Smurf on eBay

[Spectrum91]

Seems to happen a few times per a decade, but a genuine Kings Island Smurf is currently for sale on eBay. At the time of this post, it's up to $260.55 with 5 days left. If I had to guess though, I'd expect this guy to fetch $600-$700 by auction's end.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/153230145471?_trksid=p2471758.m4703

Smurf's Enchanted Voyage opened in 1984 (not 1982, as several online sources falsely claim) and closed after the 1991 season. It was a re-skin of the original Enchanted Voyage, which opened with the park in 1972, and was ultimately replaced by Phantom Theater.

Here's some highlights of the ride:

 

[KI Master]

good find.

[BlondyRidesOn]

How do you get something like that? Makes me wonder if the old Enchanted Voyage snail is still around somewhere.

[SonofBaconator]

@LongLiveTheSmurfRide

[TombraiderTy]

2 hours ago, BlondyRidesOn said:

How do you get something like that? Makes me wonder if the old Enchanted Voyage snail is still around somewhere.

I can't speak for the snail, but Tagg (Gary Gulliver's dog, seen across from him in the ride) was on eBay fall 2016. The four-foot animatronic dog was initially listed for ~$700, but it kept getting re-listed for less-and-less. I still regret not jumping at the opportunity to buy him when he was available for only a couple hundred 

[XGatorHead 8904]

13 hours ago, TombraiderTy said:

I can't speak for the snail, but Tagg (Gary Gulliver's dog, seen across from him in the ride) was on eBay fall 2016. The four-foot animatronic dog was initially listed for ~$700, but it kept getting re-listed for less-and-less. I still regret not jumping at the opportunity to buy him when he was available for only a couple hundred 

I wish I had known that! To have a piece of the original, superior-to-The-Smurfs Enchanted Voyage would be awesome! I loved that ride when I was a kid. We could have had a bidding war between you and me.

I'd even settle for a piece of Smurf's Enchanted Voyage, as that was a decent ride too and I love collecting pieces of KI history, but the current price would definitely not be approved by our family CFO, Mrs. Gator.

[Shaggy]

The reason these pop up is because back in the 1980's and very early 1990's, Kings Island held clearance auctions.  Many props, signs, memorabilia along with things like benches, trash cans, supplies etc etc etc were all auctioned for mere pennies on the dollar.  Many of the Smurfs were purchased by a local Cincinnati man who, for years, displayed them in his yard at Christmas, until - well - he stopped.

That's how the iconic "Bat Heads" from the front of the cars ended up in collector's hands.  They park simply threw them in bins that were auctioned off.  It's how Jungle Jim got most of his props from KI... he went to the auctions.

I heard... a rumor of course... the original  (There was more than one in the three years) Bat entrance sign was sold at the park auction for $10.  It has never been seen since.

When Paramount took over the park, the auctions were discontinued.  Mostly due to the fact that copyrights/trademarks required items with any licensed property be destroyed.  Re-selling them for profit would have been a violation of the agreements.

 

[LongLiveTheSmurfRide]

That'd be a neat piece to own.

[BoddaH1994]

On 10/26/2018 at 11:15 AM, Shaggy said:

The reason these pop up is because back in the 1980's and very early 1990's, Kings Island held clearance auctions.  Many props, signs, memorabilia along with things like benches, trash cans, supplies etc etc etc were all auctioned for mere pennies on the dollar.  Many of the Smurfs were purchased by a local Cincinnati man who, for years, displayed them in his yard at Christmas, until - well - he stopped.

That's how the iconic "Bat Heads" from the front of the cars ended up in collector's hands.  They park simply threw them in bins that were auctioned off.  It's how Jungle Jim got most of his props from KI... he went to the auctions.

I heard... a rumor of course... the original  (There was more than one in the three years) Bat entrance sign was sold at the park auction for $10.  It has never been seen since.

When Paramount took over the park, the auctions were discontinued.  Mostly due to the fact that copyrights/trademarks required items with any licensed property be destroyed.  Re-selling them for profit would have been a violation of the agreements.

