I found this on the net, nothing since. So it has happened at least once. But the article said 4 times a year.
Mickey Cleans House - It's Disney Auction Time
July 9, 1998|By Cory Lancaster of The Sentinel Staff
They're called the best-kept secret at Walt Disney World: surplus auctions, where everything from pink Cadillacs to stuffed animals to lawn-maintenance equipment is sold at bargain prices.
Hundreds of people are expected to attend the Disney auction this morning at 9:05 a.m., arriving from as far away as northern Alabama and Georgia to bid on fleet vehicles, arcade machines, used theme-park strollers, golf carts and specialty Disney merchandise.
Disney World has gotten so big - it now has four theme parks, 16 hotels, and dozens of restaurants and stores - that the company practically is overrun with surplus property.
Disney tries to refurbish and reuse some of the stuff, but a lot of it ends up at a remote, fenced compound at Disney World off Reams Road.
There Disney's chief auctioneer, Don Shearer, sells to the highest bidder four times a year.
Today's offerings include a stretch limousine, sewing machines used in Disney's costume department, an antique sofa and settee from the Empress Lilly riverboat, which was renovated and renamed in 1995, and a 4-foot-tall beer stein, which originally sold for $4,500.
Merchandise varies from auction to auction. In the past, Shearer has sold Miss Piggy's dressing room, antique cars, and surfboards with motors.
Disney has been holding the auctions since 1985, but many local residents don't know about them, said Shearer, a Disney employee since 1971.
Disney doesn't promote the auctions. The company runs a couple of classified ads and sends flyers to a few thousand people on a mailing list, mainly business owners interested in fleet vehicles and in restaurant and lawn equipment.
The auctions always are held on Thursdays - pay day at Disney World - when the most employees are on the property and can attend the sales.
``We don't advertise the auction. We try to keep it as a perk for the local community,'' Shearer said. ``It's the best-kept secret at Disney.''
The secret may soon be out. The National Auctioneers Association, where Shearer serves as president, has started publicizing the auctions. A writer for a major airline's in-flight is scheduled to attend today's auction for an upcoming story.
``Walt Disney World is a particularly unusual place for an auction,'' noted Dawn Burke, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City-based auctioneers association.
