ANRI College Mascots - Ebay

[vintagesportscollector]

Not sure if we have many collectors of Carter Hoffman and ANRI wood hand carved college mascot figures, but a huge trove of these Anri hit ebay starting around Oct. 30th, at great prices. About 300 listings from a dozen different sellers in New England, all in Mass., N.H., and Maine.

They all were/are NOS coming with original 1950s boxes, and labeling, including the tissue paper packaging and the original paper labels on the feet - all in pristine condition. Supposedly they all came from old unopened stock discovered in a store. Since most of the sellers are from Mass., I assume the discovery occurred somewhere in MA.

Does anyone know of, or heard of, the back story of this find? I picked up ten of the 5" figures for about $30 a pop, which I found to be a great price, - considering prior to 12 days ago I would never see these come available on ebay, and the only place I would see them offered is at ITPC. At first I only bought one as gift for my daughter who will be attending one of the schools, but when I got it I was amazed at the craftsmanship, and bought several more.

Curious if anyone is aware of the discovery in MA or where these all suddenly came from. I find them really cool with exceptional detail, for mass produced hand carvings. It's interesting to think these were all sitting in storage for 65 years, undisturbed, never having seen the light of day, until now.

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[slidekellyslide]

I have never seen those. Very cool. Was there a U of Nebraska one? If 10 different sellers were listing them you can bet there was a local auction somewhere where these were unearthed.

[vintagesportscollector]

So, I just coincidentally heard back from one of the sellers I asked…..here is what he said….

"…so there was an Estate sale, the lady past about 6 months ago and the Family liquidated her estate. Seems she had a gift shop on the island of Nantucket.....there was probably 10 buyers of these items. I believe she was the only one carrying these mascots, and they were in an old out building since the 50s, all new never opened so old new stock.."

…very cool!!

Dan - There were (are still some left on ebay) only about 25 different schools represented. CH/ANRI made mascots supposedly for over 100 schools. Most of the schools on ebay are NE, but a few midwest as well. Make sense since this was a MA shop and probably bought inventory for schools that people most went to from the area. This was probably overstock that never sold, because the popular Ivy League schools, that I am sure this store bought and sold, were not to be found in this estate haul. They did however have many of the mini (2") versions, including Cornell which I bought.

Maybe I am being nieve, but finding these in this condition was previously unheard of. So snatching up a few on ebay now, before they are gone, may not be a bad idea. Guessing a year from now I would regret it if I didn't. (search ANRI mascots on ebay)

Cornell - 2" mini versions.
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[slidekellyslide]

Very cool! Looks like a motherlode on ebay right now, but I'll bet you're right, once these are snatched up they'll be gone.

[vintagesportscollector]

The are currently 70 open listings, with over 200 listings sold in the last 12 days.

The first couple days they showed up there were about 75 listings for $100 BINs, and they all sold very quickly - makes sense because these haven't been seen before and $100 seemed like a steal. Who knew hundreds more would continue to be listed. If you waited you could get them for as low as $30. Right now there are some $50 BINs.

[ooo-ribay]

I just put in a $50 offer for my alma mater.

Thanks for the heads up!

[vintagesportscollector]

Originally Posted by ooo-ribay

I just put in a $50 offer for my alma mater.

Thanks for the heads up!

Rob -what's your alma mater?

[ooo-ribay]

Originally Posted by vintagesportscollector

Rob -what's your alma mater?

Ohio University aka Harvard on the Hocking (river)

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by ooo-ribay

Ohio University aka Harvard on the Hocking (river)

AKA the Fighting Frankies. At least around these parts. Frank Solich still has a lot of fans in Nebraska.

[vintagesportscollector]

I bought an Ohio too. The cheapest ebay seller is a guy named "treasures5192". He just had three listings for two mascots for a $55 BIN, and I just saw the same person bought all three listings (6 mascots). Guessing it was someone from N54??

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