Soon, I will be tasked with liquidating a tremendous Hummel figurine collection. As far as I'm aware, it contains every figurine and plate put in to regular production, as well as some duplicates and special editions. Although I've been looking at these figurines for my entire life, I know relatively little about them.

My assumption is that nobody under the age of 60 collects these things anymore. More potential buyers die with each passing day, so I think it's best to act as quickly as possible. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

There's a current seller on ebay trying to sell a 365 piece collection for $55,000. The collection I'm selling would be within the same scope. This seller has a figurine called Apple Tree Boy with a claimed "book value" of $15,000. If there is anyone reading this with Hummel experience, what is the book being referred to? The No.1 Price Guide appears to be the bible, but it doesn't look like it has been updated since 2000. I assume that the value of the figurines has dropped in 12 years. Probably by a lot.

The current top hit for Hummel collectors books on Amazon is this "official" guide. It says it lists values for your collection, but Hummel's own website states that they don't appraise or give values. I can't find that page right now, but I know I read it.

Is there any advice regarding the best plan of action? Say I get one of these books and catalog the whole collection. If the "book value" is $100,000, what fraction of that figure could I realistically receive? For the sake of simplicity, I would like to sell the collection as a lot. I assume it won't be very easy to find a buyer and it might be more profitable to sell it piecemeal. Any opinions on that matter?

Thanks.

If someone collect hummels I would think they may already have some and like you mentioned have had them for years. They’re probably just looking to by one or two to complete their theme or set. If the book value is $50k selling the entire collection as a set for $50k would be difficult. Also this is a hobby and few buyers will have that kind of cash to spend on a hobby. Especially if they are on, say a fixed income.

I think the only person who would buy them all would be someone who would split them up and sell them separately to make a profit. I would dump them on eBay one at a time. I think you would double your money that way.

Let me know what you find. I'll be in the same position in a few years when my grandmother passes on (although her collection isn't so large - probably about 50 pieces).

Yes, these are also my Grandmother's. Thankfully she's not dying, but she's moving and wants to seriously down-size.

I do think that it's probably better to sell them one at a time. Perhaps I will give it a go on some of the duplicates first before I mess up the "complete" collection.

I also found a store that's not too far from where I am. They can sell the whole collection on consignment, and it looks like they're able to fetch top-dollar on ebay. They give back only 55% of the net sale, but it may be worth it to get it done in one shot. http://vintagerarestuff.com/

I don't know a lot about collectibles, but don't most of them actually appreciate with age? Or is Hummel still cranking them out today?

Here is a chart purporting to show values of the various pieces, maybe it would be useful to you.

tanstaafl.

Wow I’m going to have to look into opening a consignment shop. I never realized they demanded that kind of percentage. I thought maybe 20%. No outlay of cash, no risk if it doesn’t sell and no real overhead if they sell it on-line. Not much of a down side. A lot better than a pawn shop. I would also imagine if it doesn’t sell after a certain amount of time, and the owner doesn’t pick it up, they will keep the item.

I believe there are still figurines being made, but they're not part of what would be considered the original series. I don't think I have any of them.

The problem with a "collectible" like Beanie Babies and Hummels is that they're marketed as a collectible while they're still in production. So, people buy them and hoard them speculating that the price will go up. When it's time to sell, you find out that most people that collect these things already own the pieces you have. That narrows your potential market to mostly new collectors. Then, as the original collectors die, the market gets flooded with more figurines which lowers the value.

I don't even want to know what was originally spent on this collection of figurines.

Another example for slightly different reasons: National Geographic. It's incredible how many people collect National Geographic Magazine issues in hopes they'll be worth something one day. Pro tip: they aren't and they won't be.

I suspect that a lot of the "collecting" of them is not from profit motive but just that they're too pretty to throw away.

tanstaafl.

Maybe National Geographic is something else, but I've noticed the hoarding phenomenon with Readers Digest and Life magazine. Life seems particularly bad. You can see issues from the 1950s selling for $1 each at flea markets. Adjusted for inflation, that doesn't even make up the 20¢ cover price!

Never mind the 60 years of storage, lugging it around from house to house, and then driving it to the market every week and putting it on display. I don't get it.

Then again, I collect empegs. So, I'm no better. In fact, I'm certain that I'm worse.

Happy Birthday Rob

Indeed! Happy (belated) birthday!