EBAY TIP

Quite often, while doing my ebay research, I see snowglobes that are being auctioned without the finial (the doodad on top of the globe that hides the air bubble). No all globes have these of course but many do. When buying a large globe on the internet, you should compare with others being sold to make sure it is complete. The descriptions dont usually mention anything is missing and to be fair the sellers may not know there is something missing. I should also mention once again that I reccommend trying Hibidder.com first and then ebay. If you've noticed the amount of bargain priced merchandise going down on ebay, it is because their fees are too high for sellers to make a reasonalbe profit.

Disney Snow White Snowglobe

Currently available at WDW, this Snow White globe plays "Some Day My Prince Will Come" and has a blower inside. This one will set you back $85. The little bluebirds attached to the outside of the globe are a nice touch.

Disney Beauty and the Beast Snowglobe

Belle and the Beast gaze upon the enchanted rose. The rose lights up. It plays the tune "Beauty and the Beast". Retails for $65 at WDW.

Disney Mickey & Minnie Wedding Snowglobe

This Mickey and Minnie Mouse snowglobe can be had from WDW for $65. Mr & Mrs Mouse revolve while the music plays "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes." The front says "And They Lived Happily Ever After."

Thank You

I just wanted to post a note of thanks to those few people who have dropped by so far. If you have a question about anything Disney related please feel free to ask in the comments section and I'll do my best to find out the answer if I don't allready know it. Also, since your here anyway, feel free to check out Mouskavision which is really just YouTube videos. I'll probably change the links once a week or so, currently it should be featuring Pirates Lair at Disneyland's Tom Sawyer Island which just reopened this past weekend. I have enough current WDW snowglobes information to be able to post every day for a week or so, so please come back often.

Disney Princess Wedding Snowglobe

This royal wedding snowglobe features Cinderella, Ariel, Aurora, Belle and Snow White along wwith their escorts. They all dance as the globe plays "So THis Is Love" Retail is $85 at Walt Disney World. This globe really wowed me when I first saw it, I believe it's been available for at least a couple of years.

Disney snowglobe - Animal Kingdom

Going through some of my 1998 Disney catalogs today, I came across this snowglobe and I have a question. If anyone reading this owns this globe, please leave an answer. The catalog description does not list that this globe has music. Ordinarily I assume that means it does not have music, but the base of this one revolves. Did they really build a snowglobe with movement but without music? I find that unlikely. It's more likely that they didn't know when they were writing the description what it was going to play. However, I need to know for sure for my book. And while your at it, what kind of "snow" does it have in it? Thanks for any info you can provide.

