The Value of Fast-Food Mementoes
Question: Since the Los Angeles area is a major fast-food mecca, I have collected quite a bit of memorabilia over the years from franchises such as McDonald’s. Is there much of a market for such a collection?--D.R.
Answer: There are a number of individuals who have put together collections of fast-food items. Their collections include premiums, coupons, pins, toy banks, dolls, advertising signs and posters.
Such items must be in mint condition to attract collector interest. According to dealer catalogues, resale value is usually in the $5-$20 range.
The age of most of these collectibles doesn’t go beyond World War II, because the franchises that generated these collectibles didn’t start proliferating until the 1950s. One of the most famous fast-food pioneers was, of course, Ray A. Kroc, who made McDonald’s a household name in the 1950s.
The next decade saw an explosion of fast-food outlets. To promote their business, the operators distributed numerous advertising giveaways, which have since found their way into a number of collections.
Mailbag
Attention Trekkies! Phyllis Carter of Laguna Hills writes that she is “a crew member of the Star Trek Welcommittee,” a nonprofit volunteer organization that dispenses free information on Star Trek collectibles. Interested readers can send a legal-size self-addressed stamped envelope to Star Trek Welcommittee, P.O. Drawer 12, Sarnac, Mich. 48881.
For $2, she adds, interested readers can obtain information from the same address on Star Trek auctions plus Star Trek organizations listed in a directory the group publishes.
She also has a tip for Trekkie collectors: the 1990 “Star Trek: The Next Generation” calendar, the first of its kind, has great potential as a Star Trek collectible.
A major paperweight dealer, L.H. Selman Ltd., 761 Chestnut St., Santa Cruz, Calif. 95060, (408) 427-1177, will hold a mail and telephone auction in April, marking the firm’s 20th anniversary. The auction’s key weight will be what Selman calls “the most famous of all known weights--the ‘Bird in the Nest,’ ” which has an estimated value of more than $200,000. A number of other valuable and historic weights, as well as contemporary ones, will be included in the auction. You can order the auction catalogue, available April 1 for $20, through a toll-free number: (800) 538-0766.
American West Archives, P.O. Box 100, Cedar City, Utah 84720, (801) 586-9497, conducts phone and mail-order auctions of historical documents, western military and fort documents, mining stocks, books, maps, prints and the like. We recently received catalogue No. 62 in the mail.
Southern California collectors of tokens and medals may attend a meeting of the California Assn. of Token Collectors on Saturday, March 17, from 1 to 5 p.m., in the Mercury Room at Mercury Savings & Loan, 22939 Hawthorne Blvd., Torrance. Thousands of tokens will be on display and available for trade, according to the group’s president, Stephen Alpert.
Members will provide free identification and evaluation of tokens, medals, political pins, old gambling chips and other kinds of money-substitutes. For further information, call (213) 478-7405.
“You recently had an inquiry about miniature beer bottles,” writes Lee Weiss of Los Angeles. “We are a club of collectors of miniature spirits bottles of all kinds--beer, wine, whiskey, Scotch. We are celebrating our 20th year and meet monthly--one month on Saturday night in a bank recreation room in Torrance and the next month in a home.
“We have a show once a year to which collectors from all over the world come. We also publish a bimonthly bulletin with all sorts of information and activities mentioned.”
To receive information, write to the Lilliputian Bottle Club, c/o Briscoe Publications, Box 2161, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Calif. 90274.