WDCC Piece Worth A Trip

[consultant]

There's the new WDCC piece "All Hail The Pumpkin King" coming out in early October at a signing event a Disneyland. It is probably one of the best WDCC pieces I've seen, especially if you are a Nightmare Before Christmas fan. It is limited to only 500 pieces. $750 retail.

I've never gone to a signing event. It will cost me probably about a $250 2-hour to fly down from Seattle, then the park admission although I believe you can get temporary admission to get in just for shopping? The worse thing is, I'm already going to Disneyland 3 weeks later for my 40th birthday!

I anticipate one of these signed will be very hard to come by on the aftermarket (Ebay) and the remaining will be sold-out to VIP customers of existing WDCC dealers. I would expect to see it on E-bay in the following days or even leading up at inflated prices. But this is based on experience with other Disney collectibles, I'm fairly new to WDCC and not quite sure about the pattern something like this will follow.

I'm also not sure how much of a pain a signing event will be as far as how long I'd have to wait in line, etc. as time and inconvenience is cost too.

I do have a couple friends down there that I may be able to con into doing it for me if I make it worth their while, free admission to park plus $100 or something for waiting in line? Maybe that's my best option?

If anyone has any experience going to WDCC release/signing events of popular, very limited pieces like this, I'd appreciate your input. My gut is flying down, is probably not worth it and I should just settle for a non-signed piece initially on Ebay then wait for a signed piece to pop-up and hopefully not an overly inflated price.

Even the really amazing, popular expensive and limited pieces like Beauty and the Best "Curse is Broken" are selling for not much more than half retail, so it might be a mistake to pay $750 retail for this piece anyway, although a signed one might be worth it.

Here it is if you haven't seen it:

http://www.wdccduckman.com/hailthepumpkinking.html

 

[Babette]

The piece will also be available from authorized dealers (I assume only gold circle dealers), so if you have a dealer who you regularly purchase from, you might be able to get one from them rather than make the trip.

I have never been to a signing event at Disneyland, so I do not know what the crowds will be like. I assume this piece will have a big following and they might sell out of their allocation that day.

I was to a signing event in WDW for the release of the first Pirate's piece, the Helmsman, which had Jaqueline Gonzales the sculptor and Alice Davis, the Disney legend there to sign the pieces. The line was not long that day and we were probably about 10th in line arriving about 10 min before the event was to start. However, the Pirates pieces were open editions, so not surprising that there really wasn't a crowd.

 

[doombuggy]

If you weren't going so soon after, I would say go for it. Your best option might be to get one of your local firends to do it. Then you can pick it up from them when you go a few weeks later. Having it signed just adds to it.

You could take the chance that you would be able to meet the artist at a later time and have the piece signed then as well....