Museum of the Weird

What Museum of the Weird does

Museum of the Weird is a single-location pay-per-entry oddities attraction operating inside the Lucky Lizard Curios & Gifts shop at 412 East 6th Street in downtown Austin, Texas. Founded and operated by Steve and Veronica Busti, the museum presents three levels of curated exhibits in the tradition of the 19th-century American dime museums associated with P.T. Barnum, drawing on the owners' more than two decades of experience in the oddity trade.

The business runs on a direct-to-consumer ticketed admission model with no B2B, wholesale, or licensing revenue streams. Pricing is fixed at $12.99 for adults and $8.99 for children under eight, with timed-entry slots booked through the Reservation Genie online platform. Operating hours span Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., giving seven weekly daytime-to-evening windows.

Revenue mechanics are entirely retail/tourism: walk-in tourists and Sixth Street nightlife foot traffic purchase tickets and exit through the adjacent gift shop. The organization employs seven people across ticket sales, exhibit curation, and shop operations. There is no evidence of digital products, online content monetization, franchise operations, or outside investors — the museum functions as a self-contained, owner-operated small business with the gift shop as both a co-revenue line and a marketing funnel.

Name

Museum of the Weird

Legal name

Museum of the Weird

Website

https://museumoftheweird.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Tourist Attractions / Museum Cultural Attractions

NAICS

Gift, Novelty, and Souvenir Retailers (459420), Hobby, Toy, and Game Retailers (459120)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900), Retail-Hobby, Toy & Game Shops (5945), Costume Jewelry & Novelties (3960)

akta.pro primary industry

Museum, Zoo & Attraction Gift Shops (CRALAJAG)

akta.pro secondary industry

Tourist Souvenir & Destination Gift Shops (CRALAJAA)

Keywords

• Oddities museum
• Dime museum
• Wax museum exhibits
• Tourist attraction
• Sideshow exhibits

Headquarters

HQ city

Austin

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Museum Admission Tickets: One-time admission fees charged to visitors for museum entry. Revenue is transaction-based, collected at point of sale either online via Reservation Genie or at the door. Two pricing tiers: adult and child (under 8). No subscription or recurring revenue model.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Museum of the Weird operates a self-guided, three-level walk-through museum of oddities, curiosities, wax figures, shrunken heads, the Fiji mermaid, the Minnesota Ice Man, horror memorabilia, and human remains, located inside Lucky Lizard Curios & Gifts on Austin's 6th Street. Admission is sold as a single ticket product (adult $12.99, child under 8 $8.99) either at the door or through timed-entry online booking via Reservation Genie.

Product overview

Museum of the Weird operates as a single unified physical attraction—a traditional 'dime museum' experience popularized by P.T. Barnum in the 1800s. The core product is the self-guided museum tour through three levels of exhibits featuring oddities, curiosities, monsters, and bizarre artifacts. The attraction is enhanced by SFANTHOR'S CHAMBER OF HORRORS (featuring a life-size giant gorilla and monster wax figures), an adjacent Lucky Lizard Curios and Gifts shop, and an online tour booking calendar powered by Reservation Genie for timed entry.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Museum of the Weird Admission A self-guided tour of a traditional "dime museum" attraction for individual visitors, families, and tourists in downtown Austin, featuring three levels of oddities, curiosities, wax figures, monsters, mummies, shrunken heads, the Fiji mermaid, the Minnesota Ice Man, and horror memorabilia.
• Lucky Lizard Curios & Gifts Gift Shop An adjacent, free-to-enter retail gift shop offering shirts, stickers, magnets, bags, toys, postcards, and handmade jewelry from local artisans, located at 412 E 6th Street, Austin, TX.

Named customers4 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Lucky Lizard Curios & GiftscoreOthersThe museum is physically located inside the Lucky Lizard Curios & Gifts shop. Owners Steve and Veronica Busti own both the gift shop and the museum. Some items in the gift shop were 'too weird and too interesting to justify selling,' leading to the creation of the museum to display them. Free entry to the gift shop with museum admission.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves3 records

Direct peers

• Madame Tussauds: Global wax-figure museum chain featuring celebrity likenesses and horror-themed exhibits. Directly comparable in wax-figure component (SFANTHOR'S CHAMBER OF HORRORS) and paid-admission attraction model.
• Ripley's Believe It or Not!: Multi-location chain of oddity museums featuring shrunken heads, unusual artifacts, and interactive exhibits. Closest direct comparison to Museum of the Weird's dime-museum concept and oddities focus, scaled across many geographies.
• National Museum of Funeral History: Houston-based museum dedicated to funeral customs, coffins, and death-related artifacts. Comparable themed-museum positioning with single-location, tourist-driven admissions model.
• Museum of Death: Independent macabre/oddity museum (originally New Orleans, with Hollywood location) displaying death-related artifacts, serial-murder memorabilia, and unusual specimens. Direct thematic peer to Museum of the Weird's macabre exhibits and human-remains displays.
• The Mütter Museum: Philadelphia medical-history museum featuring anatomical specimens, medical oddities, and preserved human remains. Comparable in its curation of unusual/educational artifacts and willingness to display human specimens.
• Hollywood Wax Museum: Wax-figure attraction chain (Hollywood, Myrtle Beach, Pigeon Forge) featuring celebrity and monster wax figures with photo opportunities. Directly comparable in wax-figure exhibits and self-guided photo-op attraction format.
• The Vampire Museum: Boutique Las Vegas museum showcasing vampire lore, horror memorabilia, and macabre artifacts. Closely aligned with Museum of the Weird's macabre/oddity niche and small-footprint attraction model.

Emerging players

• Sideshow / Carnival Attraction Operators (e.g., Coney Island Sideshow): Live sideshow and carnival-attraction operators preserving the same P.T. Barnum-era dime-museum tradition that Museum of the Weird explicitly cites. Shares heritage and oddity-focused entertainment positioning.
• Odditorium (Ripley's): Ripley's branded oddities attraction format, narrower specialization than full Believe It or Not! museums. Demonstrates the scaled sub-format of the oddity museum category Museum of the Weird operates in.

Regional players

• Austin Ghost Tours: Austin-based macabre-themed experience operator offering downtown ghost walks. Competes for the same tourist dollar in Austin's 6th Street district and overlaps in macabre/unusual positioning.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/museum-of-the-weird

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Museum of the Weird