How Much is Your Vintage Collectible Lunchbox Worth? Amazing!
If you or someone you know grew up in the '60s, 70's, '80s, and 90's, chances are that you or they had a culturally significant lunchbox in elementary school. Those good old days of packing a lunch from home, most importantly, packed inside a lunchbox that bespoke of the important times in which you were living.
So, I'll date myself now, and I don't mean that I'll take myself out on a date because that would be weird and also, I'm a cheapskate and I deserve to have someone spoil me with a lavish dinner and memorable night out. Wait, what? Nevermind.
It was 1968 and I was six years old. I had just had my tonsils ripped from my throat and was sick as a dawg. The only bright spot, beyond an occasional sip of ice water during my recovery was a brand new shiny 'Gentle Ben' Lunchbox. Gentle Ben was a popular television show then and having a lunchbox with the image and likenesses of Clint Howard and Dennis Weaver, and of course, Ben, the Bear, was very cool.
Why do I still possess it some 53 years later? My wife has one answer, but my answer is that it brings me some level of joy. It doesn't take up much space and my late Mother's handwriting is just inside the lid, in the space provided by the manufacturer to identify in case it was lost or stolen. Obviously, it never was lost or stolen and here it sits. I don't have the thermos, however, since it only lasted a few weeks during first grade until some knucklehead named Wayne knocked it onto the floor and broke it. (the inside of thermoses in those days were made of glass).
It turns out that I'm not that odd for hanging onto my vintage lunchbox. There happens to be a museum for lunchboxes in the great state of Georgia. I discovered this YouTube Video and was enraptured by what I saw and heard. If you are a collector of anything nostalgic, you'll enjoy watching this.