What to Expect at a High-Profile Disneyland Auction

Where can you buy a period Zorro performance costume from Disneyland for a whopping $25,000? A Van Eaton Galleries auction in Sherman Oaks, California, that’s where.

Participating as a bidder in the specialty vendor’s Remembering Disneyland event was a retail revelation of epic proportions.

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I first discovered the gallery on the exhibit floor of Comic-Con International displaying several Disney animation pieces over the years and later at Disney’s own D23 Expo marketing one of the company’s upcoming auctions in 2017. I was then intrigued when one of two once-submerged sea serpents from Disneyland’s original Submarine Voyage ride was at the company’s booth as a preview of lots.

However, it wasn’t until the following auction that I became interested enough to become a bidder myself—somewhat surprising given my extraordinary level of Disney fan frenzy. What finally drew me in were items from recently retired “The Twilight Zone” Tower of Terror from Disney California Adventure.

When my favorite attraction at that Disneyland Resort park was converted to “Guardians of the Galaxy” – Mission: BREAKOUT!, the theming of the existing attraction was completely overhauled. In the process, many fixtures were removed. Several were eventually listed as auction lots, and I became instantly excited by the prospect of potentially owning one.

Standout items initially included a lobby elevator floor indicator prop, which was one of the number dials over the buckled doors, but I knew an estimated range of $2,000-3,000 was well outside my budget. Similarly priced, the room key cabinet that once sat behind the reception desk was also out, and pre-bids had already shot two library pre-show television props through the roof.

I had my eyes set on one of what I considered relatively easy grabs estimated at $500-700 a piece. Several beautiful light fixtures from inside and outside the attraction tempted me, as did a couple of pressure gauge props from the boiler room for a few hundred dollars less as backups should the others prove futile.

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Of course, there were nearly 800 lots total, and these were in the six and seven hundreds, so I had to be patient before mine came up. The entire process took about nine hours after all.

You didn’t have to be present for the whole thing, but I was interested in its entirety, and I wanted to be sure I didn’t miss my window of opportunity.

I quickly discovered that most items actually sold within or near the estimated range. However, big-ticket items often went well over. To give a sense of just how much over something could go, the aforementioned Zorro costume was originally estimated at only $3,000-5,000 but ended up becoming the highest cost item of the day.

Other items fetched a pretty penny as well. A 19-inch diameter Disneyland Railroad wheel went for $8,000, for instance. Plus, an original Rainbow Caverns poster was purchased for $14,000, and a Matterhorn Bobsleds safety sign, like those posted outside a ride, went for a staggering $18,000.

Still, there were plenty of other items that were a steal, not exceeding the opening bid.

It just so happened that my Tower of Terror items were not to be included. The key to participating is tracking online pre-bids to get a sense for how popular each item is ahead of time. Mine had some hits but were still within reason, or so I thought. However, by the moment of truth, the internet is competing against in-room, phone and proxy bidders (those who set a written limit prior).

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Having participated in cruise ship art auctions before, I knew how they operated, but the interest for Disney memorabilia is far greater. I planned ahead with a budget above the estimates and still got swiftly shut out amid the fever pitch of bidding on half a dozen items, unfortunately.

Even though I was disappointed, all was not lost. I actually did win one item—the first of the auction to get our feet wet—in the form of an auction catalog. After the buyer’s premium was tacked on, I only ended up saving a few cents, though.

That’s another thing to be mindful of: Auctioneers make their money by adding a percentage on top of the final gavel price, so consider that in your budget as well.

In the end, I definitely had a fun time seeing all of the incredible Disneyland items and last vestiges of my favorite ride while learning a lot in the process for the next one. Van Eaton Galleries is already preparing another in spring 2018.