I'm Back

Well, I had fun, but I didn't really think the Pirates event was worth the cost of admission. At least not for the one day package that I had gotten. Poor planning on Disney's part. As you entered the main doors of the convention center, to the left is the registration counter. This is a permanent fixture as is the sign above it that says registration. Yet Disney wasn't using this for registration and there were no signs indicating otherwise so the natural assumption was to get in the line to register. We found registration after another guest was kind enough to point it out to us and picked up our merchandise, then went back to the other line to get our welcome gift which was a bandanna with a miniature plastic drinking cup, beads and a pin that had nothing to do with pirates. Ummm. That's it? No catalog of merchandise? No auction catalog? The silent auction and regular auction merchandise was on display. And most of it was the usual assortment for Disney event auctions. I tried getting pics of a couple of things but gave up. There were bright lights directly above the cases that created a glare on the cases, so I decide to just enjoy myself. I did bid $400 on one of the WDCC pieces in the silent auction but checked later to find out I was outbid (expected) at 650. We viewed the Odyssey display of things they have recovered from shipwrecks. Interesting, but not terribly exciting. The signings were going strong and didn't have hardly any lines but that was because their really wasn't much in the way of merchandise for them to sign. It was more of a meet and greet type thing. Nothing else to do but wait for the steakhouse to open at noon. Had a delicious lunch and then went to the next scheduled event which was the play games for extra booty. Did it, had fun, but sorry I didn't pay 200 per person for us to stand in line for a half hour, play a carnival game and be handed yet another 3 cent string of beads only to move on to another game to start the process all over again. I did have fun playing the games but they really should be something placed in the hallway as entertainment not a scheduled event. Speaking of hallway entertainment there were no characters, no pirates, nada, zip in the way of walkaround characters for the entire day until the dinner that night. Headed over to the first seminar, doors were open but we didn't go in because it wasn't for 30 minutes yet and we wanted to take advantage of the comfortable couches outside the room. Some people went in staked out their seats and were kicked out by one of the managers who came about ten minutes before the seminar was to start, closed all the doors and told them she'd open the doors in about 5 minutes. 15 minutes after the seminar was supposed to start she opened the doors and let everyone in. Did the room look any different? No. Just a lot of chairs and a stage with a podium and movie screen. Why were we kept standing in the hallway. I'd like to say it was because the speakers weren't there but since they were wandering in and out before the manager ever showed up we know thats not true. Oh well the seminar from Odyssey about salvaging shipwrecks was fun thanks to the enthusiasm of the man who presented it. The seminar that followed done by Disney people also had its good moments. They didn't give away any major spoilers for the movie, which was a good thing. On to dinner, whats this the line is allready long, obviously lots of people skipped the seminars, many I heard saying they were similar to what had been done the day before. Moved on to some comfy chairs because Disney had me fill out a seating chart in an email a month or so ago. No point in standing in line if the seating is assigned, right? Wrong! No assigned seating. Took us about 20 minutes to find 2 chairs that were together and not being used. The food was excellent and was the pirate band who sang through most of dinner. Trevor Carlton painted a painting of Mickey as a pirate in his usual rock n roll style. Fun but I've seen it before. The auction was more entertaining then I expected probably because I was able to follow the action which isn't always possible depending on the auctioneer. They had pictures of the auction items on two screens which made me mad again that there wasn't an auction catalog. I mean, they had the pictures right? The Trevor Carlton painting was auctioned and someone at my table won. The picture painted didn't match the one up on screen. I don't remember exactly what it went for around 5200 I think. One of the items was a wdcc piece of a train engine with Mickey driving. I think it was an artist proof. Bidding went up to 2800 and didn't sell because it failed to meet the reserve. At the end of the auction it was put back up with no reserve and sold for less then that. Around 2400. My Mom had been eyeing the fancy pirates centerpiece knowing that they usually give them away and at the end of the evening they announced that one chair at each table had a pin taped under the seat and that person got the centerpiece. Prior to this, people were tearing them apart at other tables and sharing the remains all while the managers who were working as auction spotters told them they could. Ours remained intact because we had all adults at out table, but by the end of the auction my Mom and I were the only ones left. Turning around to get our centerpiece we found someone had taken it. It wasn't one of the people at our table because they had left earlier, just someone walking by on the way out decided to help themselves.
On to the movie, we drove our car instead of taking the bus figuring we'd be one of the first in line and get a good seat. Disney had one of the parking lots closed even though the signs on the road were prompting that it was open and available. The one by amc was full so we had to park around back of House of Blues. By the time we got to the theatre the line stretched through the building to the other side of the theatre. We waited an hour. We were supposed to be the first ones to see the movie until Disney in their lust to beat Spider-Man's weekend opening decided to change the starting time to 8pm. Now we had to wait an hour. Finally got seated and had to wait so long that some members of the audience started chanting Pirates! Pirates! Pirates! When it did finally start (again about 15 minutes after it was supposed to) I was disapointed in it. Maybe it was the late time, maybe it was that I spent 400 to get mistreated all day. To be fair, I should see it again when I'm in a better mood. But I wont. SPOILER WARNING: I've tried very hard to write the following without giving anything away. I think you can read it safely. Most of the Johnny Depp scenes where he is by himself should have been cut from the film and saved for the dvd release. They did nothing to further the story and weren't entertaining. The only way you could like those scenes is if you loved Johnny Depp just for being Johnny Depp. They obviously didn't have anything for him to do until later in the movie and they were there because they thought they needed him to entertain the audience. The acting seemed to me to not even be close to as good as the other two films both of which I enjoyed tremendously. It felt like everyone just kind of went through the lines and didn't try very hard. The fantastic/mythological elements of the film I thought were out of place. Davy Jones was as far as I was willing to go with that element of things and I was expecting a pirate movie. Instead I got a fantasy/mythological movie trying to be one of the old Voyage of Sinbad movies. If they had cut out the previously mentioned Johnny Depp scenes and rewrote the Calypso scenes so they were more of a supernatural mystery element the movie would have worked for me. I did like the end and where everyone ended up. It's not a bad movie, just not a particularly good one, in my opinion which seems to be in the minority.
Thje parting gift was a replica of Davy Jones chest with some coins and gems in it. It is very nice.
Oh, also Lee Arenberg, the actor who plays Pintel ("Allo Poppet") showed up at the dinner and said a few words of thanks to the fans. That was a nice surprise. He also showed up at the movie and pretty much said the same thing again.
Anyway, I hadn't been to a Disney event in a few years and I'll probably never go to another one again. Disney has been doing these events for years, its the same complaints every time they have an event and they have done nothing to try and get it right. Unless your one of the folks who can actually afford to bid at the live auctions, save your money and go to public day. There's bound to be stuff left over as less and less people go to these things. After all, the pirates event didn't sell out and they were even advertising it to cast members to try and get them to go. Mouse Surplus allready has leftover bags and shirts up on ebay. I can't think of what they could do that would be more popular then this theme and it didn't sell out. Wake up, Disney! Your doing something wrong!

