Attention MSU fans: Huge Sparty for sale. One catch: Must have 30-foot wall

• Three Michigan State Spartan heads that once adorned the football stadium’s scoreboard are up for auction
• The metal Sparty heads are as big as 25 feet tall
• The sales will raise funds for MSU’s athletics department

What’s the market like for a well-crafted metal Spartan warrior in profile?

The Michigan State University Surplus Store will find out on May 9 after 15-day auctions for three Big Screen versions, taken right off of outdated football stadium scoreboards.

“Very large scoreboards,” store operations manager Chris Hewitt emphasized to Bridge Michigan.

Students, graduates and fans would be hard pressed to more unique MSU memorabilia, but it comes with a catch, Hewitt said. 

“Someone needs to have about a 30 or 30 square foot wall to hang it on.”

The auctions launched on Thursday, two days after social media teasers prompted waves of anticipation, keeping Hewitt’s phone buzzing with notifications as over 100,000 people read his announcement about the Sparty heads.

The stadium sign Spartys are the latest in the thousands of items that pass through the surplus store every year. About 7,000 items are listed on the website, and the store — located on Storage Road just south of the campus recycling center  — opens every Friday. 

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Futons, mini-fridges and desk lamps are staples, particularly after student move-out, a time when Hewitt calls “our Super Bowl.”

Campus departments send their leftovers and unneeded items, too, hoping to make a few bucks to bolster their budgets. Last year, the store returned $1.6 million to the university. 

But it’s the athletic department that really gets noticed with its consignments, Hewitt said. Replacement of the basketball court at Breslin Center drew a crowd in 2017; and the old Breslin jumbotron also caused a big stir two years ago.

This time, the $28 million football stadium renovation is generating the excitement, made possible because part of the stadium work includes replacing the three scoreboards at a cost of $10 million. 

The Spartan from the basketball  Jumbotron was about 10 feet tall. 

The ones offered in this round are “about three or four times the size of that,” Hewitt said. “So we’re kind of curious about whoever gets it and what they’re going to do with it.”

These three Spartans are made of metal, and they’re disassembled into four pieces in the parking lot, waiting for a buyer. They’d been on watchful duty at the stadium since 2012, replacing basic Sparty-free scoreboards. 

And the signs are in “remarkably good shape,” Hewitt said. 

The Spartys may even be practical, if you happen to be one of the dozen or so colleges that also use the symbolic combatant.  Plus, about 300 high schools across the U.S. share the ancient Greek warrior mascot.

And how perfect would it be for the auction winner to live in Sparta, Michigan? 

Despite the size limitations, Hewitt expects all three Sparty heads to sell. After all, a $500 bid was placed in the first hours of bidding, with another on a different Sparty following shortly afterwards. 

But he wouldn’t predict the final sale prices. Finding a comparable listing would be impossible, for the scoreboard signs and so much more in the store.

“It’s surplus,” Hewitt said. “It’s eclectic.”