Geauga Lake's Big Dipper for sale on eBay

Bottom line is that the person who bought it is the only person that has saved it from the wrecking ball for the last 3 years. The guy that bought the ride is a good guy that has always had good intentions.

Are you the mystery buyer, ffej?

If not, do you personally know him/her?

If not, again, then how do you know that this wasn't a failed profit-making scheme?

I'll admit that I'm not really following the big story here. I didn't really even like the coaster when it was open.

I am not the buyer. I do know the agent for the ride very well and do believe they have had the best of intentions from the start. I have been close to the situation for a while. I know they are good guys.

Being a good guy doesn't get you off the hook for making irrational decisions, namely buying a wooden coaster without a place to put it, or a plan to take it down.

Bottom line is that the person who bought it is the only person that has saved it from the wrecking ball for the last 3 years.

I liked Big Dipper (except my last ride on it), and would like to see it moved elsewhere, but lets be honest about a few things.

No one who has the means to run the ride at a park or facility is interested in buying it or they would have.

Saving it from the wreckign ball for three years means nothing if no one wants it and it eventually is destryoed.

I applaud the original buyer for trying to preserve it, but in any economy, you don't go in and buy something like this 'just because'. You go in with a plan on how to make it work, and we have no information that the buyer had any intentions to do that, all we have is "They kept it from being destryoed". Okay, but for how long? It can't sit there and rot forever.

How do you know he didn't have a plan? If you remember way back then, we had just started the recession. Nobody knew how low it would go or for how long.I do know without a shadow of a doubt, that there was a plan.And by the way, being a good guy does count for a great deal.

Having a plan isn't the same as having a viable plan. Enacting a plan during a recession that doesn't factor in the effects of said recession is not a viable plan.

Yeah, I mean he/she didn't have a plan, I have tons of plans, but as Brandon pointed out, you need a viable plan. I know that if I had some money to purchase this, having, as you stated 'just started the recession at the time', I wouldn't have purchased it without having a solid plan in place.

And I don't know if the person had a viable plan, there's no way to know that because they've hidden their identity, and you're speaking on their behalf anonomously as well.

Just because they had plans for it doesn't mean they had the means to follow thru, which is obvious since the ride is still sitting where it always has. I could go out and purchase a house with plans to do something with it, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a viable plan. Much like what happened with Freestyle/Hard Rock park, you need a viable plan, the money to start AND money to continue to operate said plan, and an exit strategy. The only thing the person who purchased Big Dipper seemed to have was enough money to buy it and a plan. That simply isn't enough.

I wish it were. I wish Cedar Point would move the thing up there. But they're not interested, no one else with the ability to run it and make money off it seems to be interested, so, what? It's sat there for 3 years doing nothing.

I don't blame the guy for not having a plan on the day of the auction. As far as I'm concerned, all he bought was some time. Like others have said, if no one had bid, that thing would be a stacked in a heap in the Turtle Beach wave pool right now. He took a chance that someone might eventually buy it/move it/preserve it, and it sounds like Cedar Fair has been amicable with giving him time to find a buyer (probably because they themselves can't find a buyer for the land around it, so what's the rush?). If he had $5000 to blow on this adventure, that's no skin off my back.

I did like the Big Dipper. And I don't come with the bias of decades of memories either; I never went to Geauga Lake until 2006, despite living an hour away. I'd love to ride it again if it ever becomes operational, but I also realize that's unlikely to ever happen.

I will say though that I also don't understand all the secrecy behind who actually owns it. For a long time we had "Tom the Apex Guy" representing him, then "Mr Midway" and now Jeff Shimko. Whoever is running the eBay auction seems to be the actual owner, or at least is responding to the Q & A. I mean, it's not exactly Disney gobbling up swampland in the '60s.

ffej said:
And by the way, being a good guy does count for a great deal.

I miss the days when I had that kind of optimistic viewpoint...

