BIG MONEY IN OLD LUNCH BOXES

With school back in session, your children might well have a confrontation not unlike ones you had in your school days. "Mommy! Mommy! A big bully stole my lunch!" If this happens, do not panic. Wipe the tears from your child's cheek. Give him or her a cookie and a glass of milk, and say, "That's OK dear, as long as he didn't steal your lunch box!"

I was one of those unlucky kids who had a boring lunch box. It had a Plaid Scotch design. My parents convinced me that such a box was less expensive and more practical than those "flimsy lunch boxes with cartoons." Unfortunately, I bought their logic. Even peanut butter, jelly, and fluff sandwiches tasted dry in that tartan steel crate. My brother had a Yogi Bear and Friends lunch box It had a scene of Yogi, Huckleberry Hound and Boo Boo driving in a car on the lid. That was OK. What I didn't like was the back of the box. Yogi was holding hands with a girl bear and three babies were skipping on the road beside them. I thought my brother's box was kind of wimpy because of that back. My sister had a Flintstones box. That's because she watched the Fred and the gang on TV as many as three times in a single afternoon. Flinstone reruns were big in those days. I used to stare at the "cool" boxes on the long lunch table. Kids were rated by such. There were Beverly Hillbilly boxes, Fireball XL5, Davey Crocket, Batman and Robin, a yellow Disney school bus, and what I thought was the coolest box of all; a dometop Lost in Space lunch box with saucers, the robot, and that laser equipped greenhouse looking spacecar the Robinson's, and Dr. Smith cruised dusty alien worlds in. Having such a box must have been akin to owning a Porsche.

You may remember earlier lunch boxes. The first "character" decorated box displayed Hopalong Cassidy. It was an overnight success for Aladdin Industries in 1950. In 1953, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans came out with their version: a Thermos Co., fully lithographed box with a TV like picture of their Double R Bar ranch. In its first year it sold 2.5 million kits(box and thermos) and became the industry design standard. Vinyl boxes were introduced in 1959 and plastic began to supplant metal in the early 1970's when mother's complained kids were whacking each other's brains out with steel boxes.

Lunch boxes are worth big money today. From ten dollars for my tartan to several hundred dollars for many graphic boxes in good condition, including the original thermos. More than age and rarity, lunch boxes are valued by graphic appeal and current interest in their subject matter. Trekkies might pay as much as $800 for a Star Trek box. Beatle and Barbie boxes were produced in the millions yet can fetch up to $500 today because of strong demand. Plastic boxes, which are usually later and will not hold up well in time, are not as valuable as metal and vinyl boxes. Price guides are available.

Antiquing has changed. It's popular nationwide now. Early furniture and accessories are not readily available or affordable as they once were, but the market has adapted by expanding. Even if older items are your passion, keep your eyes open for that cool lunch box you always dreamed of owning. I still hate tartan.

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Big Money in Old Lunchboxes (PDF)