Autopia Car coming up for Sale

[face]

Newbie here.

Not a huge Disney guy, but was lead here due to this Autopia Car. Apparently only 3 of these cars were known to have left the park as gifts from Walt Disney. My Pops obtained one of the cars & restored it approx. 20 years ago, been in storage ever since. Anyway, his interests have changed & he's looking for the best avenue to sell it, looking for suggestions? Since it's a bit unusual, I don't think putting it on Craigslist will get the best results. He hasn't taken it out of storage, so no current pictures yet.

~ Thanks in advance

[BlkPearlCptn]

A lot of unusual one-of-a-kind Disney pieces such as your car have been sold on EBay. You might try there instead.

[candles71]

I would have ebay myself.

[Drince88]

Also, if you have any documentation/etc on how the car came into your possession, I'd share that in the ebay (or whatever) listing. You don't want Disney getting your listing shut down because they think you may have obtained the car fraudulently.

[stan4d_steph]

You might also look into a specialty auction house that does rare Disney memorabilia. In order to get the best price for your item, you want to make sure you're reaching the audience willing and able to pay for it.

[Bolivar]

Collectors don't only like the items, they like the story behind the items. Anything that tells that story or documents it will help sell it. Newspaper articles, letters telling about it, etc. Why did Walt give it away, who did he give it to, who did your dad get it from and under what circumstances, how did that person get it, etc. All that tells a story and the more that story is documented the better for a collector and this will help you in selling the car.

At least that is what I have learned from watching "Pawn Stars".

[tea4two]

You might look into Phil Sears collectibles.

[face]

Thanks for the replies. I have been searching the Ebay stuff as well, it looks like ebay has pages dedicated to Disneyana Memorabilia. Ebay is where it will most likely end up. He got the car about 20 years ago, 2nd hand, not from Disney. He did write Disney to verify the car was not stolen, there response was Walt Disney had personally gifted 3 Autopia Cars to private parties & no cars had even been stolen. The car has been featured / autenticated by an independent Disney Publisher (Disney Gazette I believe). This was about 20 years ago before my dad put it into storage. Since it's been in storage so long, he's going to take it out, remove the body & go through everything before actually getting it posted for sale.

[currence]

Be careful when restoring stuff. What little I watch of auction TV, I've picked up that improperly done restorations degrade the value more than leaving it as is. If it was decently stored, it may be worth more left alone.

Also, I have no idea how much something like that is worth, but a call to an auction house or two would not be out of order. If they are not interested, they may have other suggestions.

[face]

Pops has been restoring stuff for a long time, currently has about 50 pre-war scooters on display in the Peterson museum. He does incredible work & really knows what he's doing.

[tea4two]

Another thought is to contact the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, just to see if they'd be interested.

[candles71]

Another thought is to contact the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, just to see if they'd be interested.

Most Museums are looking for donations though not to buy stuff. But, they could probably point you towards an auction house.

[oregontraveler]

Another thought is to contact the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, just to see if they'd be interested.

IIRC: they already have one on display, I believe its the Junior version given to Walt's grandson, Christopher. But, myabe they would be interested in another one???

[sjhanksaz]

Pops has been restoring stuff for a long time, currently has about 50 pre-war scooters on display in the Peterson museum. He does incredible work & really knows what he's doing.

Let us know what you end up doing with the car. If it ends up on ebay let us know. I would like to watch and see how it all goes

[DGParker]

Do you still have the car for sale?

[sjhanksaz]

Anybody else remember the Simpsons episode where they went to Duff Gardens?

I bet parts of it are Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVPpz_X-QU0

There is a very funny scene were the family is riding on a ride that is like Small World except everything is centered around beer. It's not on the clip above but Bart dares Lisa to drink some of the water. After drinking the water she goes crazy and becomes the Lizard Queen. The water looked really nasty, stuff floating in it and the water was a strange green color.

At the end of the episode you see a couple of the town's hoodlems riding off in a couple of bumper cars.

I had a vision of the autotopia car riding down the road and it made me think of this funny show.