For $12,000, an anonymous bidder walked away Thursday with a complete vampire-killing kit. The walnut box contained everything you'd need to dispose of a bloodsucker: a wooden stake, 10 silver bullets, crucifix, pistol, a rosary, and "vessels for garlic powder and various serums".
Sotheby's reports that some experts believe that similar kits were commonly carried by Eastern European travelers in the 18th and 19th centuries. The kit up for auction was estimated to have been assembled in the early 20th century as a souvenir, but 19th century furniture expert Elaine Whitmire says, "I doubt it was cheap to buy."
The kit contains a label that reads: "This box contains the items considered necessary for persons who travel into certain little known countries of Eastern Europe where the populace are plagued with a particular manifestation of evil known as Vampires."
Source: USA Today, Sotheby's
