What is your opinion?
I had discovered I had a very old item which is 75 to 90+ years old. Upon doing a Google image search, nothing online matched. I contacted the manufacturer to see if they could give any information about it. Even a simple thing like which decade it was from, etc. Not even they could provide a single detail. As far as I'm concerned, that makes it a true mystery & makes me feel like it is one of their very rare items from the past. Do you agree with my estimation or is it wish thinking simply because a company not having info on something so old doesn't make a difference? Have a good week. 🙂
60 comments
1richdoug
·5 months agoi know and sell mostly sport cards; checked your site. Saw an 87 topps Devon white autograph card; that you say is SP(short print) nope; that set they made millions of each player. He was an ave player at best; i sold one 4-5 year back for the normal 7.00 F/S. You have him for 21US plus 9USD, shipped from CN for a 30.00 common player with a not needed COA. ship is .78c stamp from here .For anyone to answer , you would need to place photos, which many have done before you.
sakic92710
OP5 months agoIt is short printed. Is it or is it not serial numbered? Why wouldn't it need a COA if it is an autographed item? On any auto'd item I've ever sold, I was asked if there is certificate. Shipping is free.
inhawaii
·5 months agoThe first thing to come to mind is .... I would offer to sell it to them.
If they made the thing that long ago and are still in business, I would think they might want it.
toomuchstuffagain35
·5 months agoApparently they do, but only as a donation to their 'museum'.
pls-consignments
·5 months agoPersonally, when I come across old items that have no established provenance or pedigree, I will do my best to describe the item, including the use of the word "RARE", and put it up as a 10-day auction.
jewelbiz
·5 months agoWhat is your opinion?
My opinion is that every single person on this seller board who responded to your question is being very kind to you and so supportive in their answers. I commend them!
To me in my real honest opinion your item for children is a germ laden, 🦠 bacteria plentiful toxic thing that no child should ever cuddle, go anywhere near it or even touch!
Plus I have a long history of putting things like this out on the NYC city street for anyone at all to just pick up and take away…Sometimes I even walk 1 block and put it in front of a church!
But you asked for our opinions and this is mine!
sakic92710
OP5 months agoLOL If a scientist put your skin under a microscope, I bet he/she would find much more bacteria just on your arm. Germs are everywhere. That's my opinion. 🙂
tarotfindsandmore
·5 months agoA reserve isn't necessary, but it does give some sellers peace of mind when they're completely in the dark about the value of an item. The OP seems to think this is a valuable item and the solds indicate that some of these items do have some value. I recommended going with the median because of the range in the solds, but the item may be worth far more or far less. If it's worth more the reserve won't matter, if it's worth significantly less the seller has the option of hanging on to the item to sell elsewhere or skip selling altogether.
I don't use auctions or reserves, but they do serve a purpose. You put a reserve of 100 bucks on an item like the one pic and you'll find out very quickly if you're out of line so you can decide whether it should even be listed at all. I personally wouldn't bother selling an item like this at all, but it's not something I know anything about so I'm not going to tell someone to put it up for a buck when there are solds for items like it that have sold for several hundred dollars. Starting with a very low open, rather than what you want (because, again, how do you even know what you want here?), let's you find out what you should want.
luckythewinner
·5 months agoAs far as I'm concerned, that makes it a true mystery
Since you do not know the answer, I would agree that it is a mystery to you.
& makes me feel like it is one of their very rare items
Without knowing the nature of your contact with the company or who you talked to, it is hard to tell if it is rare.
from the past.
At 75-90 years old, I would agree that it is from the past.
sakic92710
OP5 months agoApparently, not even the manufacture has an answer, so yes, it is a mystery. My contact with the company involved an email with photos. Not sure what your point is. I'm supposed to know the employee history or knowledge they have; whomever responded to my email? Should I write back & tell her that I need to hear from someone in the company who is more knowledgeable? lol I'm glad you agree it's from the past. Another useless point to add that gives nothing of value.
soh.maryl
·5 months agoWasn't your original question "What Is Your Opinion"?
sakic92710
OP5 months agoYes. People's opinion on my assessment of the item in question. Not on my wording or about the knowledge of an employee who replied to me.
trip98
·5 months agoVery cute. About 10 years ago I acquired a lot of over 800 stuffed artisan and collectible manufactured teddy bears with related accessories. In my experience, older Merrythought teddy bears and their other plush animals are not as valuable as a Steiff item- usually top of the resale market along with some very specific artisan made bears. If this item is small it may have been a go-along accessory with a bigger teddy bear, doll or something. So there is no individual record of the item. On worthpoint, there is a similar Merrythought horse, not exact, on wheels that sold around $54 dollars with the same sewn in tag.
johnrj1226
·5 months agoMost many people that were around to see a this 75 to 90 y. o. item of yours probably ain't still working or don't recall them or simply have gone off to another life.
