When Disney announced the full schedule for the upcoming 2026 D23 Expo, one event that caught the attention of many fans is the Disney Experiences Auction – Rare & Remarkable Finds. The result has been a roller coaster of reactions, from outrage to excitement to indifference. Here’s the listing of items, most of which are park props from Walt Disney World and Disneyland (including lots from MuppetVision 3D and Tower of Terror), along with our reaction to the news.
As basic background, the Disney Experiences Auction – Rare and Remarkable Finds will be conducted by Heritage Auctions on Sunday, August 16, 2026 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. The auction will feature 50 lots consigned directly by Disney, and presented live during D23 while also welcoming online participation through Heritage Live.
The Disney Experiences Auction – Rare & Remarkable Finds spans decades of Walt Disney World and Disneyland history, bringing together original park-used and displayed, event-used ephemera, and artifacts from inside extinct attractions. From props and ride vehicles to anniversary banners, signs and displays, the sale reflects the creativity and craftsmanship that have helped shape memorable guest experiences across Disney parks & resorts.
“This auction truly has something for every Disney fan,” says Jim Lentz, Heritage’s Vice President of Animation Art. “Whether your favorite memories come from walking down Main Street, U.S.A., exploring Adventureland or visiting a favorite resort or seasonal celebration, these pieces represent the artistry and storytelling that have made Disney parks and resorts so meaningful to generations of guests. It’s exciting to see them begin their next chapter with the fans who treasure them most.”
Among the highlights is an original event-used Mickey Mouse sign from DisneyFest in Singapore, one of Disney’s earliest projects in the country, alongside an original Disneyland park-used drawbridge banner from its 60th Anniversary Diamond Celebration that welcomed guests approaching the drawbridge of Sleeping Beauty Castle.
Also featured is an original Disneyland 50th Anniversary “The Happiest Homecoming on Earth” oval plaque commemorating the resort’s 18-month jubilee celebration.
Fans of Disney attractions will find memorable pieces from across the parks, including a Disneyland park-used mummy prop from Indiana Jones Adventure, an original Disneyland park-used Medusa glass slide from the changing portrait sequence inside the iconic Haunted Mansion, and an original sea lion ride vehicle from Disney California Adventure Park’s King Triton’s Carousel.
Additional highlights include a Rococo-style armchair and footstool from Disney California Adventure’s fan-favorite Mad T Party, a giant new-in-box Magic Key created for Disney Store opening ceremonies, a Walt Disney World display featuring Jack Skellington from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, and a Walt Disney World merchandise display celebrating the 45th anniversary of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
The auction offers rare and unique lots from Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, it’s a small world, Polynesian Village and MuppetVision 3D at Walt Disney World, as well as from EPCOT, Tomorrowland, shops like D Street in Disney Springs, and so much more.
Together these treasures reflect the many ways Disney storytelling comes to life through the immersive environments of its parks and resorts, offering fans an opportunity to own original pieces connected to those experiences.
The Disney Experiences Auction – Rare and Remarkable Finds will take place Sunday, August 16, during the 2026 D23 Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center. Tickets are required for entry, but access to the auction room is not guaranteed.
Fans will be able to access The Disney Experiences Auction – Rare and Remarkable Finds via virtual queue throughout the D23 Expo with a standby queue option opening after all boarding groups have been redeemed.
The Disney Experiences Auction – Rare and Remarkable Finds will be cashless with only card and contactless payment options accepted, alongside merchandise mobile checkout. Due to the exclusivity of the product, this location will not offer refunds or exchanges.
If you don’t make it inside the auction, bidding is also available online through HA.com and Heritage Live. All lots open at $1 and are offered without reserve.
The auctioning doesn’t end when the 2026 D23 Expo is over. From October 23-25, 2026, additional Walt Disney World and Disneyland props will be sold in “a separate and sweeping” Heritage auction.
Editorializing a bit, it’s our expectation that subsequent auctions will be bigger than this one. That the D23 one is mostly about awareness and advertising the relationship between Disney and Heritage, and subsequent sales will offer larger lots. I guess we shall see what late October holds.
Images and information about all lots in The Disney Experiences Auction – Rare and Remarkable Finds, which is now open for online bidding, can be found here on the Heritage website.
Our Commentary
There’s been a range of reactions to this news, from outrage to excitement. Some fans are upset that Disney would auction off its own history to private collectors, adopting an Indiana Jones-esque “that belongs in a museum” argument. Others are enthusiastic about the possibility of owning something that was once in the parks, daydreaming about displaying the ultimate form of collectible.
I get the controversy. I understand both the anger and the excitement. But I don’t have a particularly strong opinion, either way. As someone who won’t participate in the auction since the costs for everything I’d want would undoubtedly and exponentially exceed what I’d be willing to pay, I don’t really see the point in daydreaming. Not as long as John Stamos has far deeper pockets than me.
Conversely, I’ll admit that my heart sank just a little when seeing the MuppetVision 3D props. That felt like a mix of salt in a wound that’s still fresh, and further realizing that, in all likelihood, MuppetVision 3D is never coming back to Walt Disney World. (All hope is not lost: Why MuppetVision 3D Can Still Return to Walt Disney World.)