 

Same is true for CF with the old Paramount licenses. I had heard that someone bought the old Reptar statue and they ended up not being able to sell it for that same reason.

[Spectrum91]

The Smurf has sold for a staggering $1,025 - easily the highest I've seen a Kings Island collectible go for it.

For the sake of archiving the item, here's a screenshot of the entry and all the current pictures attached to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[KI50Movie_Official]

This eBay seller is also donating some great hard to find items for our movie. Pretty cool stuff. 

[Shaggy]

It rivals some extremely rare items that sold on eBay about a month ago.  The original blueprints for SOB, and the maintenance manuals for Beast, Racer and Beastie all appeared for auction.  Those sold for a collective total well over $3,000.  

I have a feeling the person that made the purchase is a pretty die-hard KI fan.  It will be interesting to see what happens to it.

[TheRickster]

Seems like someone passed away that had all this stuff and a VERY lucky person got a lot of that from an estate asle. Smurf was a different seller though.

[TombraiderTy]

9 hours ago, Shaggy said:

It rivals some extremely rare items that sold on eBay about a month ago.  The original blueprints for SOB, and the maintenance manuals for Beast, Racer and Beastie all appeared for auction.  Those sold for a collective total well over $3,000.

"Original" blueprints is kinda a stretch... back in the day you'd have hand-drawn planviews and profiles and everything for these rides, which could be considered original. But it's all been computerized now and there aren't "originals" anymore. Someone spent $710 on a print-out of Son of Beast's layout that was likely used as a reference at some point.

[Maestro]

For those of you that more closely follow the pricing trends on KI collectibles - is $1,000 for a Smurf an average price?  Or is that an outlier?  Has the price for this kind of stuff trended up over the years?

At the risk of being bombarded with a flood of "can you send me pics" (yes, I am willing to post a few) or "do you want to sell it" (no, not at this time) messages, I will admit to owning a Smurf, among other unusual collectibles from the park.  He is one of my favorite items, but at some point I am going to have to unload all this stuff and am curious if the value continues to go up?

[super7]

Sigh. From the days when the dark ride was a quality 3-d ride, and not cheap 2-d plywood cutouts......

[TombraiderTy]

22 minutes ago, Maestro said:

For those of you that more closely follow the pricing trends on KI collectibles - is $1,000 for a Smurf an average price?  Or is that an outlier?  Has the price for this kind of stuff trended up over the years?

At the risk of being bombarded with a flood of "can you send me pics" (yes, I am willing to post a few) or "do you want to sell it" (no, not at this time) messages, I will admit to owning a Smurf, among other unusual collectibles from the park.  He is one of my favorite items, but at some point I am going to have to unload all this stuff and am curious if the value continues to go up?

I'm sure I speak for most members when I say we'd love to see any pictures of the Smurf or your other collectibles!

And as I mentioned, this is the highest I've seen an auction go for by far. In comparison, some other higher-priced items from memory...

• Those Son of Beast prints Shaggy mentioned, one went for $710 (an extreme amount)
• A Bat head, either from the sign or the front of a train, went in 2006 for $300. It didn't mean the reserve though, and I imagine one would go for a lot more now.
• A few poster maps have gone for $100 or so, but that doesn't seem as common anymore
• I've seen unique sets of slides/photos for $30-$50

If a similar Smurf went for sale right now, I think it'd probably end up below the $1025 this one sold for, but still $800+. Just my guess though.

[Maestro]

12 minutes ago, TombraiderTy said:

I'm sure I speak for most members when I say we'd love to see any pictures of the Smurf or your other collectibles!

And as I mentioned, this is the highest I've seen an auction go for by far. In comparison, some other higher-priced items from memory...

• Those Son of Beast prints Shaggy mentioned, one went for $710 (an extreme amount)
• A Bat head, either from the sign or the front of a train, went in 2006 for $300. It didn't mean the reserve though, and I imagine one would go for a lot more now.
• A few poster maps have gone for $100 or so, but that doesn't seem as common anymore
• I've seen unique sets of slides/photos for $30-$50

If a similar Smurf went for sale right now, I think it'd probably end up below the $1025 this one sold for, but still $800+. Just my guess though.

