Buying and selling lunchboxes is more work than it appears

Everything sounds easy and fun until you try it. Buying and selling lunchboxes is one of those especially deceptive enterprises. It looks like fun and games from the outside, but once you are in the dirty world of rusted corners and peanut butter smelling crud you'll never look at lunchboxes the same way again. The above-mentioned situations are not the worst of it either, it's the surprise of getting a modern box when you thought you purchased a vintage box or realizing the back of the box is not even visible, but you purchased the box based on the only photo you saw. There is something lurking behind every under-described item on ebay.

I've gotten some of the boxes sent to one address and some of my boxes sent to another address. So now I have tried to figure out which ones I've received and which ones I haven't. I've created a spreadsheet to record my pricing and to make notes on the quality of the boxes, but many of the people send the box with only a return address label to identify them with so now I have to go back and look at each box and cross reference the city to the auctions I've won to make sure I've got the right person. It doesn't help that I have bought several of some styles of lunchboxes and nearly 100 lunch boxes in the last few weeks.

Lastly, I have been trying to reload the lunchboxes onto my website for sale online at yque.com, which requires me to photograph each box. I've been doing that on my porch and the light is only right in the morning, because later it has been too bright and the metal reflects and the images don't show properly. Here is the photo gallery of the lunchboxes I've photographed so far. Eventually I need to describe the items accurately and get the fresh photos up to replace the auction photos that I am throwing up in the meantime to get the ball rolling.

Lunchboxes - Vintage - Vintage Lunchboxes, OH MY!

I don't really like lunch, but I do like boxes. I like art too. Kitschy designs, tv shows, nostalgia, all that stuff. Mostly because of the cultural relevance and the perserverance of the boxes themselves. TV has allowed our culture to be exploited by advertisers and lunchboxes allowed children to be a part of that exploitation too. The only positive element is that the lunchboxes that have maintained value have been more esoteric and symbolic for reasons that go beyond the simple exploitative motives of the manufacturers and marketers. I don't analyze, but I do and buy and sell these "lunchboxes" which is why I made this blog.

I have just finished an analysis of my retail price for a wide range of lunchboxes and I am going to post it here as a data list with abbreviated names for the lunchboxes.

1999 40
Alf 30
Archies 75
Auto 25
BattleStar 40
BlackHole 60
BlackHole 60
BlackHole 60
Buck 50
CareBears 30
CareBears 30
Charlies 65
CloseEnc 15
DarkCrystal 30
Dolittle 75
DrSeuss 45
Dukes 45
Dukes 45
Dynomutt 75
EmpireStrikes 75
ET 30
ET 30
ET 30
Fame 50
Flipper 150
Gremlins 50
Indiana 50
Korg 100
Kotter 75
Kotter 75
Kotter 75
LaughIn 100
Lidsville 100
Menudo 60
MOFU 25
MOFU 25
MOFU 25
MOFU 25
Muppets 35
Oakley 75
PacMan 40
Partridge 75
Partridge 75
PeeWee 30
ReturnJedi 75
Secrets 30
Sesame 40
Sesame 40
Sesame 40
SidMarty 150
Skipper 50
StarWars 60
Superfriends 50
Superfriends 50
SuperHeroes 60
Superman 40
WWF 40
Here is a list of the most common lunchboxes that I have recently purchased and their retail price:
Common Resale $
Black Hole 60
Care Bears 30
Dukes 45
ET 30
Kotter 75
MOFO 25
Partridge 75
Sesame 40
Superfriends 50