Lunch box countdown
Auction a trip down memory lane for many baby boomers and collectors
CINCINNATI Look, up on the shelf! It’s Superman. There’s the king of the wild frontier himself, Davy Crockett. And over in that case is Davy Crockett again, except this time he’s Daniel Boone (we’ll explain later). And aaaaay! It’s The Fonz and the whole Happy Days family.
A veteran auctioneer has on display a baby boomer delight: hundreds of vintage lunch boxes featuring the heroes of their childhood comic books, TV shows, cartoon strips, movies and more.
“I’ve never had anything like this,” said J. Louis Karp, whose family-run business has been part of Cincinnati since the first years after the Civil War. “This is quite different.”
Sure, you can go to any number of websites to buy old metal lunch boxes from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. But to see 250 of them in the same place, to be able to pick them up, and then spot one just like mom packed for you with a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich in the first grade . ...
But back to the auction. Karp regularly sells large estates loaded with rare artwork, antique furniture and collectibles. He has sold vintage lunch boxes before, but never so many. The private collection’s proceeds will benefit younger generations of the owner’s family.
Weldon Adams, a collectibles expert for Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, viewed the lunch boxes online and said such a large, eclectic sale is a rarity.
“We’ve seen some sizable collections,” said Adams. “Having all of them show up at one time is truly an impressive thing.”
Younger people who like kitsch are among lunch box buyers, Adams said, but they are particularly attractive to those who carried them as children because they are a powerful link “back to our identities of who we were as a child.”
Karp has 250 for an auction ending Sunday. He’s planning to auction another 200 before Christmas.
There are lunch boxes with the late actor Fess Parker, who played Crockett and Boone in separate TV series. There is The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family. The Addams Family and The Munsters. Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. The Bee Gees and Bobby Sherman.
There are lesser-known ones: Korg: 70,000 B.C. The Guns of Will Sonnett. Goober and the Ghost Chasers.
Adams said a “wonderfully obscure” one he noticed was from Here Come the Double Deckers, a British children’s TV show. Another is from Fireball XL5,” an early 1960s children’s science fiction show with a fan cult.
“I’m stunned at the breadth of it,” Adams said of the collection.
Bids start at $20 each. Karp shouted upstairs to son Justin, who with his brother Jonas marks the fifth generation of Karps in the auction business, to ask how much different lunch boxes have sold for online.
Lost In Space TV series and The Flintstones animated series? $225 each.
“How about Popeye?” “Who’s with Popeye?” “Olive Oyl, Brutus ...”
“Are they in a boat?”
“Yes, fishing.”
“$190.” Unfortunately, Karp said, many of the lunch boxes lack the Thermos beverage bottles that originally came with them. Those without could draw lower bids.
Karp, 71, reluctantly allowed his sons to bring his auctions into the internet age, and the business takes bids online from anywhere, and by email and phone. But he still enjoys his showroom-floor auctions.