really just making sure the price that he bid is a fair one," Trademe spokesman Paul Ford told NZPA.

He said one bidder had only signed up to the site this month and had never bid before.

"We're just trying to make contact with her and work through it."

If any bids were revealed as illegitimate, they would be removed and the price rolled back to the top remaining bid. Although if that bid belonged to someone other than the current auction winner a discussion would take place over what to do next.

"We'll make contact with all of the people who have bid between the top bidder and his next bid," Mr Ford said.

"It's disappointing if there's last minute attention seekers, but we're confident we'll get our guys onto it and work through it. It may well be that everyone says they're all fine."

The "ghosts" were being 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".

All proceeds of the auction were to be donated to the SPCA, once the exorcist's fees had been paid.