Toy collector Joel Magee’s enormous Disney collection is going up for auction this month, almost two years after three semis carried the theme-park goodies away from his West Palm Beach home.

Magee’s stash – 6,000 pieces including retired ride vehicles, rare posters, refurbished animatronics, cast member costumes and Disneyland opening-day tickets – now is on display at a former Bed, Bath & Beyond store in Burbank, California, awaiting the auction conducted by Van Eaton Galleries.  Three days of bidding, in-person and online, begin July 17.

“It’s huge. … And, you know, all the signage ‘The Joel Magee Disneyland collection,’” Magee said. “I’m like, ‘Holy cats, this is a way bigger production than I ever could have imagined.’ But it is truly the first time that the whole collection has been together in one spot.”

Magee is a seasoned appraiser of toys, memorabilia and theme-park items, and he’s been collecting for more than 30 years. He has appeared on numerous television shows, including History Channel’s “Pawn Stars.” He is referred to as “America’s Toy Scout.”

“It took us a couple of years to actually sort through. He has 6,000 items,” said Mike Van Eaton, owner of the gallery and one of the exhibit curators. “Then we picked out about 1,500 that we thought would be good for this auction and told a good story.”

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Items in the auction are sometimes fanciful, sometimes unassuming.

“We also wanted to make sure that not everything was a $100,000 ride vehicle, that some pieces were $50 and some pieces were $100,” Van Eaton said. “We wanted to make sure we have something for everybody.”

The displayed collection is open to the public with free admission. Van Eaton walked the Orlando Sentinel through Magee’s wares via FaceTime.  Among the items seen: a truck that Walt Disney drove down Main Street at Disneyland, dozens of attractions posters, a Dumbo ride vehicle and a statue of Figment, the dragon character from Epcot.

He has three hitchhiking ghosts from Magic Kingdom’s Haunted Mansion and original hand-painted stretching room portraits from the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.

“They’re hand-painted stretch paintings and really, really incredible, really rare. He has three of the four and then he has a Doom Buggy, which is also extremely rare,” Van Eaton said.

Actor John Stamos, a noted Disney collector, visited the exhibit in Burbank and posted a quick-take TikTok video where he (tongue-in-cheekily) said, “Got it! Want it! Need it!” with items. He perked up for three refurbished Tiki Room bird animatronics (“Wow,” he mouthed) but said, “Don’t want it” with the Busby Berkeley figure from the dancer “cake” in the former Great Movie Ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

There’s an emphasis on Disneyland – it’s right there in the auction title – but Walt Disney World items are offered as well.

“For me, in auction, Disneyland stuff is still a stronger sale than Disney World stuff. It has little bit more, like, worldwide appeal and historical provenance, I guess,” Van Eaton said. “It’s not really that much older. It just tends to come across as being older and being the first park.”

But Epcot items, in particular, are gaining in popularity, he said.

“Disney World is actually catching up very quickly now because it’s gotten to the age where the people have got that same nostalgia,” Magee said.

A 540-page catalog, available online, shows the items along with price ranges of anticipated bids. Attractions posters are commonly in the $10,000 neighborhood.  A Starjets vehicle is listed between $15,000 and $20,000. A model for the sleeping monk figure in Epcot’s Spaceship Earth may bring between $500 and $700. A Magic Kingdom E-ticket from the 1970s may attract winning bids between $300 and $500.

Magee and Van Eaton both said they think the hitchhikers may be the top draw. The three figures, removed from the ride in 2010, were sold at a D23 auction in 2011.  Since then, they have been put on a custom display where they move their arms and heads while music from the attraction plays.

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“An incredible piece of Haunted Mansion memorabilia, and the only three hitchhiking ghosts known to have been sold by Disney,” read the catalog, which assigned an estimate of between $100,000 and $200,000 for the display.

“It’s going to be really crazy. … But I do believe that those hitchhiking ghosts are going to be the will ones. Will they hit a million dollars? We’ll see,” Magee said.

Van Eaton Galleries earns a commission on the Magee sales.  He had so many items that there will be another auction, although the ride vehicles are concentrated in the current sale. A documentary is being planned.

But wait, there’s more.

“A lot of people said, ‘Are you done?’ And I go, ‘No, of course not.’ I’ll be in this business, hopefully, for many years to come. This is just one chapter in the book,” Magee said. “The book is still open, and people are still bringing me stuff.”

Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. Subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.