Precious Moments Figurines are porcelain bisque figurines that were introduced by Enesco in 1977. Sam Butcher is the creator of Precious Moments Figurines, he and business partner Bill Biel sold cards and posters with child-like illustrations before being discovered by Enesco.
***
Precious Moment Figurines are easily recognizable by the child-like appearance, teardrop shaped eyes and inspirational message each figurine has inscribed on it.
***
The early figurines are stamped on the bottom Jonathan & David, the name of the company he formed with Bill Biel. In 1985 – 86 the business, Jonathan & David was dissolved, Sam bought out the rights, Enesco became the distributor, and mass production began. Any collector will tell you that the earlier works are much more valuable and I believe the quality was much better. In recent years sales have declined and you can pick up many of these figurines that once averaged $30 - $100 each now sell in the $5 range on eBay.
***
There is a Precious Moments club with hundreds of thousands of collectors that buy “exclusive” and “members only” offerings. However, problems arose and in 2005 Enesco lost their distributorship and with that the clubs which are all still active today but not recognized by Precious Moments went through a lot of changes. In 2006 the collector club situation had been addressed and new clubs had been formed but the popularity and I believe the value of these figurines had diminished greatly.
***
If you are a serious Precious Moments collector now is the time to buy, eBay is saturated with these figurines. Pictured above is three Precious Moments Figurines, the one with the lion is titled "And A Child Shall Lead Them" #E9287R it was issued in 1996 and last week sold on eBay for $8. The Girl figurine is titled "We Are God's Workmanship" it is signed Jonathan & David, #E9258 dated 1982 and the prices on eBay last week ranged from .49 to $4.99. The figurine with the dinosaur is titled "Friends From the Very Beginning", #261068, dated 1996, it seems to have a bigger asking price but no bids on those, one did sell on eBay last week for $11.38.
***
The funny thing about collectibles is if they are hot one year, they are rarely hot the next but you never know if these collectibles will have a second life so if you are a speculator now is a good time to start buying these up.
Check out my eBay Store: http://www.stores.ebay.com/madison-place-fleamarket .
No comments:
Post a Comment