In 1993, an interesting collection of PEZ candy dispensers went on sale at Christie's auction house. The collection consisted of both vintage and contemporary pieces, and the frenzy that followed left collectors and the media dumbfounded. The modest colorful candy dispenser with a unique head solidified itself as a pop culture icon.
By 1995, a new Internet auction platform called AuctionWeb appeared on the scene and started gaining collector's attention. When the site changed its name to eBay, it was incorrectly reported that the auction site was formed by its founder Pierre Omidyar because he wanted to obtain a hard-to-find PEZ dispenser for his girlfriend. The story was later noted as being false, but prices for most vintage PEZ dispensers continued to remain steady and even rise.
Today, PEZ collecting has waned, and prices reflect that. Dispensers that used to sell for $100 or more can now be routinely found selling for $50 to $75. Even new dispensers fail to create the speculative frenzy that was achieved 10 to 20 years ago, and while the rarest dispensers will always be rare, prices have fallen substantially. I started collecting back when I was in junior high school, and I am surprised just how little my then vintage dispensers are still worth.
Truth be told, this is one article I was actually hesitant in writing. A lot of PEZ collectors and enthusiasts are extremely passionate about collecting these unique candy dispensers, and they should be. Unfortunately, the story of PEZ collecting and what the future holds is an excellent lesson in the perils of speculation that has taken hold of the overall collecting community today. Having just recently sold a little over half of my high grade vintage comic book collection to record breaking prices across the board, I can't help but wonder what lessons can be learned by looking at other collecting fields that experienced similar speculative bubbles that we are now seeing in the vintage toy and comic book markets. At last count, I have several hundred PEZ dispensers from the vintage to contemporary eras all in near mint to mint condition. Some of these pieces were obtained during my younger years, and others were obtained at conventions and through online dealers with whom I trust. Yet still others were bought brand new at my local Toys-R-Us or Target store for just a few dollars or less.
Unfortunately, if you take a current look at several completed auctions on eBay, you can see that most of the vintage to contemporary PEZ market is oversaturated, with few exceptions. The Universal Monster themed dispensers are always in demand, as are several of the earlier original horror and superhero-based dispensers. Contemporary dispensers barely ever sell at their full retail price, and even dispensers from the early 1980s can be found cheaply and in overabundance online or at various conventions that occur annually throughout the world. Some dispensers that once sold for close to a dollar or more back in the 1980s are now found in factory sealed condition for a lot less. This doesn't bode well for the overall market. The real money is in vintage dispensers made from the 1970s or before. Ironically, even most of this sector of the market is still a buyer's market. It appears that overall PEZ collecting is no longer as appealing as it once was. I no longer see much media attention being devoted to the sale or collecting of PEZ dispensers, and outside of PEZ devoted conventions I see very few articles on collecting being written on the subject of PEZ. Even the release of commercial price guides has been waning, with virtually no new material available at my local bookstore.
In conclusion, one could conclude that PEZ collecting may very well be an endangered collecting fiel; however, that sentiment appears much too pessimistic. While most vintage dispensers no longer achieve the record-breaking prices that rocked the infamous Christie's Auction in 1993, most vintage dispensers are still selling. I would be more confident in hammering in the first death nail of the PEZ collecting coffin if most of these dispensers went unsold, but that is not what is occurring. Collectors of PEZ just need to learn that this isn't the 1990s anymore and realize that speculation has already begun to run its ugly course. Thanks for reading!