Questions and Answers
 

QUESTION:  I have a twelve-place Limoges dinnerware service.  It consists of dinner plates, luncheon or salad plates, bread and butter plates, cups and saucers (one saucer is missing), small sauce dishes, and numerous serving dishes.  It was acquired in the 1930s.  The bottom of the plates are marked “C. Ahrenfeldt / for Hess Bros. Allentown, Pa.”  I would like to know more about my dinnerware and its value.  --  SK, Bethlehem, PA

ANSWER: Limoges is a town in France just like Bethlehem is a town in the United States.  It is not a descriptive term that should be applied to identify any ceramics, earthenware or porcelain.  As it happens, Limoges was and still is home to dozens of ceramic manufacturers.  Far more important in describing any ceramics is the name of the firm who made it, in your case, C. Ahrenfeldt.

Mary Frank Gaston’s The Collector’s Encyclopedia of Limoges Porcelain, Second Edition (Collector Books, 1992; 223 pages) provides this information about the Charles J. Ahrenfeldt firm: “Charles J. Ahrenfeldt was born in 1856.  He carried on the porcelain business established by his father, Charles Ahrenfeldt, and began producing porcelain about 1894.  During the late 1890s, the company carried on an extensive export trade.  White ware and decorated table china were the principal articles manufactured.  Factory decorated pieces are double marked with the white wear marked in green underglaze and the decorating mark in various colors overglaze.  The dates when the various marks were used is not totally clear….The firm had a long history, active except during the war years, until about 1969.”

Department stores in large and medium-sized cities often contracted with European ceramic manufacturers to produce dinnerware patterns that were exclusive to their store or stores.  Hess Brothers of Allentown is just one of hundreds of stores that did this.

The difficulty with these dinnerware patterns is that they are extremely difficult to match if a piece needs to be replaced.  Their production and market was limited.  Matching services avoid stocking the patterns because the demand is virtually non-existent.

As to your service for twelve, alas you have a service for ten with extra pieces.  American collectors do not think in odd numbers.  If you say service for eleven, the buyer knows one or more pieces have been broken.  Saying “service for ten with extra pieces” is a much more positive marketing approach.

The value of any dinnerware service rests with its serving pieces.  A basic set should include a minimum of three platters, one open and one covered vegetable bowl, creamer and sugar, and gravy boat.  Extra platters, coffeepot, teapot, and especially a soup tureen are the great value-enhancing pieces.

The value of your dinnerware service is between $650.00 and $750.00.  As mentioned earlier, it would be a tough sell even at these prices.  The real question that needs to be asked is: “who wants it?”  Not today’s young users!  Your dinnerware is not dishwasher safe.  It has to be washed by hand.

My suggestion is to use your service on holidays and when entertaining.  Create memories.  Hopefully, if the memories are intense enough, one of your children or friends will welcome the service when it is time to pass it on.

QUESTION: I own a one-gallon round Dairy Queen cardboard ice cream container from 1957.  The background color is blue.  The container has a drum motif of “V” rope strands stretching from the top to the bottom on the side.  There is a central oval which reads: “DAIRY / QUEEN.”  Flanking the oval is a figure of a marching base drummer.  How much is it worth?  --  MV, E-mail Question

ANSWER: In 1938 J. F. McCullough and Alex, his son, are credited with creating the soft ice cream product that is the hallmark of the Dairy Queen franchise.  The McCulloughs lived near Moline, Illinois.  Wishing to test their product, they approached Sherb Noble, owner of an ice cream shop in Kankakee, Illinois.  In August Noble held an “All You Can Eat for 10 Cents” sale.  More than 1,600 customers sampled the new treat.

Creating the product, initially known as “soft serve” ice cream, was only the first step.  Commercial marketing required adequate freezing and a viable method to distribute the product.  Harry Oltz of Hammond, Indiana, created a freezer that allowed continuous product flow.

The first Dairy Queen store opened in Joliet, Illinois, in 1940.  Franchising was a slow process.  Only 10 Dairy Queens were licensed as World War II ended.  The late 1940s and 1950s were the company’s growth period—100 stores in 1947, 1,446 stores in 1950, and 2,600 stores in 1955.  By 1989, there were 5,200 Diary Queen outlets.

Historical Dairy Queen highlights include: 1951, banana splits appear on the menu; 1955, Dilly bar debuts; 1958, “Dairy Queen/Brazier” food products introduced; 1961, “Mr. Misty” slush treats appear; 1972, Dennis the Menace becomes the spokesperson for Dairy Queen; and, 1985, “Blizzard” is introduced.  Corporately, Dairy Queen acquired Orange Julius and Karmelkorn Shoppes.  Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., purchased International Dairy Queen in January 1998.

