Spring Loaded: A Message from the Editor top of page | cover page

Hey folks. It's been a busy month for me post-Pezamania, and I haven't had a lot of time lately to devote to Pez. But I do have a lenghty recap of my adventures at the convention to share with everyone.

Look for a more standard issue of Pezhead Monthly in the next month or so. Until then, take care and see you later!

Joe Durrant
Editor, Pezhead Monthly
joe@pezheadmonthly.com

Pezamania 17 top of page | cover page

Once again I have had the extreme privilege of attending a Pez convention. Pezamania 17 promised an even more action-packed time than last year, and I must say that it delivered. John and Linda Gliha did an outstanding job in their second year as hosts.

To start out, I came to this convention with another agenda in addition to the typical ones (such as finding great Pez, meeting new Pezheads, and catching up with Pezheads from years past). This year, I made the decision to sell off some of my Pez. I know, I know, I am sure you are asking, how can anyone do such a crazy thing? Well, let me stress that I only wanted to sell extras of Pez that I already have. You see, it occurred to me as I was doing a reorganization of my Pez display a few months back that I had a lot of extra Pez. Bagged, carded, loose… there were just a lot of them, and they were taking up a lot of space that could be given to new Pez scores. So I began to separate those extras that I wanted to keep from those extras that I could do without. To my surprise, there were about 5 boxes of extra Pez that I realized I no longer needed.

Thursday

So I put all of these extras in the car and headed on down to Cleveland early Thursday. Despite a few minor setbacks along the way (construction, rain, and my highly anticipated stop at the Columbus Fuddruckers being ruined by it having gone out of business), I made it to the hotel at a pretty decent time. My room, unfortunately, wasn't the easiest one to get to from the parking lot. In fact, it took me a few tries to actually locate a parking area close enough to the hotel side door entrance. And the closer I could get, the better… after all, not only was I bringing all of my luggage into the room, but all of those boxes of extras.

When I finally got to the room, it occurred to me that I had to do something I had never done before: set it up for Pez shopping. I completely admit that I thought this would only take about 10 or 15 minutes. Turns out, I was completely wrong. First, there is the task of unpacking all the Pez from the boxes. Next, there is the matter of arranging the stuff in the room. I thought it would simply all fit onto one bed. Turns out that the amount of stuff I had to sell required both beds, and just barely was able to fit on them in total. After setting up the stuff, there was then the matter of pricing. While I planned to sell low in the interest of moving it quickly, this still required a great deal of time. In addition to all of this, I also taped a variety of sheets of paper with Pez Almost-Quotes to the walls, to give the room more of that "Pezhead Monthly" kind of feel.

So, all told, setting the room up did not take 10-15 minutes as I was expecting, but a little over an hour. I was worn out and could have used a nap, but unfortunately both beds were covered in Pez. Needless to say, I emerged from this experience with a whole new appreciation for dealers and anyone else who had set up their room prior to "opening for business." In fact, later in the weekend I spoke to some other people who spent multiple hours setting their rooms up.

After a quick shower, I finally headed down to start the glorious tradition of room hopping, meeting Pez friends, and scoring Pez deals. However, before I did that I hung up fliers around the hotel to advertise that my room was open. I realized that this is another added piece to selling out of the room that takes a while, and something else for which you really do need to come prepared. Especially in my case, as my room was on the third floor, and the vast majority of sellers were located on the first and second floors.

It occurred to me as I started to room hop, that I would need to balance my time out for the duration of the convention. No longer was I given free reign to room hop whenever I darn well pleased. I also needed to spend some time, likely a lot of time, in my room if I wanted to sell all or most of the stuff I wanted to sell. O cursed responsibility!

As it turns out, this internal drama was pretty much completely resolved within 10 minutes of room hopping. In one of the rooms, I casually mentioned to someone the fact that I had all this stuff for sale- that it was recent stuff, not unique, but it was at low, low prices. Before I knew it, there was a dealer enthusiastically following me back to the room, and prepared to buy a lot of stuff. So for the next 20 minutes or so, she went through my stuff and picked out what she wanted. When she was finished, she had cleaned out about 75% of my stuff! Hooray!

Now, despite much evidence to the contrary, I am not an idiot. I knew that she was going to sell most of this stuff in her own room for considerably higher than she was buying it from me. But of course this didn't matter to me, because this was all stuff that I did not want to bring home with me (which is why I priced it so ridiculously low). Plus, she happens to be one of my favorite dealers, and just a great person, so I was glad to help her out. Honestly, I think she helped me out a lot more by taking all this stuff off my hands. We packed it in boxes and I helped her bring it down to her room. I was quite elated.