Petrified wood is very, very old but ain't worth much. Was used to make a foundation for homes by the hometeaders in the western Dakotas ( not many trees around).
Maybe those guys on Pawn Stars can help you with your issue.
tobaccocardyahoo
·5 months ago75 - 90+ years old is not old to some of us, who are in that age range and sell merchandise which is older than we are.
My experience with collectors is that condition matters. Many would not consider your toy at any price. Toy collectors are among the fussiest I have dealt with.
Sometimes we get lucky and find a buyer who has a strong personal connection with a stuffie, and its hit the jackpot time, but I think this may be too old for one of those people to have survived and continue to buy.
I suspect this toy is simply obscure, not rare, since rare is often a value judgement. What is rare to me as a seller is simply uncommon to someone who cannot see what it has to offer.
Its a sweet toy, and if it does not smell musty or otherwise offensive might be nice to cuddle.
meme6253
·5 months agoBased on the information that you have given, I would agree with your assessment that the item is rare given the manufacturers response, Very rare is hard to say & I could not offer any advice as how to price the item, You may price it way to high or low,bashort has a pretty good idea, List it & see what type of inquiries you receive.
44012
·5 months agoIt's kinda cute.
If this was a favorite toy of mine from long ago perhaps I would be interested in buying it.
I am being honest.
I tend to like things that give me warm and fuzzy feelings from my kiddo years.
christworks
·5 months ago@sakic92710 If you are comfortable with AI, I would upload a few photos of the item to ChatGPT. If it has any sort of packaging, make sure to capture photos of that and any writing on it, too. I've had a couple of MCM items that I could not find any information on from standard searching through image or text. AI is still flawed in a lot of respect, but ChatGPT handles images very well. In both instances it was able to tell me what the item was, history of the manufacture, and in one case provided me a link to a copy of Goodhouse Keeping magazine that contained an ad for the item from the early 50s. That ad was extremely helpful. ChatGPT page number for the ad, but it was off by 3 pages. I still found it quite easily once I knew where to look.
gator08041971
·5 months ago@sakic92710
With regards to the safety label on this particular item that was required for toys in Canada, that didn't begin till around 1970. So this toy is going to be at most 55ish years old. But it could be a bit younger as well, even to the 80s. Based purely on the Canada Ontario Safety label. I had to look up when those started being required, the program began in 1970 and by 1972 it was mandatory for all plush toys along with other toy items. Labeling was ended in 2019 apparently as well, though the regulations are still in effect, the label was no longer required.
sakic92710
OP5 months agoFortunately, this public health tag indicates that the toy is made of high quality with high standards for exporting. 🙂 The odd part is the company tag on the underbelly seems to be from earlier in Merrythoughts history of manufacturing their plush toys. I'm wondering if it is a prototype, but will never know for certain?
chapeau-noir
·5 months agoFrom what I know having worked in a sewing factory and selling vintage for a while:
A health/union tag will be pretty specific to a date range - if that didn't start until the 70s, then that starts your date range. You may be able to narrow it down IF the tag design changed.
However, manufacturer tags can be used for long periods of time, even after newer redesigned tags - basically until the sewing room/manufacturing area runs out. This makes it tough to date some items. I used to match the garment workers union tag AND the designer/manufacturer tag to get a more accurate date range.
reallynicestamps
·5 months agoOr unsold merchandise/ deadstock being sloughed off on the colonials.
hartungcards
·5 months agoI doubt anyone would be interested in a 75-90 year old Lions Club banner.
soh.maryl
·5 months agoThe item in question is a toy stuffed animal as far as I can tell.
sakic92710
OP5 months agoThis person thinks they have wit by bringing up Lions Club banners - an item in a topic, by me, that originated about 4 years ago.
hartungcards
·5 months ago"This person thinks they have wit by bringing up Lions Club banners - an item in a topic, by me, that originated about 4 years ago."