+1 :)

He took a chance that someone might eventually buy it/move it/preserve it

And that's why, to me, it seems to be wasted time. I wasn't even aware until this thread that Dipper had been sold, actually. I thought CP still owned it, and was letting it sit there whilst trying to either sell it, move it, or wait to demolish it. Now that I know some third party has owned it all this time, I wonder why they even bothered.

No other park came along in the beginning and purchased it (For, what $5000?) because they apparently weren't interested. CF isn't interested. So it's just going to sit there and rot, and someone who did purchase it in the hopes that maybe some day someone would pick it up is out the money they paid for it, and likely some personal property tax money.

So while I'd love to see BD moved somewhere, it isn't likley to happen. Look at Thunder Eagle. It sat in piles and was up for a steal (and was a fairly new coaster) for a long time until someone decided to put it up as the new Pippen. Wood Coasters simply aren't something most parks are willing to buy used.

And I still would likely rather have seen Villain moved.

I can't comment on how good the ride was. I don't have a problem with the guy buying the coaster when he did. Few people can predict a recession-- even so many supposedly experts were blindsided by this one. Because no park wanted the coaster right then, doesn't necessarily mean there isn't a place for it now.

I think there is more potential for a deal being made if the person would be above board with who he is. It doesn't allow for a level of trust to be developed when a potential buyer is dealing with some agent with an internet nickname, and the owner stays hidden from view like Charlie from Charlie's Angels or the neighbor from Home Improvement. It's a cute TV gimmick, but poor business practice.

There has to be something to it if Jeff and I can actually agree on something here. And my apologies to the people in hell who are freezing their asses off right now.

ffej said:
Bottom line is that the person who bought it is the only person that has saved it from the wrecking ball for the last 3 years.

He hasn't saved anything. It's sitting there rotting, and the only reason it continues to sit there rotting is because Cedar Fair hasn't sold the land. The moment they do, the ride is toast.

Few people can predict a recession-- even so many supposedly experts were blindsided by this one. Because no park wanted the coaster right then, doesn't necessarily mean there isn't a place for it now.

It isn't that I necessarily disagree...but at the time, no parks were interested, so I don't know why the buyer thought that they were going to buy it and then sell it. It's obvious that they didn't have a place to store the entire structure of the ride for safe keeping for when there is a time when a park is interested, and I think that's foolish on the buyer's part.

And I don't really buy the idea that a park out there is going to be more willing to buy the ride, even if the owner were up front about who they were. I don't think that particular issue is the reason no parks are biting, I think it's the same reason they didn't bite at $5000 directly from the original seller.

Maybe the person had a plan to purchase it, move it, and make money off of it, I don't know. But that fell thru, and no one else is stepping up to buy the thing now, just like they didn't when it first sold. But just looking at things and taking them at face value, it looks like a poor decision.

What if the recession didn't hit? Unless the buyer had a decent plan to move and operate the ride themself, what would they have done with the ride if the economy didn't fall apart? Again, it wasn't that anyone was trying to buy it then, and it doesn't look like anyone is interested now (Or it likely wouldn't be on eBay).

If anyone was genuinely interested in this coaster, they'd probably do what Six Flags did with the Little Dipper from Kiddieland.

It seems to me that the mysterious buyer had a plan; a plan to make some money. After spending $5000 to purchase the coaster, it was on the market a year later for 30 times what the mystery buyer paid for it. When it wouldn't sell the price was reduced to 13 times what is was originally purchased. Now it's on E-bay but the minimal bid is still close to 2 times the original amount. It seem the intentions are alot different then the 'good samaritan trying to do good for humanity' picture that is being painted. If that was the case this mysterious person should be giving the coaster to any organization or individual that could actually save it from being torn down. Or at the most at least trying to sell it for the investment he/she put in to it not trying to make 30x their initial investment

Best first post ever.

Jeff like Casamijo's first post "alot". ;)