12,000 Pieces of Mickey Mania – What Would You Pay?

(Orlando Sentinel) – Nothing unusual about finding Disney items on eBay. But finding a 12,000-piece col-lection complete with lighted cabinets, a 282-page inventory and an asking price of $399,000? Highly un-usual. Which is why when a Disney collector contacted me about it last week, I wanted to get to the bot-tom of this monster of a sale. I found the owner: He's Jim Hammond of Seattle. He's 59. He's close to retiring. And he doesn't want to lug the stuff around. His all-Mickey collection includes thousands of pins, figurines and plush toys; items made by Armani, Waterford and Swarovski. "In 1955, when Disneyland opened, my grandparents brought me back pennants," he said. Thus began his lifelong – let's call it what it is – obsession. Hammond put his collection on eBay last week and received two bids of $5,000 or less. He rejected both. He intends to put it back online this week, though he told me Friday he'd been exchang-ing e-mails with two prospects in his price range. I'm not sure he'll find a buyer. First, there's the size. Hammond's collection takes up 1,500 square feet. Then, there's the fun factor. A lot of the thrill for collec-tors is the collecting. Buying in bulk kills that. But of course, the major, bang-you-on-the-head-with-a-collector-plate deterrent is the price. "It'll take a special person," Hammond says. I wouldn't want to be the one explaining that entry in the family checkbook.