Post #121181 by Tangaroa on Fri, Oct 22, 2004 3:10 PM

OK - I kinda like that the winner isn't a Disneyland fanatic...
Here's the LA Times article, if you don't want to register:

A Ghoul and His Money ($37,400!) Will Soon Part
By Kimi Yoshino, Times Staff Writer

Cary Sharp is not a Disney zealot. Truth be told, he's been to Disneyland only once.
But he acknowledged Thursday afternoon — minutes after winning a $37,400 EBay charity auction to have his name and epitaph carved on a tombstone in the Anaheim park's Haunted Mansion attraction — that reasonable minds might disagree.
"I enjoy Disney; I'm not a Disney fanatic," said Sharp, a 37-year-old doctor and health care attorney from Baton Rouge, La. "Of course, this would raise questions now."
He placed his first bid Monday for a whopping $35,500 "as a joke" to give his friends one more thing to tease him about.
"To be honest, I seriously thought I would be outbid," he said. "I guess I'm a little bit stunned right now…. But I definitely have no regrets. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
Disneyland has never given fans a chance to be a part of any attraction. Only longtime employees are immortalized in the park — in Haunted Mansion gravestones and in the store names along Main Street.
"It's been phenomenal," said Duncan Wardle, vice president of press and publicity for the Disneyland Resort. "I think it just completely caught people's imagination. We've never done anything like that."
When the tombstone offer first hit EBay, horror author Clive Barker started the bidding at $750. By the end of the first night, it had far surpassed Disney's expectations, climbing to $16,000.
But there are people like Patrick Hurd, 29, of Oklahoma City, a huge Haunted Mansion fan who went so far as to give his son the middle name of Gracey, after the ghost host in the attraction.
His final bid was $35,666.
"We honestly couldn't have gone any higher than we did," Hurd said. "We were going to max out the credit cards."
Sharp, meanwhile, logged back on to the auction with five minutes to spare, figuring he'd be willing to go a little past his $37,400 bid, which held steady Tuesday night and through Wednesday afternoon. But he didn't have to.
Within minutes of winning, he was on the phone with Disneyland officials, confirming that he had the money to pay (he does) and making sure he would sign all the necessary waivers (he will).
The money will be split between the Boys and Girls Club in Anaheim and one in Sharp's hometown. And it's a tax-deductible contribution.
"At least that'll be a plus," he said. "That'll take the bite out of the $37,400."