No updates for a couple of days

I'll be attending the "Pirates on the Seven Seas Lagoon" event at the Contemporary Resort on thursday and won't be getting home until the wee hours of the morning. The event ends with the midnight showing of the new movie and after its over, I still have to drive home. Then its back to Disney first thing in the morning to pick up some of the limited editions for the Dizpins Ohana. Probably wont be any snowglobes at the event but I should have some good pics to share which will probably be up saturday or sunday.

Disney Snowglobe: Partners Statue

This one is a mini of the "Partners" statue that sits in the hub on the main street side of the castle. The base represents the shops along main street. This one retails for $15.

Disney Snowglobe: Pluto

Currently available at Walt Disney World is this snowglobe of Pluto. It's not often you see Pluto in a globe by himself, this one almost counts but they put other Disney dogs around the base. The pawprints on the glass are a nice touch. It's larger then a mini but not quite a full size globe. It retails for $20.

Disney Globes UK

If you would like to see some Disney snowglobes that you may not ahv seen before, I suggest heading over to the Disney Store website. What's that, you say? There is no Disney Store website? Well sure in this country we have DisneyShopping.com and the Disney Stores are run by a company that leases the name and they don't have a website. But in the UK, the Disney Stores are still owned and run by the Walt Disney Company and they have snowglobes I've never seen anywhere else including ebay. So if you feel like browsing through something that is familiar but with different merchandise head on over to http://disneystore-shopping.disney.co.uk/. Unfortunately I cant figure out a way to grab a good picture of any of their snowglobes so I have nothing to illustrate this post with.

New globes at DisneyOutlet.com

The Disney Outlet portion of the DisneyShopping website has 4 new globes. The prices are 19.99 each which seems like a good deal for a Disney globe but if you read the descriptions you'll see that these are no frills snowglobes that apparently don't even have a music box.

I'm always a bit confused by the snowglobes offered by the Outlet section. Where do they come from? I thought the Outlet section was for closeouts, but I never seen these globes offered elsewhere. If they are created especially for the Outlet section, why? Wouldn't it make more sense to put them in the regular shopping section and move the sale globes to the outlet section?

One last question: Why create a Happy Birthday globe if its not going to play "Happy Birthday"?

Pecos Bill

DisneyShopping has added a new snowglobe starring Pecos Bill the western cowboy that was one of the animated segments for the movie "Melody Time" way back in 1948. Not sure why they would feature such an obscure character but I'm glad they did. I love merch that features old characters instead of seeing Stitch and Princess on everything. I don't dislike those characters, I just like to see variety. The price is 99.95 but if your patient you will probably be able to get it at half price in a few months. They also have quite a few of the snowglobes on sale.