This only proves that Lions Club banners are at least 4 years old.
soh.maryl
·5 months agoGuess I missed the obscure significance of that reply. Thank you.
soh.maryl
·5 months agoIs this the same toy that you already have listed, currently at $133.32?
albertabrightalberta
·5 months agoAnd it's been listed since Feb. 19!
erikstuff
·5 months agoPerhaps this is an item that would do better as an auction. Just take lots of photos and give every bit of info you have (size, weight, material ... anything). Ask a price you would be satisfied with and don't have a "Buy It Now" price. You might get lucky... or find out nobody cares about it. Either way...
tarotfindsandmore
·5 months agoIf you don't want to disclose what the specific item is (though I highly doubt anyone on this board would think you were attempting to hawk your wares here), look for items in the category that are antique or vintage and see if they're moving at all. I suspect that your market is probably going to be rather limited as, with a few rare exceptions, neither vintage nor antique items are exactly flying off the shelves these days.
With the exception of maybe sneakers, tees, and maybe some oddball things like halloween costumes, "vintage" really doesn't have the appeal that it did even a few years ago. Buyers have finally caught on. They recognize that "vintage" is often code for just old and not necessarily attractive, useful, cool, or valuable.
asset_liquidators
·5 months agoOld and rare doesn't mean valuable (but it could be). I have some "reading, writing, and arithmetic" school books from the 1800's. They are small (about 6"x4") and really cool. And to think these were in the hands of some children that attended a one room school house somewhere. Just really neat.
Although they have no real value. I bought them around 1989 for a couple dollars just because I thought they were cool.
18704d
·5 months agoUpload a picture of it into ChatGPT (or Google's A.I.) I've had ChatGPT find things I couldn't find through Google.
mr_lincoln
·5 months ago@sakic92710
Looks like a good mystery novel starting here ... it's obvious you don't want to say what kind of an item it is, I get that and it makes sense, no problem. If you did mention it I missed it ...
In general terms I will share some similar experiences in the world of trains and cast iron and this may apply in other areas of manufacturing too.
-Some companies made proto-type pieces that were never cataloged but ultimately wound up out in the public.
-Older companies did not keep the best of records 75-90 years ago and it was all on paper ... and if they relocated, got bought out, merged with another company the files, if they existed, were lost in the process.
-Some items were actually made out of spec so could not be sold to the public but still found their way in to the public domain
-Some items during a company merge or buy out were produced by one or the other company without a clear direction on labeling, company logo, branding, etc (this happened in the cast iron industry and pieces like this can be referring to as "transition" pieces)
I come across oddball stuff in Collectible categories on a regular basis and value is hard to determine. However, if all of my research efforts come up thin or blank I will add the word RARE in caps in the Title, Conditions and Description. I do this on known rare items too. If I can find similar comps I can estimate a good starting price on an auction format listing and let the market drive the price and value accordingly.
I will run the auction duration on 10 days starting on a Wed or Thurs so it gets two weekends of exposure and ends on a weekend day (Sat or Sun) when many Buyers are shopping.
You can private message me if you like ...
cambriachick
·5 months agoThat's what the collectibles and art board is for! You should post pictures, why not? How can it be identified without them?! Do you think people are going to find out where you live and break into your house and steal it? Silly.
ten_o_nine
·5 months agoI contacted the manufacturer to see if they could give any information about it. Even a simple thing like which decade it was from, etc. Not even they could provide a single detail.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The person answering your email is probably looking at a digital database that only goes back to the 1980s.
To them, if it’s not in the computer, it doesn't exist.
powell-collectibles
·5 months agoAbsolutely, seems like a very rare item. I'm trying to sell one of those now. It is a very rare Beatles memorabilia item. Might be the only one in the world in such pristine condition. I'd estimate that only a handful exist, regardless of condition. BUT, so rare that no one would search for it, and there aren't any comps. Ever.
Regardless, the item is just okay. It wouldn't be a display piece. No one has it on their list of memorabilia items to buy. So, I'm not going to get a lot for it. I put it out for something high when I listed it, and I'll decrease every month until I get a taker. PLENTY of watchers, so people see it. But, rarity doesn't equal value. Even with the Beatles.
pickapaper
·5 months ago@sakic92710
I'm with you on this. Everybody wants you to say what the item is but I can understand your reluctance to reveal any info right now.
I've had a few items that I could find no info or history about so I listed them with what I considered a ridiculous high price on them. I've had some sell almost immediately at my price, and some took longer and I had to reduce the price.
If I were you, I would list the item with a high price on it and see what happens. You can always come down on the price if it doesn't sell within a reasonable amount of time.
fern*wood
·5 months agoYou may be correct, but then you have to determine if there is still any value. Some rare items receive no interest and are difficult to sell. The company not providing any information isn't much of a surprise to me. I had what I guessed was a prototype of a board game and I contacted the manufacturer for some information. They wanted me to donate it to their museum (which pretty much confirmed I was correct), but they offered me no information.
jonathanbrightlight
·5 months agoOld and rare do not automatically equal valuable.
tools*
·5 months agoLike the late 1920s toilet brush that I found in my grandparents' closet.
gator08041971
·5 months agoI would upload a few pictures of it to this thread, maybe someone here on the boards might know what it is. I mean? Easy solution in my opinion.
