Attendance booms at Feb. 9 York Toy Show The gate was up - way up - at the Feb. 9 York Toy, Doll, Holiday & Advertising Show. Dealers reported excellent sales as 650 shoppers passed through the doors.
selling at $9,500, since diehard collectors would know that a virtually identical set sold last year for $16,000.
Perhaps the most unique item on display was the dominant piece in Harry Leffler’s booth – an ice cream vendor’s bicycle cart advertising Frozen Whip ice cream. The vehicle had been used at Euclid Beach Park (Cleveland) on the southern shore of Lake Erie, and still had its 1939 Ohio bicycle license plate and bells. Ice cream, however, was not included.
John and Nancy Smith of Barnesville, Md., who specialize in figural cast iron of all types, had sold a laundry list of great pieces: an old sprinkler shaped as a mallard, two floral doorstops, cocker spaniel doorstops, children’s stick horses and an 1892 salesman’s sample for Tinker’s Flour shaped as a flour cabinet.
Pennsylvanians Betty Jo and Don Heim are York Toy Show regulars. Betty Jo remarked that they always have an “excellent” selling experience at the semiannual event and prefer to bring a mix of toys. Their Buddy ‘L’ Wrigley’s Spearmint Chewing Gum truck was priced at $1,475 (Betty Jo kindly pointed out the replacement roof).
There are few other shows where you’ll find a comparable gathering of so many first-class toy dealers. Among the exhibitors were Carter and Irene Davis from Virginia, Jim Yeager from Missouri, Darlene and David Huxtable from West Virginia, and a throng of Pennsylvanians: Bob Brady from Lancaster, George Wausnock from Pottstown, and Bernie Dreher from the town of Jim Thorpe. Bertoia Auctions had its usual stand, where Jeanne Bertoia, brother-in-law Rich Bertoia, and Jeanne’s son Michael – the latest Bertoia to join the family business – were busily fielding inquiries about their upcoming April 17-19 auction and talking to consignors about other sales scheduled for this and next year.
The next edition of the York Toy Show, owned by Geppi’s Entertainment Auctions and produced by Dan Morphy, will take place on Saturday, Aug. 23, with early buying on Friday, Aug. 22. For additional information, call 717-335-3435, e-mail danmorphy@dejazzd.com or log on to www.aagal.com.