So with this big moment behind me, I resumed my room hopping activity. I quickly picked up many pieces on my wish list, including the unmasked Dash dispenser, which rounded out my unmasked Incredibles set. I also caught my first glimpse of some of the bigger purchases I planned on making, realizing that it was best to shop around before throwing down $150 or more for a single, awesome Pez.

I also had the chance to meet Cheryl, the winner of the June 2007 Pezhead Monthly Challenge. It was a pleasure to meet her and while I was there I entered her raffle for a vintage Thor Pez, mint in cello. Would I win it? Stay tuned…

Okay, no need for suspense. I didn't win it.

Anyway, After a few hours of quality room hopping and visiting with Pez friends old and new, I decided that I should head back up to my room and try to sell some more of my own stuff. I sold a few more pieces before heading out to dinner and returning to the Pez action.

The next Pezamania event was a new one this year. It was called "Pezamania Wars" and I was pleased to discover that no actual weaponry or hand-to-hand combat was involved, because if that was the case, I probably would never have seen another Pez dispenser again afterwards due to my bloody death. Instead, this game was based on the popular card game War. It was set up as a tournament, starting with 128 players, and as the rounds went on, more and more people would be eliminated, until only one remained. For those unfamiliar with War, it is a game completely based on luck, with no strategy involved.

The game moved along quickly. But despite two successful rounds, I was defeated in the third round by a kid that couldn't have been older than 5 or 6. "No strategy involved," I kept telling myself, as I pounded my fist against my head and fought back tears.

My one complaint about the game's setup, and I am sure that others shared this feedback with the Glihas at some point, was that we all were signed up in brackets that were already designed. So, our first opponent was already scheduled for us. Then, after the first round, we would simply follow the brackets and ideally everything would go smoothly. But the problem was that some people had decided to not to participate, or had difficulty getting to the hotel in time, or were missing for other reasons. So we had a bunch of people hanging out with no partners (including me) and there was a fair amount of chaos. Once we got started, things went quickly, but only once we gave up on the whole bracket approach and just started playing against other people who remained. I think the Glihas realized this once things got rolling, and hopefully next year we can keep this game but take a more unstructured approach to it.

A while later we had the always enjoyable Pez swap party, where people bring their Pez wares to trade, sell, or buy. I brought down some of my remaining stuff and cleared out another bunch of Pez. So long, die cast cars and Pez cereal dispensers! Fare thee well in your new homes.

A couple more hours of room hopping commenced after that, and the evening wrapped up with some nice conversation and beverages with some friends from a few years back. These people were a real pleasure to hang out with and I was glad that we got to do that. I look forward to seeing them again next year.

After that, I was done for the day. It had been a long one, filled with joy, chaos, and, everything in between, and I needed some rest if I was to make it through the rest of the convention.

Friday

Friday was mainly spent continuing the balance of room-hopping and selling from my room. However, I had sold such a great proportion of my stuff on Thursday that I really had a lot more time to roam the hotel hallways and add many more pieces to my collection.

One of the first places I stopped on Friday was to the room of the dealer who nearly cleared me out the day before. I wanted to thank her again for doing that. I also noticed that she had some Pez on my wish list, so I quickly snagged it up, and got doubles of reach. She looked at me incredulously. After all, not 24 hours ago, I was selling off some of my doubles, and here I was, eagerly buying some more. Was I perhaps dropped on my head as a child? However, in my defense I had a good reason. I was shopping for some friends, family, and coworkers, not just for myself, and that was where the doubles were going. I won't reveal the exact items, as some of them haven't been delivered to their recipients yet, but trust me, I have no interest in reviving my previous habit of collecting extras. My display space simply can't handle it anymore.

For lunch I made a very pleasant discovery, thanks to the helpful guide that the Glihas included with the Pezamania registration: there was a Quaker Steak and Lube restaurant located just two miles away from the convention hotel! And it had apparently been there for many years, without my knowledge! You have to understand, Quaker Steak and Lube is probably my favorite place on Earth for chicken wings (in your face, Buffalo Wild Wings!). I always try to stop at the one in Erie PA when I pass through. So suffice it to say, I had a bliss-filled lunch this day, especially considering that before making this discovery I had all but resolved myself to the drudgery of McDonalds.