That’s likely the genesis of the controversy for many fans. Not so much that Disney is auctioning off priceless theme park props from iconic attractions, but that some of these things were retired in the first place. The lots are a reminder of decisions with which we disagreed. That’s more or less my reaction, but then I remind myself of the distinction. It’s not as if Walt Disney World killed off MuppetVision in order to auction off a few props.
I also consider the realistic alternative. That’s not simply storing everything in the Walt Disney Archives.
With a corporation of this size and age, that would require renting out all of the warehouse space in Southern California, and would put the famous scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark to shame.
Tough decisions have to be made about what goes into the Archives, and sad as this fact might be, that means most props that fans would consider priceless cannot make the cut.
Realistically, this means either a Disney-sanctioned auction or a free-for-all on extinct attractions.
Walt Disney World tried the latter approach. There are a lot of stories from “back in the day” about guests and Cast Members looting attractions as or after they closed. Items mysteriously vanished, and then ended up in the hands of private collectors. (And I’m not even talking about things like Buzzy from Cranium Command.)
Historically, it’s been the wild west with attractions that have closed. Imagineering and the Archives tagged the items they definitely wanted to preserve, and then who knows what happened to the rest.
Sometimes it ended up at Property Control. Sometimes it ended up in dumpsters. Sometimes it ended up in the trunk of someone’s 1998 Toyota Corolla. The chains of custody have long been, ahem, questionable.
Even before Buzzy, there were horror stories (or perhaps tall tales) of things being sold that shouldn’t have been. It’s been a while so I’m fuzzy on the specifics, but I remember hearing that Disney had to reacquire some of what it sold to private collectors from the original Journey Into Imagination when attempting to partially fix the attraction a few years later.
Now if ever there was an attraction that belonged in a museum, perfectly-preserved, it was everything from the original Journey Into Imagination. It still boggles my mind that private collectors own the original Audio Animatronics, and it’s probably a good thing that I didn’t have a credit card back then!
Worse yet, there are a lot of examples of “priceless” props simply ending up in dumpsters. I’ve heard several stories about this, usually framed around unauthorized dumpster dives to salvage (and sell) discarded artifacts.
That’s never what has stuck in my mind about those stories. Rather, it’s the highly likely scenario that, if a lot was saved through dumpster dives, even more was likely lost. To each their own, but I’d rather stuff like this end up in the hands of private collectors than in landfills.
Both outcomes are essentially the same for me, personally, in that I’ll never see the items again. But having them preserved by someone who will love them is far superior, and opens the door for them to sell at auction again in the future, wind up in a museum, etc. This Heritage partnership could increase the financial incentive for Disney to be even more deliberate and careful about its approach to saving such artifacts from the dreaded dumpster.
In the last several years, we’ve already noticed Disney taking a more deliberate and careful approach to all of this. If you’ve attended a closing day recently, you might’ve noticed a larger security presence than in the past. Part of this is to manage the crowds, chaos and craziness as diehard fans jockey to be the very last.
They’re also there to ensure that nothing is stolen. I would hazard a guess that it’s a similar story after the attraction closes to the public, and we’ve seen instances of Cast Member teams working quickly to tag and remove props for preservation and, presumably, auction. This has long been the approach to some extent, but there have also been a lot of situations where a lot is left behind, and then slowly disappears over the years.
Beyond the auctions, there are likely several motivations for the more methodical approach. One is undoubtedly the high-profile nature of the Buzzy theft (which is an example of something left behind for decades for no apparent reason). Another is social media and the rising visibility of everything, including collector markets.
If the profitability of partnering with an auction house is what it took Disney to streamline its approach to closures and removing props, I’m all for it. Even if it is arguably a “bad look” for Disney to be selling off its own history at D23, I would contend that it’s a worse look for stuff to just go missing and end up on the black market.
The new process involving Heritage Auctions probably is still far from perfect (I’ve only had a few glimpses into this high-end collector world, but even from the outside know that it’s riddled with controversy and corruption), but it strikes me as one of the ‘least-bad’ options.
In the end, I don’t really have all that strong of an opinion on this, either way. I can completely understand the excitement about the prospect of purchasing this stuff, even if everything I’d want is way out of my price range. I can also relate to those who are upset, but at the same time, this isn’t a hill I’m going to die on.
Personally, what I’d actually like is something in-house that makes this more accessible to average fans. An example of this would be what Tokyo Disneyland did in ‘upcycling’ old Cast Member costumes from Space Mountain into fanny packs for guests to purchase in the park. Those were pricey at 23,000 yen (nearly $150), but they were more mass market and offered a way for more guests to own a piece of the magic. If there were MuppetVision merch like this, I’d buy it.
At the absolute minimum, this would be a lot cooler than any of the tryhard-trendy “.YNSD” merchandise that’ll be in the Mickey of Glendale’s booth. Now there’s something that I actually do have strong opinions about, but I should probably just bite my tongue on that one. Why Disney puts the energy and effort into this foolishness but not attraction farewell merchandise is beyond me. That’s the foolishness I’d like to see!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of the Disney Experiences Auction – Rare & Remarkable Finds at the 2026 D23 Expo? Are you excited, outraged, or indifferent? Think some of this stuff belongs in a museum…or a dumpster? Would you like to see more mass market merchandise made of items from extinct attractions? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? Hearing from you is half the fun, so please share your thoughts in the comments!