I would have loved to have The Bat head.  That's one item I was never able to track down.

Thanks for your insight!

[Shaggy]

1 hour ago, Maestro said:

For those of you that more closely follow the pricing trends on KI collectibles - is $1,000 for a Smurf an average price?  Or is that an outlier?  Has the price for this kind of stuff trended up over the years?

At the risk of being bombarded with a flood of "can you send me pics" (yes, I am willing to post a few) or "do you want to sell it" (no, not at this time) messages, I will admit to owning a Smurf, among other unusual collectibles from the park.  He is one of my favorite items, but at some point I am going to have to unload all this stuff and am curious if the value continues to go up?

Well, there's an old saying... "Things are worth what someone is willing to pay for them."

As far as challenging my calling the SOB that sold blueprints "original"...  Oh brother....  minutia.  LOL!

Actually, it appeared to me they were the ones used to re-profile the ride shortly after it opened - I noticed in the listing pics that the curve/drop before the rosebowl had been re-engineered in pencil with builder notes/equations on the side.

In the listing, the seller confirmed that the blueprints were obtained from an estate sale of a 'man' who was one of the leads on the KI wood coaster-maintenance team at KI.  They listed several lots of signage/banners, logs etc from years of KI operations.  They even had what appeared to be KI Safari helmets for auction.  For a while, there was a listing of The Racer sign from one of the trains (Paramount Days) but I'm not sure if it sold - it got re-listed a number of times.

Back when the KI Bat-Head was offered, I did not bid - and wish that I had... that's something I would have loved to own.  I wonder what happened to it...  There were several - at least 3 were sold at auction by the park.... and at least two entrance signs are out there in collectors hands as well.

*Sigh* Maybe someday ;-)

 

 

[TombraiderTy]

^You call it minutia, but I think there's an important distinction between one-of-a-kind hand-drawn sheets, with all the engineering calculations performed by hand, upon which the actual coaster was built directly from, and a printed A1 sheet.

I wonder if this Smurf (as well as those Son of Beast plans) going for such high values may motivate others to sell their unique Kings Island mementos? If a Bat head appears in the near future, I'm sure we'll both be bidding for it 

[Shaggy]

...but in SOB's case... there were no hand-drawn sheets.... it was all CAD... so bottom line, I still define that as "original."  They're certainly not fake.

 

[TombraiderTy]

^I suppose our definitions of "original" are different then. I would consider "original" as being the first and not a copy, but with CAD, that "original" exists on a hard drive or computer and any print-outs are copies. The fact that there are/were easily dozens, if not hundreds, of identical or near-identical print-outs... well, that stops me from thinking of any individual one of them as "original".

[Shaggy]

Agreed.... and by original, I meant that they were indeed genuine - used in the construction of the coaster - as opposed to, say someone taking them to Kinkos (is that still a thing?) and making copies to sell.

[Maestro]

I rarely post, and am terrible at keeping up on topics, so this may have already been discussed before.  But has it ever been considered to create a forum on this site where members could post items they want to sell?  Almost like a "classified ad" type of thing?  Seller could list the item and a price, and if someone is interested, they could contact the seller via direct message.

Auction sites suck, and the fees eat up so much of the profit - plus, sellers end up jacking up the prices to cover the cost.  Deals fall through, people complain stuff is damaged in shipping, blah, blah, blah.

Almost like a Facebook Marketplace kind of thing?

If and when I sell some of this stuff, I'd prefer it go to someone who would appreciate it, and who I know will take care of it.  As opposed to a random person on the Internet.

[XGatorHead 8904]

This topic just shows that I need to start paying attention to eBay again.  I got some great collectibles years ago from auctions on there... which reminds me, I need to dig those up and see if KI50Movie_Official might want to use some of them.

I am very confident that the Smurf went to a good home.  Unfortunately not mine, but a good home nonetheless.