Okay, enough chicken wing-related frivolity! Back to the Pez action. When I returned to the hotel, I finally made my big purchase of the convention: a softhead Wonder Woman. For those who have been reading my Pezamania recaps over the past several years, you may have an idea of what a big achievement this was. Wonder Woman rounded out my softhead collection of the DC Superheroes, which also includes Joker, Penguin, Batgirl, and Batman. I had gotten each of these other pieces, one by one, over the course of the past few years. I was so happy to have finally completed one of the coolest vintage Pez dispenser sets ever. I would have even done a Pez Dance of Joy, but after the chicken wings I wasn't quite up to the task.

As I continued room hopping, I used a tool that ended up coming in mighty handy. I am speaking of my Playstation PSP. No, I didn't play video games as I went from room to room. But the PSP also can be used to store and view pictures on a nice, wide screen. So before Pezamania I took pictures of my entire collection and put them on my PSP. Flash forward to the room hopping, where I was able to go through photos of my collection to be sure that I didn't already have something I had my eye on at the convention. After all, with about 700 pieces in my collection, it gets easier and easier to find stuff that I already have, and forget that I have it. And, considering that I had just gotten rid of a lot of extras, well, let's just say I am not n a rush to get anymore. So the PSP helped with this and I definitely plan on using it again next year.

After several more Pez scores, a few more Pez sales, and a delicious steak dinner, I headed back to the convention. I knew what was coming and I knew I was headed there like a lamb to the slaughter. I am referring of course to that source of endless anticipation and endless heartbreak, Pez Bingo. I will say that the prizes this year were fantastic, probably the best of any Pezamania I've been to. I got some close-up pictures of some of the better ones, since I was fairly certain I wouldn't be seeing them close up again.

I took my seat with some friends from the past few years, and the action began. You know you're in trouble when the first five numbers are called out and you don't even have one on your card. And from that point forward, every time a number is called, you wince just a little, expecting someone from the other corner of the room, far away from the reach of the bad luck vibe emanating from your chair, to shout "Bingo!" towards the heavens. Such was my experience in past years, and such was my experience this year as well, for the 7 or 8 games I played. But that's okay. There were some great prizes and some great auctions for charity in between some of the games. My personal favorite was an auction for a Hulk Pez dispenser signed by Lou Ferrigno (from the 1970s TV show), along with a photo and certificate. I believe it went for about $300. Hulk smash!

The big prize of the night, which I of course made a noble but ultimately futile attempt at, was a Pineapple Pez dispenser. This is not to be confused with the updated version which Pezhead Monthly interviewed a while back, but instead one of the rarest vintage Pez dispensers out there. The Pineapple dispenser goes for about $600. That's a lot of cans of Dole, my friend. This game was a fill-all one, and in the end there was a tie between a young teenager and Jeff, a longtime collector. It came down to a pack of cards, and who drew the highest number. The teenager won, and although I felt bad for Jeff, the kid got a heck of a boost to his collection and I am glad for him.

After the mounds of tossed Bingo cards were cleaned up, the crowd headed out to the traditional post-Bingo party. For the past several years, the Cincy group graciously hosted the party, providing food, beverage, and games, and giving Pezheads the chance to socialize with each other and learn about the benefits of joining the Pez list. And they also went through the enormous task of creating custom Pez dispensers for each of their parties. As my previous Pezamania recaps have noted, examples of their work have included custom Pez designed to look like Pigs, iPods, and Magic 8-Balls.

This year, for the first time in a long time, the party was not being sponsored by the Cincinnati-area Pezheads. Given the amount of work they volunteered for this party in the past, I completely understand why they would want to step back for a while. Every Pezhead who came to these parties, and every Pezhead who did not, should recognize the hard work and dedication the Cincy Pezheads brought to these parties, and thank them for being such welcoming hosts, and of course, thank them for the cool custom Pez that they so kindly created in their own time and at their own expense. So thanks, Cincy Pezheads. You rock.

The party this year was hosted by MySpace4Pezheads.com, the MySpace-inspired social networking site for Pezheads all over the world. I heard great things about this party, but unfortunately my duties as room seller prevented me from attending it.

That's right, for one last time I learned just how much work goes in to selling out of your room. Unlike most other sellers who set up tables for the big Saturday show, the only place I was selling was from out of my room. So after Bingo, instead of heading to the party, I packed up the remainder of the stuff and walked it down to the car. I also took down all of the Pez quotes I had taped on the wall. The whole process took a while and left me pretty tired, and I could only imagine how much time and effort it would take for someone with a lot more left over than I had to pack their stuff up.

That being said, next year I don't plan to sell anything out of my room, so hopefully I will be able to make the post-Bingo party, whoever will be hosting it.

So with another action-packed day behind me, I easily drifted off to sleep. The next day would be the final hurrah, and I was ready to send it off in style.

(continued on next page)

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