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About
History
Bobbleheads
originated at some point in the 50’s or 60’s. They were not given out at the stadium
like they are today. They were sold at toy stores or perhaps sold at the
souvenir stand at the stadium. They were packaged in white boxes with generic
labels on them, with a picture of a bobblehead and a
caption that read something like “My Favorite Team.” As a general rule, they
consisted of a generic player in the uniform of a specific team. There were
also ones of team mascots like Mr. Red. Most desirable of the team bobbles are
those where the generic player is black. These were made in much smaller
quantities than their white counterparts and are therefore extremely rare.
Collectors also differentiate by the different type of bases on the bottoms of
the statues, as well as variations on the captions on the bases.
Below is an example of a Reds generic player with a
red base. A couple of flaws are visible, notable tiny chips on the bill of the
hat and base. Also, the white parts aren’t quite as bright as at the time of
issue. The box it came in is long-gone. But overall, it’s in good shape, all things
considered. It’s original, and it isn’t unheard of for these to get restored.
Like many cheap objects of the era, it was made in Japan.
Below is another example of an old Reds bobble, the
team mascot, Mr. Red. As you probably know, the old-style Mr. Red has been resurrected
by the team as the Mr. Redleg mascot. He even got an
SGA bobblehead in 2014, and he’s being used as a
motif in the All-Star Game decorations in 2015. As long as the team is using
him so much, any item featuring him from the old days is going to be a pretty
big conversation piece, and will therefore be a lot more in-demand than a
generic boy in a uniform.
This Mr. Red one, although it looks good in the first
picture, is in worse shape than the boy one. He has a chip out of his nose, and
there is some amateur restoration. Specifically, the paint has been touched up.
Again, the paint work looks OK in the above picture, but in person, you can see
that it’s a little sloppier than what a toy company would have put out. You can
see the original paint in the stripes of the hat, and it’s faded compared to
the sleeves of the shirt. This piece was well-loved, but at some point the red
got a little too pink for the owner’s taste. Still, I’ve seen worse. I’ve seen
them where the Reds sticker on the front gets yellow. I can only guess that the
yellowing happens due to smoking in the house. This one set me back $125 in
early 2015. Expect to pay dearly for one of these in any condition where it’s
still in one piece.
Above is the bottom of the Mr. Red bobble. As you can
see at the bottom of the label, it was made in Japan, where a lot of toys and
cheap consumer goods of the fifties and sixties were made. In the seventies and
eighties, Taiwan was where such things were made. Now it’s China. So with a
product like this, there’s no need to mourn the lost American jobs because they
aren’t made here anymore. The mass-market sports bobblehead
never was.
A handful of bobbles were made of some of the biggest
stars of the 60’s, such as Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays. As you might guess,
they are extremely valuable.
Through the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, bobbles continued to
be made for sale as team representatives or of individuals. For the most part,
they had little collector interest, since there was no definite time where the
manufacturer felt compelled to stop making them. As a general rule, ceramic was
the primary medium for the statues, but there were also some cheap plastic
ones.
Bobbleheads
moved into the collector limelight when in 1999, the San Francisco Giants
decided to give away a Willie Mays bobblehead on
Mother’s Day. The first 10,000 fans got them, and they were quite popular. The
emergence of Ebay meant that a market for any
collectible could be made worldwide, and that anyone
could figure out about how much people were paying for it. The Mays bobble was
popular in part because there were a finite number of them.
Below is the Mays one. He’s right between the old ones
and the ones that are issued today. His body has the chunky build of the Reds
one above, in other words, nothing like the real Mays. But the head, while far
from being in proportion to the body, is somewhat smaller than the ridiculously
big melon on the Reds one above. The sponsor logo is on the back of the body
itself. Most sponsors probably wouldn’t accept being relegated to the back of
the doll today.
