Godspeed, little coaster.

[fancycwabs]

Sometimes you can get great deals at auctions. For instance, Elvis's favorite coaster, the Zippin' Pippin, sold on the auction block for $2500 yesterday.

I could have bought the damn thing for $2500. I don't know where I'd have put it, but still.¹

Sad, really. The Pippin was a tooth-rattlingly good ride.



¹Actually, I do know exactly where I'd put it. Grandma has a Pippin-shaped backyard that once housed vegetables, but now lies fallow. It's a quarter-mile from Mobile Bay, and was underwater during Katrina, so maybe that's not a great idea. But at least it would fit.

Comments

[spatch]

Any word on the buyer and their plans for the ride? Sadly, with a purchase price of $2500, I'm pretty sure the plans involve a chainsaw and lots of piles of wood.

[fancycwabs.livejournal.com]

That would be Robert Reynolds and Steven Shutts, who had come to the auction intending to buy a car from the coaster for their travelling rock-n-roll memoribilia museum. Since they never intended to get the whole thing, they don't really have plans, but in the Commercial Appeal newspaper article (which I don't like to link to because it requires (free) registration) they do express an interest in preservation, if possible. So there's (a little) hope.

They have 30 days to get it off the property, however, which might be a logistical nightmare--and probably contributed to the low purchase price.

Satellite view of the coaster here. (http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1&ll=35.119553,-89.982131&spn=0.00197,0.003353) You can get an okay idea of the dips from the shadows, and a pretty good idea of the scale of the coaster if you zoom out an take a look at the Mid-South Coliseum immediately to the south or the Liberty Bowl to the northeast. Or just look at the scale on the page, I guess.

[spatch]

That is so bizarre. Come for a car, leave with the entire ride. The thing is I bet each car could've fetched $2500 if marketed and auctioned properly.

Poor Libertyland. The sting of auction is always the worst way for a park to go, even worse than total destruction by fire.

Grandma's house?

[(Anonymous)]

The Scream Machine is over a lake. Grandma's house would do fine, and make her some money besides. Maybe she could have some carnie-games, too. We'd all visit her more often, and not just for her fried chicken.