Rinker on Collectibles

RINKER ON COLLECTIBLES — Column #1640

Stories Can Have More Than One Moral

“The moral to the story is---” is a common phrase. A moral is a message that a story conveys or a lesson learned from the story. A moral can be implied, left for the reader to figure out, or explicitly stated. Moral usually is used in the singular to focus on the main point of the story. Can stories have more than one moral? Absolutely, as the following story demonstrates.

I received an email from Dana Morykan, my proofreader, webmaster, and friend, asking if I realized that I was working ahead on question and answer “Rinker on Collectibles” columns rather the completing a text column due the following Monday. When I replied that I was having trouble identifying text column topics that differed from what I wrote previously, I received an email with the following story.

Dana works in the Institutional Research office of Kutztown [PA] University. Natalie Snow, née DePauli, who was a graduate student at Kutztown during Linda’s final years as Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, works in the same office. Dana has two granddaughters Hailey and Marli.

Thanks to Natalie, Dana recently received a hoard of late 1980s NRFB (never removed from the box) holiday and special edition Barbie dolls. In some cases, the doll boxes still were in their period cardboard packaging. Natalie gave the dolls to Dana with clear instructions that her granddaughters were to remove the dolls from their boxes and play with them.

When Natalie received the dolls from her parents, she was expressly instructed not to touch them or take them out of the box and play with them. These dolls were investments, to be sold later when Natalie was older for a handsome profit. The result of her parents’ no touch policy was that Natalie had no strong sentimental attachment to the dolls.

Having worked for and with me for over 30 years, Dana did what I would expect. Before giving the dolls to her granddaughters, she checked their secondary market value on eBay and other internet sites. She found the secondary market flooded. The late 1980s Holiday Barbie and special edition dolls were selling at or below the current cost of a new Holiday Barbie.

Because of the size of the hoard, Dana has been passing on the dolls piecemeal, thus allowing plenty of play time with each doll. She has six more to go. The best news of all is that her granddaughters are having fun playing with the dolls. Although unstated in her email, Dana is most likely sharing some of those play stories with Natalie. Dana thanked Natalie with an apple pie.

Read the story carefully. How many antiques and collectible collecting moral lessons can you identify? If your list contains less than four, read it again.

The first moral is that memories require physical contact. The person has to see, handle, feel, use (play), and appreciate the value of the object—not once, but over and over again. The person and the object have to bond. This bonding process takes time – not weeks but months and often years. Children learn early in life that favorite is not a limited term. Multiple favorites create a well-balanced child.

Bad memories are a deterrent to collecting is the second moral. Parental credulity is the term that applies to parents who show a child a toy that he/she desires and/or wants to play with and then is told “DO NOT TOUCH. IT WILL BE VALUABLE SOMEDAY.” Children and adolescents have no understanding or appreciation of this concept. As Linda’s and my grandchildren approach their teenage years, it is apparent that all they care about is the things they want now. Denial is parental or grandparent abuse. The concepts of teaching children about the value of money, patience, and working to earn the right to buy things is alien in much of today’s instant gratification world.

Understanding that limited and special edition are marketing tools and have little to no long-term meaning in respect to collectability and secondary resale value is the third moral in the story. Having lived through and studied the “Hot Christmas Toy Era” from Cabbage Patch dolls and Star War watches to Beanie Babies and video games, I understand the production numbers associated with these items. Hundreds of thousands are low. Millions are common.

The “Hot Toy” market was media driven. The toy industry public relations employees and firms are masters in manipulating the public. The mass media is so enamored with “hot” stories that no attempt is made to fact check the claims. The parental public responds to the mass media stories like lemmings Continually repeated mass media advertising drugs the minds of youngsters and adolescents who reinforce the mass media claims by hounding their parents with “I have to have one of those” rants until as the Borg fondly said: “Resistance is futile.” In the 21st century, children have learned that a parental “NO” is discriminatory.

The fourth moral lesson is that those who ignore Rinker’s 30-Year Rule – For the first 30-years of anything’s life, all its value is speculative—get burned. A lesser know Rinker’s Rule is “those who hoard inevitably lose.” For over 20 years, I had fun buying toys in the months leading up to Christmas, stashing them in a closet, and keeping them until 30 years had elapsed to see how accurately I could predict the market. While my “Christmas” closets did not have any Holiday Barbies in it, it did have a Ken and Barbie Star Trek set and a Bob Mackie Barbie. My buying spree did not last 30 years. The toys in the closet were sold at auction after I sold the Vera Cruz [PA] elementary school, my home and Rinker Enterprises’ office, and moved to Kentwood, Michigan in late January 2011. Although I did not keep track of the final sale price of each individual toy, my general impression is that many failed to sell for the price I paid.

Mass produced “limited,” “special edition,” and “exclusive” toys are produced in such large numbers to ensure that the secondary market for these toys will be flooded for the next 50 to 100 years. Supply always will exceed demand.

Beware of generalities such as the one in the above paragraph is the fifth moral lesson. When in doubt, double check. I continually am surprised when my perceived value for an antique or collectibles is not supported by sell through prices found on Worthpoint.com and other internet pricing sites.

Perceived market value shifts generationally. The value of 1950s toys in 2018 differs greatly from their values in 1980 and 2005. Although Mattel continues to make Holiday Barbies, now base priced at $39.95, few are being hoarded for long-term value purposes. Barbie is no longer the “generational doll.” American Character dolls are the “in” dolls for those families that can afford them. Many of today’s mothers do not want their daughter’s growing up admiring and wishing to emulate Barbie’s image.

The sixth moral lesson is toys are toys. In an earlier age when there were boy toys and girl toys, dolls were dolls and toys were toys. In 2018, a doll is as much a toy as a Star Wars’ light saber. During my visits to Disney World, I notice that there was almost an equal number of females as males playing with Star Wars light sabers. How long will they play with them is the critical question. Today’s child has a limited possession attention span. They play with something for a short period of time and transition to something else, thus applying a continuing pressure on their parents and grandparents to buy, buy, buy.

When Linda visits her grandson, she is constantly bombarded with a request to “let’s go to Toys ‘R Us.” During her last visit, he worked the “they are going out of business” approach hard. I am proud of Linda. She said no and stuck to her guns. It was not easy for her.

The six morals are only some of the takeaways from Dana’s story. Did you find others? Email your comments to harrylrinker@aol.com.

Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Selected letters will be answered in this column. Harry cannot provide personal answers. Photos and other material submitted cannot be returned. Send your questions to: Rinker on Collectibles, 5955 Mill Point Court SE, Kentwood, MI 49512. You also can e-mail your questions to harrylrinker@aol.com. Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered.

You can listen and participate in WHATCHA GOT?, Harry’s antiques and collectibles radio call-in show, on Sunday mornings between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM Eastern Time. If you cannot find it on a station in your area, WHATCHA GOT? streams live on the Internet at www.gcnlive.com.

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