The Cookie Jar Digest

 Volume XVIII #2
June/July 2014

Crumbs from my jar . . . .
I just have one thing to say to new collectors -- take it slow and don't buy everything you see.

I thought I sort-of followed that advice. But when cleaning out my attic, getting things ready for auction and just generally decluttering, it's apparent I didn't. At all.

Yes, I bought a few too many cookie jars, tins and toys.

But the one bit of advice I did follow, once I realized what I was doing, was staying away from the stuff in poor or bad condition, unless the jar was so rare that I knew I wouldn't have a chance to buy it again for a long time.

Case in point is the Yum-Yum jar with poor paint, I bought it with the intention of having it restored, which I did. Although I'm sure that particular jar has come up for sale since my purchase, I've never seen it again. But I also wound up paying over $300. to restore it.

Today it's a buyer's world and the one thing they do not want to buy, is something with chips, cracks or major paint loss. If you are buying, yes you can get those things at cheap prices, but that's what you will wind up having. A jar that will not be worth much if and when you decide to sell.

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Mickelson Auction Next Weekend
July 12 is the date of the next Mickelson Cookie Jar auction!
Disclaimer: About half of the jars are mine! I know I'm not the first to tell you this, but it's a heck of a lot easier to buy cookie jars than it is to get them ready to sell. How on earth did I ever collect so many. And boxing up the 250 or so jars in the auction has not even made a dent in the jars I have. Since we weren't sure how this auction might go, I've tried to put up a mixed selection of jars, and not many are what I consider common jars.

There were a few that were hard to put up for sale, but I had to start somewhere. Little Audrey, Rosa Parks and Pikachu were some of the harder ones to part with.

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Hakes
Only two cookie jars are in the upcoming Hake's auction, but they're goodies! The Peter Max Zero Man and the 1960s Enesco's Snow White.

As always Hake's auctions are fascinating to browse through with a diverse selection of items that especially appeal to pop culture and Americana collectors:

As Hake’s followers would know, the company has been entrusted with auctioning Disney character toys and collectibles from the estate of Maurice Sendak (1928-2012), the beloved children’s book author and illustrator best known for Where The Wild Things Are. Auction #212 includes Hake’s third selection of items from the Sendak estate, including three very rare Mickey Mouse club buttons made expressly for movie theaters to give to children. Ironically, those very same buttons passed through Ted Hake’s hands once before.

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eBay Auction Prices
A look back at some of the top prices over the past two months brings a few surprises, but not for the top ten jars. Appleman was very strong in May taking over most of the places in the list. Radko continues to get high prices for their holiday jars, but when looking a little further it was nice to see a few surprises -- along with a few shocks. A little bit of exposure on a TV show always helps with the Big Bang Batman selling for $350 and a Treasure Craft jar shown on Friends also selling for $350. It pays to mention the TV connection when listing!

But the biggest surprise to me was the Hobby Lobby Uncle Sam jar that received 62 bids and sold for $353. Someone really wanted that jar!

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FACEBOOK
There are several groups on Facebook for cookie jar collectors, so if you're on Facebook, join a group and chat with other collectors.
Cookie Jar News is the one I started. It features quizzes, news and polls.

Cookie Jar Matchmaker A place to list jars for sale, parts to sell or you're looking for, upcoming auctions.

Cookie Jar Collectors was started by Norine Plett and has lots of folks sharing their finds and treasures.
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