Most Valuable Disney Snowglobe

Well, I want to try and post something every day, so I thought I'd talk about what appears to be the most valuable Disney snowglobe. As you learned from earlier posts, I spent a month or two tracking ebay auctions for every disney snowglobe before starting this blog. It was a learning experience and one of the things I learned was that the most valuable Disney snowglobe is a Mary Poppins one that is sort of a recreation of the one used in the movie. It plays "Feed the Birds" and inside the globe is St Paul's Cathedral. Instead of snow it has little bird shapes. On the bottom is information that could be misinterpreted that it was released at the world premiere of the movie but it actually was released in the Disney Catalog a few years back. The first 2 or 3 I saw sell were in the 500-650 range and I thought wow, what the heck is so special about this globe. I remember my Mom wanting to get it in the catalog but I talked her out of it because it didn't have any characters. Oops. Sorry Mom. The next time one of these globes came up for auction it resulted in a bidding war and sold for over 1200. About a week later one sold for around 350 and I haven't seen another one listed. There aren't very many Mary Poppins snowglobes but all of them seem to be capable of going up in value rather then going down. I think because the bidders see what this particular one sells for. Sorry I cant find a picture to link to and I haven't gotten far enough in my catalog scanning to have gotten to this globe yet. Anyway, if you see this globe at anything less then 100-150, grab it. It's a bargain.

Arrrrgggghhh!!!

Sigh, I knew my life was going too well. When I went into work this morning I got laid off. They lost a large account and have decided to eliminate my position. I may not be able to go to Disney as much for awhile so updates here may not be on a daily basis anymore. And from now on they will probably only deal with snowglobes. On the other hand maybe my new job will be better, only time will tell.

Pixar Mini's

Both of these Pixar globes, one from Finding Nemo and one from the Incredibles are $15 at The Disney-MGM Studios which rumor has it may someday soon be rechristened Disney-Pixar Studios. These are mini's but not quite as small as the $12 globes mentioned in another post today.

Hmmm. Maybe I should start a mini globe of the month club. For $20 a month I'll send you a mini globe from WDW postage paid. That way I can get the pictures I need for my book. Anybody want to join?

This is not a snowglobe part 3

There seems to be a better selection of inexpensive theme park figurines lately then I have seen in recent years. This cute little pixie can be used as a figurine or an ornament. The gemstones on her dress are fake, but what do you want for only $11?

I don't want to guess at the size but it is about what you would expect of a theme park figurine. If it was used as an ornament it would be a large one

AUCTION ALERT

I have posted 4 snowglobes on Hibidder.com. Each one is a mini and was purchased off ebay a few weeks ago. I am selling them at my cost. I got the pictures and information I needed for my book and now its time to see how viable an idea it is for me to buy and resell the globes for what I purchased.

Disney-MGM Studios - Nightmare Before Christmas

I was mistaken in an earlier post when I said the cheapest snowglobe you can get at Walt Disney World was $15. Both of these tiny but amazingly detailed globes can be had for $12 at the Disney-MGM Studios.

This is not a snowglobe part 2

Did you know it was Goofy's 75th Birthday. This limited edition figurine is titled "Still Goofy After All These Years" and costs $65. Of course, he's about to step on the rolling pin.

STAR WARS WEEKENDS

Star Wars Weekends arrive in june at the Disney-MGM Studios and the Star Wars site has posted preview images of some of the merchandise that will be offered. Go to this page to read the article and view the humorous ads that will be displayed at the Orlando airport. There is also a link on that page to the image gallery. May the force be with our wallets. Buy you will.
http://www.starwars.com/collecting/news/misc/news20070509.html

This is not a snowglobe

This Star Wars meets Disney painting is available at Disney-MGM Studios. Anybody got 18,000 Dollars?

Disney Snowglobe - Cinderella's Coach

Cinderella's Coach is $125 at WDW. This is certainly an enchanting globe but c'mon 125 smacker?!? No music, no blower, no lights and they want 125 for it???? Wow.

Pins I Purchased - #2 in a never ending series

I visited Downtown Disney and the Disney-MGM Studios today so that I could buy more pins for the Dizpins Ohana.

