Fisher Price Toy Catalogs

Hey Everyone,

Sorry for the long break.  Life has been crazy for a while now, but things seem to have slowed down for the moment, so thought I'd toss up a quick post to let you all know that I am still here, I have not given up on this blog and I'm thankful to all of you who have stuck with me through my severe writing drought.  I am amazed at how many hits my blog gets every month, even when I'm not posting.  Thanks guys!  You rock!

I also have good news: over the past non-writing months, I managed to acquire both the 1989 and 1990 Fisher Price Toy Fair Catalogs.  These are the 'dealer catalogs' that This Old Toy periodically refers to in its Precious Places listings. 

The 1989 catalog has 10 pages of Precious Places including the gorgeous 2 page spread everyone loves.

The 1990 catalog has only 5 pages of Precious Places, but two of those pages are the County Fair Sets, so that makes it worth owning in my book.

There is some stuff in them that my Precious Places obsessed self finds interesting.  I'll try to post about it soon, but in the mean time, if any of you are interested in getting your hands on your own copy, I recommend eBay.  They come up at regular intervals, and it just so happens that they are both currently listed for sale.  Just go to eBay and search for "Fisher Price Catalog" and they should come up.

Do any of you have the Toy Fair Catalogs?  If so, what is your favorite page?  Anything that you find intriguing?  Let me know!

Most Wanted List Revisited

Last December I published my Precious Places Most Wanted List that detailed the five sets that are rare to the point that I thought they might be non-existent.  Since I wrote that post, I've gotten more information, so I thought it was time to revisit the list.

5) The Pretty Penny Wishing Well - Aqua Well with Pink Roof

 

Current Status: More rare than pink well with aqua roof, but definitely findable
Since writing my first list, two or three aqua wells with pink roofs have turned up on eBay including one that had a pink watering can.  (I still have yet to see a purple ladle though.)

4) Wendy and Her Ice Cream Cart with Aqua Wheels

Photo courtesy of eBay seller kcaparso22

Current Status: The picture says it all, this set is out there!  
Unfortunately my eBay app failed to remind me to bid at the end of this auction, so I missed the chance to actually own this set.  Grrrr..... But it is nice to know that it does indeed exist.

3) The Mother and Baby Pony in Pink 

 

Current Status: Still unsighted.  No further information available.

2) The Dining Room

Current Status: Still unsighted, but...

I've had one particular commenter give me good reason to hope that this set may yet turn up.

Anonymous commenter on 7-7-11 said:

"... about the dinning room set. i remeber my dad taking me to zellers in canada. i had the choice of the dinning room set or the purple bedroom set. i chose the bedroom! however knowing what i know now i woulda chose the dinning set lol!"

This is the first information I've gotten from anyone who remembers seeing the set in a store.  It's a promising sign, don't you think?

1) All the County Fair Sets

Current Status: Still unsighted by me, but...
Had a recent conversation with another collector who told me that about twelve years ago there was a Ferris Wheel prototype set for sale on eBay.  She didn't remember much about it except that it was definitely listed as a prototype (the seller said she got it from a friend who worked for Fisher Price) and that it sold for hundreds of dollars (no surprise there).

I also got information from an anonymous commenter on 8-4-11:
"I got news for those of you interested- I have spent the last hour on the phone with fisher-price and they said the county fair sets WERE sold to the public!! Only for a limited time and they are not sure how many but they ARE out there!! Also none of the precious places sets had more than 26,000 made and there are 4 sets that I have not found on any lists but that fisher price told me exist and were sold but in a smaller amount. They are number 5192 combo scene, 5179 special furniture, 5210 special kit and 6563 sign- that was all the info they had and they said they were promotional items. Also the dining room was also mass produced so those of you looking don't give up!!"

All this gives me just a glimmer of hope that whether prototype or mass-produced set, I may yet find one or (can I dare to dream) two of the County Fair sets to call my own.

(PS. If the winning bidder of the Ferris Wheel prototype set is out there, please contact me!  I'd love to know more about it.  You can reach me here: PreciousPlacesCollector@gmail.com)

Wendy and The Irony of It All

Funny how I said in my last post that I've never spent more than $50 including shipping on any single Precious Places set and then a couple of days later this set is posted on eBay for $49.99 plus shipping:

Photo courtesy of eBay seller kcaparso22

It is the ultra-rare Wendy with Aqua colored wheels ice cream cart, a set that I've never seen on eBay before.  Not only that but it is new in the package, never been played with!  

But the excitement doesn't stop there, not only is it Wendy with Aqua Wheels, and new in the package ta boot, it comes with Amanda's personality card, which is just weird enough to make me want it even more!!!!

I feel that my principles are being sorely tried at the moments.  Part of me says, anything that you see on eBay will come up again another time at a better price and besides, when have you ever seen a single figure go for $50?!?  That's sort of insane for a figure set.  I mean, you can sometimes get a nice Mansion for less than that!

But the other part of me really just wants it no matter how much it is.

