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(Annual passes are also available at Walt Disney World resort in Florida, but due in part to its larger size and the number of high-end resorts on the premises, the East Coast park tends to cater more to out-of-town guests than to locals.)ĭisney has what Hill describes as “a weird love/hate relationship with annual pass holders, especially on the West Coast.” Part of this is because locals tend to spend less money at the parks than out-of-town guests do, eating at home instead of buying food at the parks while simultaneously taking up valuable resources like parking. Annual pass holders in Anaheim, where Disneyland is located, tend to be locals who are willing to spend hundreds of dollars per person per year (the highest tier costs $1,149) for access to the parks. It’s also of note that the Disney company appears to have targeted annual pass holders, or people who buy annual passes to make multiple visits to the park per year, specifically.
“So I do find it kinda bizarre that this is a hill that Disney has chosen to fight on.”
“The people who pay the Sorcerers’ packages at the expo are paying $2,500 to get into that event, and to be honest, 90 percent of those folks are there to get the material, hike back to their hotel rooms, and put it up on eBay,” says Hill.
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While the annual pass holders’ code of conduct officially prohibits buying items with the intention of reselling them, the company had previously turned a blind eye to - or even implicitly encouraged - the practice by releasing such items at big-ticket events like the D23 fan expo, where fans pay top dollar for early access.
Limited-edition Funko vinyl heads of secondary characters from the Disney attraction the Enchanted Tiki Room, for instance, which were released to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the attraction, are currently available for purchase on eBay for $79.99, or three times the original price.Īccording to Jim Hill, a veteran entertainment journalist and co-host of the Disney podcast The Disney Dish, flipping Disney merch has been going on for years. This high demand for limited-edition Disney park merch has spawned a black market of such items on eBay and Etsy, with annual season pass holders buying items in bulk and then selling them online at a marked-up rate.
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Traditionally, such items have been sold exclusively at the parks and for a limited period of time as a result, they tend to i nspire massive consumer demand, particularly among the Disney fandom, with people waiting in line for hours for a crack at buying them. (Disney did not respond to Vox’s request for comment.) Jeff Gritchen/Orange County Register via Getty Imagesĭisney has been selling limited-edition merch at the park for years, from Toy Story alien-themed popcorn buckets to rose-gold Minnie ears (which were supposedly inspired by similar fan-made merch on Instagram). The representative said she could contact the guest relations department to contest the company’s decision. One annual pass holder said she received a letter from someone associated with the company who said that the park had canceled her annual pass for the year, but she still has to make monthly membership payments of about $71 per month. Now, however, Disney is starting to crack down on some of these mega-fans for flipping their limited-edition merch.Īccording to the local newspaper the Orange County Register, the company has started revoking annual passes for park-goers, which can cost up to $1,149 per person, without warning after finding that they had used their annual pass holder discounts (which range from 10 to 20 percent off) to buy limited-edition merchandise in bulk at the parks and then sold it for a marked-up price on eBay or Etsy. Aside from shelling out hundreds of dollars to visit the parks multiple times a year, people will buy anything, from park swag and collectibles to Smellitzer machines that literally pump the aroma of Disney theme parks into your home, to experience the Disney magic.
For die-hard Disney fans, there’s no limit to the amount of money they’re willing to spend on anything mouse-related.