The Pirates t-shirt is the latest in the Disney Clothiers series. It is a jumbo and costs $25. A limited edition of 500. The hanger is magnetic and removable. What do i think of this series? As pins they would make pretty cool Christmas ornaments.

The new annual passholder pin is a nice looking creation with Mickey standing in front of the castle as fireworks go off overhead. It is available to Annual passholders only and is a limited edition of 6000. $12.95.

These 3 pins are the promotional pins you can get for $1 each. You can get one for every $35 you spend.

Tinker Bell and If You Had Wings continues the expensive but very nice looking Remember When series. I think we used to go on this ride just about every visit for the same reason we go on Peoplemover (sorry Tomorrowland Transit Authority)... NO LINE!!! Limited to 750 pins at $15 each.

And today's best dressed pin award goes to Figment and his Journey Into Imagination pin. The best looking pin in the Remember When series so far. Congratulations to whoever designed it. Hey, remember when this was the most charming ride at EPCOT instead of the pile of $#%@* it is today? Lets hope the rumors are true and Tony Baxter is hard at work on a suitable replacement. I had to get seven of these for the Ohana, despite the price it is going to be a very popular pin.

Tune in next time for another exciting episode of Pins I Purchased.

Disney Snowglobes at WDW

Pooh Goes Pirate

It appears that Pirate mania has even invaded the Hundred Acre Wood. Pooh & his pals play pirate using an old bathtub as a ship. Retails for $65.00 at WDW. All the bees on this snowglobe are on springs so they bobble. It has the blower feature to keep the glitter moving inside the globe and when wound Roo rocks back and forth on the log. Plays "Winnie the Pooh" which was the only disappointment. Almost all the Pooh globes play "Winnie the Pooh". It would have been fun if it played a pirate song.


Cinderella Castle


This is the current version of the Cinderella Castle snowglobe at Walt Disney World. The green/blue specks you see is the actual color of the glitter. The glitter is very small and there is a lot of it, when shaken it really does give the globe a fascinating cascade of color swirling around the castle. If I remember correctly it was $45.00 and it did play music.


Tinker Bell Goes Large


When I was seeing this one on ebay, I always thought it was a miniature. It is done in a style that is similar to many of the mini's from the Disney Store. It is a fairly large figurine, though.

Unfortunately, I dont' recall any details about it. According to ebay listings it is musical and its retail price is $45.00.




Mickey and the Four Parks


The opposite happened with this one, when I saw it selling on ebay for well over $100, I assumed it was a large deluxe globe. I don't recall what it sells for but I'm guessing around $45.00. The icons outside of the globe sucha s the monorail and Minnie's safari hat are all on bobble springs.



I realize I'm being a little sketchy on the details, I will get better as time goes on. I'm going to need pictures of all Disney snowglobes for my book as well as accurate measurements and details. I'm hoping that if I can develop a decent size readership of this blog, I will be able to find people who want the globes and I can then go and buy them for them, take pics, measurements and notes of the details and then send it on to the person who I bought it for at cost. If you see something you are interested in but don't want to get ripped off on ebay, let me know at zapjones@yahoo.com



ebay tip
By the way, when I was looking at ebay auctions I realized that the people overpaying were the ones using the buy it now feature. So my ebay tip for the day is dont use buy it now unless you know what the actual price of the item is in the store. Personally, I've decided to stop using ebay as my first auction choice and intend on checking hibidder.com first. It's an auction site that is similar to ebay. Not a lot of action on there yet but it is new and over time it looks like it will grow. If I do get to the point I'm buying snowglobes that is probably where I will be reselling them at.

Snowglobe at WDW - mini Pirate Ship

Wow. They don't make snowglobes smaller then this little guy. The detail, however is amazing. No special features, just a good old fashioned snowglobe. I think the "snow" was gold colored. Retails for $15, which seems to be the lowest price you can spend on a WDW snowglobe.

Snowglobes at WDW - The Black Pearl

Because of the excitement of the new Pirates of the Carribean: At Worlds End movie, I thought I'd start with the Pirate globes. This one is more figurine then globe but a lot of the globes are like that now. In the picture, you can see the globe a little bit behind the bottom sail. Inside the globe is a treasure chest and the "snow" is gold coins. It has a light up feature of some kind but I couldn't tell from the ones on display what it is. I thought maybe the translucent water lit up but I looked on ebay and found a description that says the cannons glow red and flash like they are firing. It retails for $85.00. The ebay description also says there are hidden mickeys in the rocks and waves.

