COLLECTIBLES : Magic of Youth Lures Some to Kingdom of Disneyana

Grab someone and ask how many Disney characters he or she can name. Odds are you’ll get an earful.

Such familiarity makes Disney-related memorabilia--known as Disneyana--ideal collectibles, as does the overwhelming amount of products on the market.

Seal Beach resident Dean Mancina, who has been collecting Disneyana for 16 years, was lured into the magic of Disney as a child growing up in the Southland.

“I became kind of the unofficial tour guide to Disneyland each summer when my Minnesota relatives would come out to visit,” he said.

Mancina has cruised garage sales, swap meets, antique shops and collectors’ shows in search of Disneyana and operates a booth devoted to the items at Lincoln Antique Mall in Anaheim.

For those interested in collecting Disneyana, Mancina suggests going to collectors’ shows and doing a little research.

Some items popular with Disneyana collectors are pins commemorating special events at Disneyland (expect to pay from $5 to $50 for those), Disneykins molded plastic figures ($6 to $150), Little Golden Books (up to $60) and wristwatches ($65 to $160).

You can learn a lot from dealers, such as the fact that Disney plushes--stuffed animals--aren’t good collectibles.

“Their colors tend to fade; the detail work wasn’t good; they just weren’t made as well as some of the other stuff,” Mancina said.

Predicting what will be desirable is not an exact science, Mancina said.

It’s only the past three years that ticket books have become popular among collectors, Mancina said. You can expect to pay about $100 for a complete ticket book in good condition, he said.

Older things are of greater value in many cases, but with the rerelease of Disney movies (and thus the rerelease of licensed products), sometimes it’s tough to tell if something was made when it first came out or recently. A tipoff of a newer item is a UPC code.

The best place to find Disneyana is a Disney collectors’ show. And if you want to find out if an item is worth selling, ask several dealers there what they think is a fair price.

There’s a 40% to 50% markup rule in Disneyana and many other areas of collectibles. Say you have a Disneyland map from the 1970s and you spot the same map in the same condition at a store or show for $12. When you go to sell it to dealers, you can expect them to offer you $4.80 to $6 for it.

Another way to sell items is to advertise in the Irvine-based newsletter the National Fantasy Club for Disneyana Collectors.

“You’ll reach 1,200 avid Disney collectors that way,” Mancina said.

* National Fantasy Club for Disneyana Collectors, PO Box 19212, Irvine, Calif. 92713.

* Lincoln Antique Mall, 1811 W. Lincoln Ave., Anaheim. (714) 778-2522. Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

Other places to find Disneyana:

The Disneyana Store, Main Street at Disneyland, Anaheim. (714) 999-4000. Hours are the same as the theme park.

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, 2083 Westminster Mall. (714) 897-4000. Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Friday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

This column appears regularly in OC Live!