Diary Queen items, including packaging, appear regularly for sale on eBay.  The same applies to ice cream containers, albeit not in as great a number.  Comparing prices realized on eBay for comparable 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s ice cream containers, a fair secondary market value for your container is between $12.00 and $15.00.

Do not be fooled by the fact that your container is almost fifty years old.  Today value depends more on desirability, i.e., whether or not people want to buy an object, than any other factor.  Age is a tertiary value consideration.  Most times it is not even considered.

QUESTION: I have several 1960s board games.  Is there a demand for these?  Also, a few have missing parts.  Should I just throw them away?  -- RG, Quarryville, PA

ANSWER: Television licensing dominated the boxed board game industry from the late 1940s through the 1960s.  Evening prime time shows provided the bulk of the licensing.  Every show was fair game—the evening news, quiz programs, situation comedies, and, of course, TV cowboy westerns.  The 1950s through the mid-1970s was the golden age of TV show licensing.

In the 1970s, the licensing emphasis shifted from television shows to movies.  By 1980, the licensing of boxed board games for evening prime time shows virtually had ended.  The initial success enjoyed by movie licensing rights in the late 1970s and early 1980s came to a screeching halt by the end of the 1980s.

In 1994 I wrote a think piece about the market for 1960s and 1970s boxed board games.  At that time, I offered the following observations: “Over twenty years or longer have passed…While most contemporary boxed board games sell in the $12.00 to $25.00 range, the average 1960s and 1970s price range, based on the stickers still on board games in my collection, was $4.00 to $8.00….Collecting price value for all pre-1980s boxed board games has exceeded their original selling price….It is still possible to assemble a major collection of 1970s boxed board games at $25.00 per unit or less.  If one jumps a decade backward, the unit cost more than doubles.”

Eleven years have passed since I made these observations.  The past eleven years have witnessed profound changes in the secondary collectibles marketplace.  While it is true the 1960s and 1970s are the hot collecting decades, other factors now need to be taken into consideration, not the least is the arrival of eBay.

The regular appearance of 1960s and 1970s games on eBay has flooded the market.  2005 prices are significantly lower than prices for the same games in 1994.  Those who wish to acquire a game comparison shop.  The result is that only complete games sell well.  If a game is missing parts, it sells for a few dollars at most.

There is no market for generic games.  Generic games are games that have a general or universal subject matter.  They are not associated with a specific individual, event, or product.  Most generic boxed games can be easily identified.  Examples include Chutes and Ladders, Go To The Head Of The Class, Monopoly, and Parcheesi.  Occasionally, a generic game has a cult following.  Mystic Skull is an example.  It sells well.

In the early 1990s Transogram’s Untouchables boxed board game sold for over $100.00.  Today it would struggle to bring $25.00.  Most 1960s licensed board games sell between $10.00 and $20.00.  Memory drives value.  So does supply.  EBay has shown the survival rate for 1960s boxed board games is so high, there is no need to pay large sums of money to acquire them.

QUESTION: Is there a publication on the market that will show me the value of collectible plates?  --  LH, E-mail Question

ANSWER: The correct answer to your question is no.  Let me explain why.

My The Official Price Guide To Collector Plates, Seventh Edition (House of Collectibles, 1999; 618 pages) is out of print.  Check the copyright and edition is one of the rules I tell anyone who asks me how to use a price guide.  It has been six years since my book was published.  House of Collectibles has no interest in doing another edition.  Says a lot, does it not?!

When a multiple edition price guide fails to go into a new edition, there is only one way to interpret this—the market has collapsed.  No one wants to buy a price guide that shows their objects have declined significantly in value.

There are other price guides to collector plates.  However, these are written by industry supporters or are manufacturer supported.  These price guides are nothing more than market props.  Their information is not trustworthy.

EBay is the true price guide for what collector plates really are worth in today’s market.  My recommendation is a stiff drink before accessing eBay and checking current values.  Ever hear of the phrase “you cannot give it away”?  This applies to ninety percent and more of the collector plates issued in the 1960s through the present.

Do I see the possibility of a renewal of interest in collector plates?  Not in my lifetime, and I am hoping to live at least another thirty years.

Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the twentieth century.  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, 5093 Vera Cruz Road, Emmaus, PA 18049.  You also can e-mail your questions to rinkeron@fast.net.  Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered.

Home & Garden Television (HGTV) currently lists COLLECTOR INSPECTOR as on hiatus from January 1 through June 30, 2005.  Whether or not it returns as reruns in July depends entirely on HGTV.
 

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