I mean, we have nothing to go off of as to what you even think it is. Thinking its rare is not a description of the item...
soh.maryl
·5 months agoIt seems like if you truly are seeking advice here, you would need to give a little more information about what this is. Not easy to understand why you are reluctant to do that.
sakic92710
OP5 months agoSimple answer to the reluctance. People would accuse me of advertising my item in the forum. Already faced that nonsense in the past.
@gator08041971
soh.maryl
·5 months agoNonsense. Sellers come here just about daily and ask about a possible price on something they are selling, or ask what something is and post a picture.
However, if that's your stance about naming the item, which I know is your right, don't think you will get many helpful responses since we have no idea what the mystery item is.
sakic92710
OP5 months agoOk. Here are photos. A Merrythought toy. Contacted them via email & they could not give any info. I thought there would be something about it, specifically, that would give a time frame, etc. Such as the ribbon/string.
tarotfindsandmore
·5 months agohttps://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=merrythought+plush&_sacat=0&_from=R40&_fsrp=1&LH_Sold=1&_sop=16
There's your range. You can also use the Research tool to get older prices. Looking at the solds, I would say you might want to try a 10-day auction with a reserve based on the median of those prices. The reserve will protect you, and the auction will give you an idea of how much interest there is. If your reserve isn't met, list with a BIN slightly higher than what you think you might get based on the auction results.
Yes, I hate auctions too, but in this case you're probably better off to start that way since the sold prices are all over the place.
soh.maryl
·5 months agoWhat's the use of a Reserve vs just starting it at a price that will satisfy the seller if it is sold?
A price of $100 or a listing or the Reserve of $100 seem to me to be the same price. Have never figured out the value of a Reserve, but then again, I no longer sell, and thus am not entitled to an opinion about selling.
powell-collectibles
·5 months agoOf course, those that don’t sell often have really great insights, and absolutely should share their opinions.
What you might be thinking of is some pretty valid pushback on some that alluded to being sellers. I can’t recall, but there was somebody who had extremely limited selling experience that was decades ago that had this “smart sellers don’t“ series. That person went into some things that he didn’t think smart sellers would do, but they were actually common practice with a lot of really good sellers that made plenty of money. Some of the advice this doled out was reasonable in a different context. That’s kind of the danger of just repeating information that is written on the boards - anyone pretending to be a seller and giving out advice runs the risk of just getting things totally wrong. And that is a pretty big disservice to those that come to these boards to learn.
other than that, I’m with you on the reserves. I can see some theoretical benefits to them, and I’m sure that someone that uses them with some success as a system that works out for them. For this item, given that it doesn’t seem like a natural absolute home run item, I reserve just seems like an unnecessary expense. As a buyer, I don’t like auctions too much, and reserves are pretty annoying. I have never tried one selling – I’m really not big into auctions anyway.
adamcartwright
·5 months ago@sakic92710
There are all kinds of specialized forums here, including a collectibles forum.
People post actual photos of their items there and get answers as to what it is and what's the value.
44012
·5 months agoMany people today don't want items that are 75 to 90+ years old.
You should try to sell back to the manufacturer since they don't know what THEY manufactured 75 to 90+ years ago.
sakic92710
OP5 months agoSince "many" does not equal ALL, I'll try to find a buyer just like I do with every one of my items.
msha3839
·5 months agoActually 75-90+ cognac and scotch are a miracle potions ..cost a fortune, but health is more important..🧐🥃
44012
·5 months agoBut of course.......
I was generally talking about all the stuff my kids don't want from their grandparents and great grandparents of which I don't want anymore.
bashort
·5 months agoThe way to find out is list it at what you consider a high price with make a offer and see what happens in the way of watchers, comments and offers
kibble-net
·5 months agoWell, first you'd have to tell us what the estimation is. It's hard to agree or disagree with something when I have no idea what it is.
sakic92710
OP5 months agoI told you exactly what my estimation is. That I feel it is very rare.
sugarnspice777
·5 months agoMy physic vision is telling me nothing today. So value is $0.00
Seriously, why would you even ask just because you think something is old? Were not mind readers. The one poster is wrong, old can bring in lots of money, depends on what it is. Old can mean junk, or common as well.
reallynicestamps
·5 months agoRare is not a synonym for valuable.
bbcardzman
·5 months agoRarity does not always mean big money. Some rare items are worthless.