DISNEY OPENS VAULTS FOR ONLINE BIDDERS.Byline: Jennifer Hamm Staff Writer BURBANK - Disney fans flooded a Web site Monday that for the first time allows them to buy many of Disney's one-of-a-kind and tough-to-find memorabilia and collectibles. In the largest online auction of its kind by a Hollywood studio, the Burbank-based entertainment company opened its vaults to sell 90,000 items on a site in conjunction with eBay Inc., the online auction giant. Some might call it the Happiest Auction on Earth. Disney is selling such items as the Disneyland marquee letters that greeted guests during the 1990s, a mint-condition ``The Disneyland News'' newspaper from the park's opening day in 1955 and items from the original Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse Famous character of Walt Disney's animated cartoons. He was introduced in Steamboat Willie (1928), the first animated cartoon with sound. Mickey was created by Disney, who also provided his high-pitched voice, and was usually drawn by the studio's head animator, Club. New items will be posted weekly at the site: eBay.Disney.com. ``Golly gol·ly interj. Used to express mild surprise or wonder. [Alteration of God.] golly interj an exclamation of mild surprise [originally a euphemism for , they've got a lot of neat stuff See interesting stuff. ,'' said David Wurts, 42, of Stevenson Ranch Stevenson Ranch, California (in the 91381 ZIP Code) is a Los Angeles County, USA, unincorporated community west of Santa Clarita a few miles south of Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park. The Stevenson Ranch fountain was redone in 2007. . ``They've got a 1955 Disneyland coloring book. That's something I'm going to have to bid on.'' A longtime Disney collector, Wurts logged on first thing Monday morning and quickly bid on seven items. Wurts passed on the 13-foot-tall Disneyland marquee letters, which by midafternoon had received 31 bids - raising the price to more than $25,000. Some items, such as collector pins and watches, received dozens of bids by Monday afternoon. Other collectibles - or ``Mouselaneous,'' as the Web site dubbed dub 1 tr.v. dubbed, dub·bing, dubs 1. To tap lightly on the shoulder by way of conferring knighthood. 2. To honor with a new title or description. 3. them - remained untouched. Most of the auctions have a seven-day timer timer, n radiographic timing device that functions as an automatic exposure timer and a switch to control the current to the high-tension transformer and filament transformer. The face of the timer is calibrated in seconds and fractions of seconds. , and many of the items included a hidden ``reserve'' price that has to be reached before Disney will sell the items. Officials with the Walt Disney Internet Group The Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) oversees several websites owned by The Walt Disney Company and its subsidiaries. [1] The division's Disney Online unit operates disney. didn't know how many visitors the Web site received its first day but said they were pleased with the initial response. ``These are authentic one-of-a-kind items coming from the company,'' said George Grobar, vice president of Disney Auctions. ``What we want to do is have a broad array of products available.'' Among the items up for bid are the original lithograph from the opening day of Walt Disney World Noun 1. Walt Disney World - a large amusement park established in 1971 to the southwest of Orlando Orlando - a city in central Florida; site of Walt Disney World , tickets to next month's New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. premiere of ``102 Dalmatians,'' a ``Beauty and the Beast'' walking Teapot costume from past Disneyland parades and vacation packages to Disney theme parks. Wurts said he already owns a lot of the more mundane merchandise offered on the site. In the nearly 30 years Wurts has collected memorabilia, he's decorated his house with Disney products. In fact, every cup, plate and piece of silverware in his house is Disney issue. Finding pieces that have never been available heightened Wurts' interest. ``As they get going, I think they'll start offering unique things that you can't get on the open market,'' Wurts said. ``That will be a blast.'' Disney is not the first studio to set up an online auction of its products. Universal Studios sold memorabilia items in an online auction setting within the past year but is not currently selling mementos. The Web site is the first time eBay, the leading online auction company, has set up a separate site for another corporation, said eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove. ``It is going to open up a whole new world of buying and selling opportunity,'' Pursglove said. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) Disney Auctions is taking bids on a blue-and-white Disneyland marquee 13 feet 6 inches tall. |
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