To bid or not to bid, that is the question....

Precious Places Pricing

I recently got this question from Sarah and I thought I'd make a post out of it so that everyone would be sure to contribute their opinions on the topic.  Here's her question:

So this is a little off topic but I was wondering what you and other users though would be fair prices for some of the more hard to come by sets or even just not as common ones. I always want to find a bargain and dont want to overpay even though I love these so much. Thanks!
-Sarah 

This is sort of a tough question because the prices on eBay seem to fluctuate quite a bit, but I personally have never spent more than $50 (including shipping) on any single set.  My new in box Pretty Penny Wishing Well was less than that, and my complete (though not new in box) Sunshine Country Picnic was only about $30.  The only way I'd spend more than $50 to get a set would be if I could get a new in the box Magic Key Mansion, the Dining Room furniture or any of the County Fair Sets. 

If you really want deals, check the PP listings on eBay every day and be very patient (I've been working on my collection for almost four years now).  If you do those two things, you CAN get sets for a good price. 

What does everyone else think?  How much would you pay for rare sets?  What was your best Precious Places deal?

The Pretty Penny Wishing Well in Aqua

Turns out it does exist...

This set turned up on eBay recently:

Click Here to visit this eBay auction

I'd just love to add this aqua well with a pink roof to my collection, unfortunately $250 is more than I can afford.

Maybe Santa will be in a really generous mood this Christmas.

I doubt it, but we'll see...

Pretty Penny Wishing Well Accessory Variations

As promised, I have one more post to write about the Pretty Penny Wishing Well and here it is! On ThisOldToy.com they say that the Wishing Well came with a pink bucket, pink ladle and a purple watering can, with no color variations. And those are indeed the colors of the accessories that came with my new-in-the-box set.

However, I recently noticed this picture on an eBay listing:



Notice there is a purple bucket and a pink watering can in the center of the photo. Since there aren't any other sets that come with a watering can, I think it's pretty safe to assume that these parts were from a Wishing Well set. Thus leading to the conclusion that sometimes the Well came with a purple bucket and pink watering can.

Now, there wasn't a ladle in this auction as far as I could tell from the pictures, but I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to guess that the ladle may also have come in purple as well. I'll have to keep an eye out for one to be sure though.

Alright! I don't think I have anything else to write about the Pretty Penny Wishing Well, so if you have any questions about the set (or if you spot a purple ladle somewhere), please let me know, or I may never write about it again!

The Sunshine Country Picnic Swing

I know I've written a lot of my recent posts on the subject of the Pretty Penny Wishing Well, and I still have at least one more post on that topic that I intend to write, but for the time being, I'd like to change direction and talk about another of the rare Precious Places sets: The Sunshine Country Picnic.

Specifically, I want to write about something I've been wondering for some time. What colors were the different pieces of the picnic swing? Now according to ThisOldToy.com (TOT) the Sunshine Country Picnic came with a pink swing seat and a three-piece pink swing frame. Also, they say that the set had no variations.

However, I am pretty well convinced that the swing set DID have variations, and here's why:

This is a picture of the swing from my personal collection:



As you can clearly see, the swing has a white seat (not pink). To be fair, my Sunshine Country Picnic was not a new-in-the-box set, so I guess it is theoretically possible the white seat came from somewhere else, but where? The only other PP set that has a swing is the Twirling Melody Gazebo, but it is well documented that the Gazebo's swing seat was always purple. So I think the most likely option in this case is that the swing seat did come (at least sometimes) as a white part.

To be honest, given that the swing always seemed to appear in eBay auctions with a white seat, for a long time I had actually thought that the listing on TOT was mistaken in saying the swing seat ever came in pink. I thought perhaps that instead, the swing frame was pink and the seat was white with no variations, but then I saw this photo on eBay:



Here you can see that this auction contained several Picnic parts, including the base and key, as well as a pink swing seat and part of a white swing frame.

And although I don't put too much stock in the 'official' photos from the Village Map, it is interesting to note that on the map, the picture shows that same pink seat with white frame:



All of this taken together seems to indicate that the Sunshine Country Picnic swing came with either a white or pink seat and either a white or pink frame. You do tend to find the white seat with the pink frame and vice versa, but I wouldn't put it outside the realm of possibility that some sets could have been sold with an all pink or all white swing set.

Do any of you have the Sunshine Country Picnic set? If so, please tell me about it. Did you get it new in the box, have it as a child or buy it on eBay? What color is the swing seat and frame that came with your set? I think it'd be great if we all work on figuring out these rare sets together!

New in the Box Magic Key Mansion

So was anyone else watching the new in the box Magic Key Mansion that was for sale on eBay this weekend? Final sale price: $250.99! Wow! I knew it would go for quite a bit since I've never actually seen a new in the box Mansion up for auction, but that was even more than I expected. If the winning bidder is out there reading this, I would love to hear from you. Did you find any surprises? Anything the Precious Places collecting community needs to know about? Let me know!