Pins I Purchased Today - #1 in a never ending series.

I stopped by Epcot today and purchased a couple pins for the Ohana. If you know me from Dizpins.com (simply the world's best Disney pin site) then you are probably aware that I regulary pick up pins for other members of the boards. I originally intended to not discuss pins too much here since Dizpins and Pinpics do such a great job, but I got to thinking that since the majority of pins that I buy are for other people, some folks might enjoy seeing what others are getting. The large Epcot pin is this years Flower & Garden Festival jumbo pin and retails for $25.00. It is a limited edition of 750.

The Chip n Dale pin has everyone's favorite chipmunks swabbing the deck while dressed as pirates. It is one in a series and is also a limited edition.

If anyone wants more info, the two above mentioned sites are the best places in the world to find out about them or any other Disney pins.

Tomorrow, I'll start posting some of the pics I took of snowglobes currently available at WDW.

Disney Snowglobe - Sample Guide Entry

Below you will see a sample guide entry. Most of the info was taken from an old Disney Catalog. I modified the description slightly so that the particulars could be listed individually so each entry will have a more uniform look. I think keeping the descriptions will make for a more fun read but the factual information regarding size, music and so on should be easy to find without reading through the description.
ORP refers to the Original Retail Price followed by the years the snowglobe was available.
Source will list where the snowglobe could be purchased or in some cases it will list a manufacturer like Enesco.

Walt Disney World
25th Anniversary

Topped with Disney’s magical mascot, the globe has the number 25 in blue. The theme park logo appears on the base amidst a galaxy of stars.
Music: “It’s A Small World”
Size: 9”H.
Snow type: glitter; multi-colored Mickey heads.
Source: Disney Catalog; WDW.
ORP: 35.00 (1997)

Getting Started

So, if you took the time to read the description at the top of the page, you allready know that I am attempting to create a guide book for Disney Snowglobes. Why? Well, its one of the few areas of popular Disneyana that there doesn't seem to be much being documented. Not much info on the web, except for folks trying to sell globes that they have. It's also a relatively recent type of Disneyana. There were some of the cheap plastic snowglobes that were popular back in the 50's-60's-70's, but the more deluxe models that we see today at the Disney Parks and Stores really didn't start getting made until sometime in the 1990's. This made me think it would be relatively simple to create a guide. After all, at the most, there must only be a few hundred globes. Pffft! Yeah right!
A few weeks ago, I started documenting the closed ebay auctions for Disney snowglobes, when I finally got caught up to present auctions, I had over 350 pages of snowglobes, averaging 3 on a page. Over 1000 snowglobes and I was still finding new ones I hadn't seen yet every week!
But I had a few problems, if I wanted to actually get to the point where I could publish my work. I was stealing people's pics off of ebay (never intending to use them publicly) for identification purposes and the ebay research was taking up all the time I had for the project. I realized about half way through the pages I was creating that ebay should have been my last stop and I should have started with my own collection and gone through my old Disney catalogs etc.
Then I did something stupid. I was saving the document to a flash drive, got distracted and unplugged the flash drive before it was finished. The next day when I opened the document, I found I had lost about half my pictures and I couldn't retrieve them. Without the pictures for identification, it was impossible for me to match the data up with the snowglobe and since the value data I had would now be incomplete, I came to the conclusion that I was better off starting completely over. So, this past week, I spent some time organizing all my old Disney catalogs by date issued and have started scanning the pages with snowglobes. The oldest one I have is from 1995 and has a few snowglobes in it. They seem to have gotten popular quite fast, as I have the 1996 catalogs done and have done a couple from 1997, and I'm allready up to a 27 page document covering 76 globes. Oh, I almost forgot, that number also include the current snowglobes available on Disneyshopping.com. I did those before I started scanning.
Tomorrow, I will post a sample entry from my document so you can see what I'm talking about.
Rob Jones