For some, the rubber ducks at Sprit Splash have sentimental value; for others, they translate to cold, hard cash.
Office of Student Involvement director Michael Preston estimates that 6,000 students tramped into the ice-cold water at Spirit Splash on Oct. 24 to claim one of the 2,400 luau-themed rubber ducks. Soon after the event, ads popped up on eBay, Craigslist and several of the “UCF class of …” pages on Facebook with ducks for sale.
Preston says the ducks cost $1.38 a piece, however, some students made more than 30 times that value. Freshman business major Rebecca Grimpe said people were selling ducks for upwards of $50 while others told bidders to “make an offer.”
“I think selling the ducks ruins the sentiment,” Grimpe said, adding that instead of taking the ducks and selling them, attendees should the let people who really want them have them. “It’s not right to try and profit off of something that is supposed to be special and bring the students together,” she said.
Preston says that OSI has been aware students selling the ducks for the past few years. “However, once a student catches a duck it is a giveaway and it becomes their property so there is not much we can do to intervene,” he said.
For some, buying ducks from other students is like a consolation prize after getting roughed-up at Spirit Splash. Matt Marstaller, a freshman studying finance and accounting, arranged to buy a duck from another student on Facebook for $25.
He says his friend bought him a duck for $20 at the event, and he wanted to buy his roommate one too since they went the event together and he returned empty-handed.
“The excitement of Spirit Splash and catching a duck would be better, but I know people that actually got hurt during the event, so surviving it is an accomplishment in itself even if you wind up duck-less,” Marstaller said.
Marstaller added he wanted to collect a duck for each of his four years at UCF, and would buy last year’s duck too if he could get it for a reasonable price.
While some students struggled and perhaps suffered injuries, collecting rubber ducks was no problem 6-foot-tall wrester, Frank Balaguer. The freshman sports and exercise science major bagged four of them with ease.
Balaguer said he kept one for himself, gave away two to people at the event and then posted one for sale on Facebook. He got a $30 offer from another student, but ended up selling it to his roommate instead — a five-year senior who has gone to Spirit Splash five times and never gotten a duck — for $20.
Balaguer explained that people are willing to pay for them because they’re exclusive, but later added, “The fact that people would buy a rubber duck is pretty damn outrageous.”
