Nerdist founder — and massive Disney fan — Chris Hardwick takes viewers on a trip through Disney history in the new series Up for Auction, which is now streaming on the CW’s website and the CW app ahead of a video-on-demand bow in May.
In the eight-episode series, the former Talking Dead host gets an inside look at the world of high-dollar auctions as his gallery owner friends Mike and Janeen Van Eaton get ready to put the largest privately owned Disney Park memorabilia collection in the world under the hammer.
“He has like five times as many things as went up for auction,” Hardwick tells ABC Audio of Joel Magee‘s massive trove.
“So they had to pick the best 1,499 pieces for this particular auction … it wasn’t even his whole collection — wasn’t even the majority of it!” Chris enthuses.
A collector himself, Hardwick insists “just getting to see it like in a warehouse first, like, covered up. It was so, like, you know, Raiders of the Lost Ark … just like this archeological dig of, like, lifting up a tarp and, ‘Oh my God, here’s a Dumbo ride car! Here’s the control panel for the Haunted Mansion! Or here’s a Skyway car!’ … I rode that ride a ton, it doesn’t exist anymore.”
Hardwick says seeing people’s “emotional reactions” to the exhibition was a high point for him, and then to have a “front row seat” to the auction action “was a nerdy dream come true.”
Hardwick says there’s “a little something for everyone” in the series. “There’s a lot of history in there, there’s a lot of great stories … And you also do get that, ‘Oh my God, that sold for how much?!"”
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