Up until a day or so ago, someone in Tampa, Florida was offering on eBay what they said was an original Walt Disney World Monorail Car. How could someone even have an original Walt Disney World Monorail Car? Well, according to the posted explanation…
It was our Last Spectacular Day at the Magic Kingdom. We were staying at the Polynesian resort at WDW. My wife and i were honeymooning at and having the trip of our lives. At the firework show we wished that we could have a cute little monorail of our own. When my wife went to bed, i snuck into the depot at WDW and threw it in the back of my f350 and drove away. In the morning we went to drive home and she saw it in the back of my truck. My wife was extremely happy to say the least.
When I read that on the eBay page, I had the feeling that wasn't the real story…or if it was, that something was missing…like a line that said "I saw they had some old, unwanted Monorail Cars lined up waiting to be hauled away to the dump so I grabbed one." Or some other innocent circumstance. As written, it sounded like he stole the thing and I'm not saying he did; just that he left out the part of the story that would explain how he acquired it legally. Anyway, he had it listed with an asking price of $260,000 and a starting bid of $169,000 — with Free Shipping. But in the last day or so, the listing has disappeared off America's Auction Place.
A search of the 'net however discovered something else. The gent selling it was apparently named Christopher Nowak and this story from CNN says he bought the monorail car from someone else but wouldn't say who…
The couple from Chico, California, purchased the cab in 2014, dreaming of the day they might use it to drive their kids to school or bring it to the annual Burning Man festival. But plans change, and now the ultimate Disney collectible could be yours with just a few clicks and a whole lot of cash. Nowak declined to say what he paid for the rail car.
It also says, "Nowak says he did not receive a title or certificate of authenticity when he purchased the cab but he is confident that it's the real deal. 'I guess there's a chance it could be a reproduction but I'm not too worried,' he said." And now like I said, the listing seems to have disappeared from eBay.
So what do we think happened here? Did he find out it was a reproduction? Did Disney step in and say he was selling something he shouldn't be selling or maybe even possessing? Did someone swoop in and buy it in some deal that expunged it from eBay? Your guess is not only as good as mine, it's probably better.