Other teams got wind of the Giants’ idea. Most
significantly, the Minnesota Twins scheduled four dates where a bobble of a different
Twins hero would be given away in a quantity of 5,000 each. For the first time,
the items could be considered part of a complete set, adding to their
collectible appeal. With the skyrocketing cost of new baseball cards driving
many collectors away, a new collectible was born in the form of the Stadium
Giveaway bobblehead. Unfortunately, the Twins
allotted far too few bobbles for each player, and the things were gone before
most anyone got to the ballpark. Near-riots ensued, and the bobbles achieved
triple-digit prices on Ebay, prompting an even madder
rush for the next one. The level of bad feeling was similar to when tickets to
a hot concert seem unavailable, and derision is heaped upon “scalpers.”
With the dawn of the 2001 season, the Reds caught onto
the SGA bobble craze, and began planning giveaways of their own.
The Mays doll cost me around $80 on Ebay in early 2013. It’s kind of surprising that with the
SGA ones being fairly widely collected, that the “Adam” of the group doesn’t command
a higher price. After all, the issuance of more and more of them might dilute
the price of some of the older ones, but there’s only one that can claim to be
first. And compared to what they give out today, the run was pretty small.
Perhaps the run was a little bigger than stated, and perhaps collectors don’t
like dated look of the very early ones.
Collecting
The biggest problem with bobbleheads
is the fact that they are fragile. When buying them through the mail, many will
be poorly packed and arrive broken. Sometimes, they might be well-packed and
still arrive broken. Do not assume the seller is bad just because you get a
broken one in the mail. Do, however, ask for a refund or replacement in this
situation. If that isn’t worth the trouble, you can glue parts back on with
ordinary glue and they will look OK, but their value will be diminished
somewhat. If you get them by going to the stadium, be alert when you go through
the gate. Some of them get abused in transit. Look for a mashed box and give the
box a little shake. Excessive rattling could indicate a broken bobble. If you
suspect you have a broken one, ask for a new one. If a surly attendant tries to
brush you off, insist on getting a new one. You deserve it. You bought the
ticket. The team will sometimes exchange broken ones for new ones after the
fact, but this is no sure thing.
If you plan on getting more than one, they will force
you to get them one at a time, then leave via a
designated exit. This is a pain, but the rules are the rules.
Many people will keep the ticket stub from the game
with the bobble. At the very least, you should keep the box and all the packing
materials. The boxes are decorated and are considered part of the product. The
packing materials will help if you ever need to move or pack up the bobbles for
safekeeping.
Beware of “retail” versions of SGA’s. Especially, with
the early, rarer SGA’s, a similar bobble might have been produced for sale at
the team’s gift shop or website. There are usually differences between the two
versions. Typically, an SGA will have a sponsor logo on it somewhere. For the
Reds, that’s usually Pepsi or Great American Insurance. The retail versions
aren’t made in limited quantities and are therefore less desirable.
Remember that they are not toys. If you want your son
to have a collection of bobbleheads, it is probably
best to put them up until he is in his mid-teens. If the bobbles are played
with, they will eventually break. You will also have shards of ceramic that
could cause bigger problems than a destroyed collectible. There’s the reason
porcelain dolls go up on shelves and little girls get plastic Barbie dolls to
play with.
Where do they come from?
A quick look at the typical SGA will show that a lot
of work goes into these things. They are hand-painted and more than likely are
packed by hand as well. Why would a team give something like that away for a
ticket that might be as cheap as $5? First of all, the team doesn’t pay for
them. There is a sponsor for each one, who will give these away in exchange for
getting their logo on it.
Also, making all of these things by hand isn’t quite
as expensive as you might think. They are an example of a product that takes
advantage of the global economy. The dolls are designed in the
There are a few drawbacks to making them this way. First
of all, you need to know what you need months in advance, and plans are hard to
change. Felipe Lopez was traded shortly after his bobble was passed out. Sooner
or later, a guy will be traded before his bobblehead
game. Who knows what will happen then? Also, Chinese manufacturing is not quite
up to the standards of Western countries. Sometimes, the paint colors are off a
bit or the details just aren’t very good. Finally, when you farm out your
manufacturing, you have the chance that the factory will run a few extra for
its own benefit. If one firm controls the firing of ceramics, the painting and
the printing of the boxes, they can make all the extras they want. But bobble
lovers should not complain. Were it not for cheap, third-world labor, the bobblehead hobby as we know it would not exist.