The biggest question I’ve seen on the r/Collectibles board, and from the FB Cookie Jar Collector’s pages, and from everyone who’s heard of the massive 300 jar collection, and from random people on Al Gore’s interwebs, is “No kidding? How much are those worth?”
Seems like folks get a lot of $$$$$ on their brain when they hear about collectibles. Well, as with most things in the antiques world, Al Gore screwed a lot of folks over when he introduced the ability to easily connect people from all over the world to each other. Gone are the days of driving across the US stopping at every little antique store and every small town thrift store just to find that one cookie jar at $5 or less. Gone are the days of networking with other collectors and buying bulk collections or compiling them and selling them via a newsletter or something. I based most of my pricing around what I could find on eBay and Etsy and other vendors. This is what is called comparable sales. This is the same type of technique used to value art, other collectibles, stocks, companies, etc.
As we went through the 300+ jars in the collection we came across several papers from assorted time periods showcasing specific jars or pricing books, or letters from sellers hand mailed out to client lists. One such paper was from 1989. I only know this because it offered free shipping for any orders before Christmas of 1989! It also contained the following picture. Although not a polaroid, it was still a developed picture.
Here are some of the jars that they had listed and the comparison of prices from 1989 to 2025. Take into account the prices I have listed on my eBay store are WELL BELOW the “going rate” if you will. If I had a cookie jar store and was in the business of selling cookie jars to collectors the pricing would be different. This is mainly because of 2 things – clientele and time. If you have a business, collectors looking for specific pieces to fill out their collection will come to you. You also have to wait until just the right person comes along.
The following is a list of all the jars that were provided by this guy from Westchester, IL to his client list that also happened to be jars that my dad had in his collection. I didn’t go find the prices for the jars from this guy that my dad didn’t have. My dad lived in WY and wasn’t exactly driving to IL. Plus in the late 80’s he still had some kids at home.
When you look through the list, a lot of the jars are around similar prices to 1989! Yeah, little to no change over 35 years. There are a couple that had steep price decreases, and the R2D2 shot through the roof, but outside of that, if you are wanting to get into cookie jar collecting, do the searches in the thrift stores and the antique malls yourself or estate sales or ebay but watch the prices as you aren’t exactly going to be making an “investment”. This is purely for the love of the game type of thing. If you want to do reselling, you have to but as cheap as possible and build your collector clientele. Think the American Pickers series – they already had established collectors for a lot of the things they bought, and they did the work of driving out to the random back woods and picking for those customers. They knew what they could sell and they didn’t buy stuff they couldn’t sell. They already had established who, what, and had an idea of price.
McCoy – Two Kittens in Basket – $395 (89) – $400 (25)*
(I don’t think my dad had the McCoy Kittens in Basket, but had 2 from wisecarver (shown below). This is TBD as it was packaged up and I have yet to inspect)
McCoy – Blue Kangaroo – $230 (89) – $200 (25)
I have one, but it has a small chip & a collector said he couldn’t pay the $75 I asked for it. I’ve listed it on eBay for $150, but have reduced the price to $100.
McCoy – Snoopy on Doghouse – $125 (89) – $200 (25)
I have 2 listed for a combined $400, but will likely reduce price to somewhere in the $300 range or lower depending on how long it sits there.
Walt Disney – R2D2 – $85 (89) – $400 (25)
I sold 1 of mine for $125 on Etsy quite quickly. I gave the other to my nephew.
Regal – Quaker Oats – $89 (89) – $5 (25)
You can see this one in the picture above, it is on the floor. These are available all over the place so the price is nearly nothing.
Brush – Grey Bunny – $180 (89) – $200 (25)
I call it Bucktooth Bunny. It has the W25 on the bottom. I’ve listed for $150 but haven’t sold, so likely will be less.
McCoy – Black Train Engine – $85 (89) – $20 (25)
I sold mine for $5. It fell into the “not worth enough to mess with” category and took the $5 without having to edit pictures, post, ship, etc. This is mold #207
Brush – Covered Wagon – $210 (89) – $20 (25)
I sold both for $5 each. This was mold number W-30.
Regal China – Humpty Dumpty – $165 (89) – $100 (25)
I have it listed for $75 but will likely lower the price as it’s been sitting there for a while (pun not intended lol). This was mold number 707. You can see a version in the picture above in the post.
Majorette – Regal China – $105 (89) – American Bisque – $150 (25)
Mine is an American Bisque but it looks very similar to the one in the pic. The colors of American Bisque are way better, it is just a higher quality jar. I will likely sell it at around $50-75 is my guess as I’ve listed for $100 and it has a small chip on the lid.
Standfordware – Ear of Corn – $43 (89) – $125 (25)
I’ve listed it for $100 but it will likely sell in the $50 range.
McCoy – Chef – $68 (89) – $125 (25)
I’ve listed the pair of them for $100. This is mold number 206.
Shawnee – Winking Owl – $70 (89) – $75 (25)
I’ve listed mine for $50
Brush – Squirrel with Top Hat – $105 (89) – $100 (25)
I sold mine for $30. I could have listed for $75 and likely sold for $50 but the other $20 net wasn’t worth the additional time.
McCoy – Animal Crackers Box – $150 (89) – $150 (25)
I have mine listed at $100. It is a Barnum’s Wagon mold #152 that looks like a Nabisco Animal Crackers box.
Walt Disney – Winnie the Pooh – $79 (89) – $125 (25)
I have mine listed at $50. I had it listed at $100, but hasn’t seen any action.
Redwing Pottery – Dutch Girl – $118 (89) – $100 (25)
I have 2 listed together at $100. The blue one of mine has some sort of “rare” double stamp on it that is supposed to make its value closer to $150 alone, but honestly if nobody cares, nobody cares.
McCoy – Hobby Horse – $120 (89) – $75 (25)
I sold mine for $5. I likely would have listed it for $50 but when you are dealing with 300+ jars, you end up just saying “sure, whatever” when someone offers to take some off your hands before you have the time to actually sort through them. This was mold number 034.
American Bisque – Clown on Stage – $70 (89) – $100 (25)
I sold mine for $25. It was again one of those – sure why not type of things.
Others – there is a lot of what is now called “americana” type cookie jars that are still unfortunately wildly popular. These fall into what I describe as “yup, super racist, but we will just name it differently and pretend it is history, and pretend….” type of jars. You can see in the picture above that there were a lot of these types of jars and my dad’s collection also had at least a dozen jars that I was not going to be a peddler of.