Was just given a bunch of H.I. Hummel figurines...

[JimmyJimenez]

Oops, I meant to say M.I. Hummel, not H.I. Hummel (guess I have HI on the brain)

Not sure if any of you folks get into such things, but my wife and I do have a modest collection of 14 M.I. Hummel Figurines that we have collected during almost two decades together. These were all purchased at one place or the other at the retail level.
We simply, (especially me), have gotten into a bunch of different interests over our years together.

My wife and I have not purchased/added an M.I. Hummel figurine to our small collection in quite a few years now, but that changed drastically today.

My almost 18 year old son has been dating his girlfriend for over a year now, and she has been around our home enough to have noticed some of our interests. It seems that at some point she mentioned to her mother that we had some of these figurines in our home.
Well, her mother just happened to have a bunch of M.I. Hummel figurines that had previously been handed down to her ex-husband, and she apparently had no use for them now. She also knows that they can be valuable to collectors, but the main thing was that she no longer wanted them.

Today my wife and daughter went over to my son's girlfriend's mother's house because she is, among other things, a seamstress, and my daughter had asked her if she could make some minor adjustments to her recently purchased prom dress.

While there, she not only said that she wanted no payment for doing this for us, but she also handed a box for my wife to take home with her. Once home, we opened the box to discover these 12 to 14 M.I. Hummel figurines that she no longer wanted.

Though we had pretty much given up on adding any new pieces, this was an awesome surprise for us

Our current pieces, the ones we already had, are all less than 17 years old, while these new additions are generally bigger in size and "much" older.

They need some cleaning up, since they look to have been displayed openly rather than our way of having them behind glass, but what a nice set to add to what had become a discontinued interest for us

Without looking them up, I'd say there is probably 2 to 3 thousand dollars worth of Hummels in that box.

Nice gift from a nice lady

 

[munk]

How blessed you must feel.
It is wonderful how small, usually unnoticed things can have a delight all their own.

I had a hard time accepting gifts when I was younger. It was pride and arrogance that pushed generosity away. To this day generous people amaze me- like Yangdu, and Bill, and Rusty, and the people here; a contrast to the hardship thrift philosophy taught to me by my Father which he learned from the Great Depression and his Father.





munk

 

[Bladite]

mmm, neat. definitely remember those.

i always used to think my mom was a bit obsessed with hummels, she used to have a whole cabinet of them... they mysteriously vanished when my brother cleaned her place up and sent her to a "home". "what hummels" he said. nice. they probably got sold too. money is nothing compared to family keepsakes.

don't let them trickle through your fingers!

bladite

 

[JimmyJimenez]

Yeah, Munk, I did feel blessed to receive these as a gift

My wife and I are not used to something like this. Over the years we've had friends and family give or exchange gifts with us, but nothing out of the ordinary. This valuable gift came totally unexpected, and from a person my wife and I hardly know

Bladite, I have tried real hard to teach my kids to value these "things" as family heirlooms/treasures, but once we pass away, I don't know if all that will be followed.

I have told my kids that I wished that our family had started such a tradition of family treasures before us, but they simply did not.

We barely have photos of our past family tree, and certainly do not have any heirlooms or treasures. I feel it would have been awesome to have items that not only belonged to my dad, but maybe his dad and his dad before that. It just sounds so cool to be able to own and handle something that has been cherished and handed down from generation to generation
I can only hope that my kids will some day feel that way.

No such pleasure was bestowed upon us (my brothers and I), but maybe I'll be the start of such a thing

Heck, my father had even given away his Army medals after serving Honorably during the Korean War (which he served a year in theater, and was involved in combat). I was lucky that he at least still had his discharge papers, and via that I was able to replace his medals and citations (which I now proudly display in my living room and have them for my children to hopefully cherish as well).


PS.
Last night I unwrapped them all and the actual count was 10 figurines. A quick glance at one of my outdated Hummel price guides, easily puts their value at what I had guessed before (2 to 3 thousand dollars).
Last night I also took many hours to carefully clean them up, and they truly look wonderful
I feared that I would have needed to make or purchase a new cabinet to house them in, but it's amazing how a little shuffling around in the exsisting cabinets allowed me to fit them in