The stegosaurus, over 29 feet long and described as “housebroken,” is selling for $1,260. The adult triceratops, $2,230. A life-size T. rex, 39 feet long, 18 feet tall, “slightly used” and “well loved,” will cost you $2,700.
A dinosaur theme park in Leonia, New Jersey, is closing next month, and with it has come an unusual opportunity for dinosaur enthusiasts and anyone else interested in adding a bit of prehistoric panache to a boring backyard.
Thirty-one animatronic dinosaurs on display at Field Station: Dinosaurs — including some that growl and roar — are for sale. If social media is any guide, the prospect of owning an enormous human-made dinosaur, even a used one, has captured the imaginations of people far beyond New Jersey.
Screenshots of Facebook Marketplace posts advertising the creatures have been widely shared.
“That’s a good price for a used triceratops,” one person noted on the social platform X.
“I have the money, but I don’t have the means of getting them to Australia,” wrote another.
More than a few people seemed interested in purchasing a dinosaur to taunt their homeowners associations.
On a recent sunny Sunday, the man behind the sale, Guy Gsell, was fussing with an electrical box hidden in the brush, flipping switches. The apatosaurus wasn’t moving as it was supposed to.
“We had rain last night, and sometimes the water gets in,” said Gsell, the president of the park.
The apatosaurus, with its unbelievably long neck, is 75 feet long, 20 feet tall and priced at $2,860.
Gsell has mixed emotions about selling off the dinosaurs. “It’s a little sad,” he said. “It really kind of feels like I’m putting a pet up for adoption.”
But the park has been open for 13 years, and Gsell is ready to let it go. “Our lease was coming up and, the county — for good reason — they need a commitment. Is it going to be another five years? Is it going be another 10 years?”
Field Station: Dinosaurs stretches across 7 acres and includes a variety of prehistoric scenes.
In one, a 29-foot hadrosaurus guards a nest of eggs.
Elsewhere, a gravel path winds past an adult and a baby triceratops into a forested area, where a Dakotaraptor and a Utahraptor growl beneath leafy trees.
A sand pit serves as a “dig site” where bones and fossils can be uncovered, and a large, round, beige tent that looks straight out of a Hollywood movie about daring archaeologists is where birthday parties are held.
The dinosaurs move, sort of. Some of their heads turn; some of their mouths open and close, jerkily; some of their arms bounce.
Gsell, who has a background in theater and exhibition experiences, is more focused on the interactive programming, like “T-Rex Feeding Frenzy,” a musical show with audience participation that uses the scientific method to study the eating habits of the famous carnivore. There’s also “Dinosaur Daycare,” in which children help baby (puppet) dinosaurs hatch — and sing a song about “which came first, the dinosaur or the egg?”
Gsell will continue to produce educational shows about dinosaurs for schools, libraries and museums.
Although the dinosaurs have separate listings on Facebook Marketplace, Gsell hopes that one organization — a zoo, a museum or another theme park — will buy the entire collection.
“We have prioritized institutional buyers,” he said as a baryonyx growled behind him. He has received more than 100 phone calls, from as far away as France. “I’m pretty confident that we’re going to be able to go that way.”
But that doesn’t mean that natural science nerds around the world aren’t dreaming about having their very own life-size dinosaur.
Yinan Wang, a geologist who uses the handle “Fossil Locator” on social media, posted about the dinosaur sale on X on Sept. 25. His post now has 7.6 million views.
Wang, who lives in Arlington, Virginia, reached out to Gsell’s company via Facebook Marketplace.
“I was interested in one of their velociraptors,” he said. “It’s only $700, and it’s small enough that I can fit easily on the back of a truck bed.”
Wang has a 6-year-old daughter and 15-month-old son and said that his wife, a marine biologist, approves of the purchase.
It should be noted that buyers are responsible for disassembling, shipping and transportation costs, and the dinosaurs are available for pickup only after Nov. 9.
The dinosaurs were custom-made in China, and are constructed from latex foam — with a rough texture that is also squishy, kind of like a painted sponge. (On dinosaur petting zoo days, visitors can touch select creatures.) The dinosaurs are not made from molds; each was carved individually. And each has a standard household plug that can go into an ordinary outlet.
While the dinosaurs were made to be outside, in all weather, that doesn’t mean that they are animal-proof.
“Birds love the foam for their nests, so pretty much every morning one of our jobs is walking around and seeing if the birds have pecked the foam out of the dinosaurs,” Gsell said. “We’ve had raccoons actually burrow into the dinosaurs and set up a nest.”
The parking lot at the dinosaur park was full on a recent Sunday, as visitors took their last looks.
Nine-year-old Brendan Riley stood inside a cracked dinosaur egg, posing for a photo. It was his fourth or fifth time at the park; he first visited when he was 4.
“It’s a little sad that it’s closing soon,” he said. He gestured to his grandmother, Carol Riley, who was using her phone to snap pictures of him. “I wish Mimi had a million dollars so they could stay open.”
Although Gsell said he feels rather somber about closing the New Jersey location, there is another, in Kansas, that will remain open.
“If I really get lonely for the dinosaurs,” he said, “I can just go visit my Wichita dinosaurs.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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