The subject of PEZ dispensers comes up in this newsgroup from time to time. I jsut thought I'd share this article with you all:
THE COLLECTOR
(regular column)
by Ross Skoggard
Toronto Star
June 6, 1993
(used without permission)Popular PEZ and Swatch defy normal market rules
It's unseemly.
The product is still being manufactured and already next weekend they're liquidating 100 items from the holdings of "early PEZ dispenser collectors" Sue and Richie Sternfeld of Glendale New York at a major international action house in Manhattan.
PEZ dispensers, little spring-operated, refillable holders and dispensers of the Austrian candy mints are still available at candy counters for pennies.
But that hasn't inhibited Christie's east auction house from bestowing that ultimate imprimatur of collectible legitimacy: a catalogue sale in New York for some of the more venerable (pre-'80) examples; or from estimating their value at hundreds of dollars. Obviously these prices are expected only for PEZ dispensers no longer being made such as early ones without "feet"--the little base at the bottom of the candy machine was added by PEZ only when they realized the dispensers were being lined up as displays in thousands of private collections.
But it used to be a mass-market item had to be "out of print" as it were: no longer manufactured before collectors started building a credible secondary market for it.
[many paragraphs deleted about Swatch watches, an Elvis letter, Hawaiian shirts, part of the original Star Trek console, the tiller from the African Queen, etc.]
But the collecting world is most concerned about the fate of the PEZ dispensers next Saturday. As far as I know the hobby has never been tested at a major sale like this.
Expected to establish an auction record for a PEZ dispenser is a prototype of a Donald Duck Soft head with a special base (est. $3-to-$500). Close behind will be superhero dispensers and Disney characters as well as holiday theme dispensers.
So if you're lucky enough to have an early one do not, repeat: Do Not Sell It before next Saturday. It's value could literally double overnight.
Be especially kind to it if it's a special "whistle head" dispenser. These were distributed in Canada but not the U.S. and American collectors will pay a premium for them.
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You can write to Ross Skoggard, Sunday Leisure & Home section, Toronto Star, One Yonge Street, M5E 1E6.
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