Posting OOSHIES

Ooshies, those horrid plastic Woolworths things. My mum had a heap of them so I was looking at what they are selling for. People are selling the individual Ooshies for $4 or $5, up to $10 each with free postage. The only way they could make a profit on that is to send them as a large letter. I measured my Ooshies and the smallest is 25mm wide, up to 35mm, too big to send as a large letter. So 1 Ooshie would be a parcel. I imagine these sellers are sending their Ooshies in an envelope with 2 stamps. I bet Australia Post hate that, as things bigger than 2cm can get caught in their sorting machines. How do people get away with this? As a rule I don't send anything thicker than 18mm as a large letter. Anyone else selling Ooshies???
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@collect247 wrote:

Now we need to go to the why not wood or metal,simple answer is it's cheaper to produce plastic.

And the worth of anything in this world is in the eye of the beholder.


Yes - there's nothing truer than that the eye of the beholder comes into play.

 

I acknowledge the cheapness of plastic production, but I have very strong concerns about the prevalence of plastic and what it means for the planet. Sometimes I despair; so much plastic in the supermarkets - computers and their use of plastic - everywhere I look it's a symphony of plastic!

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@countessalmirena wrote:

brerrabbit, I know. - I had a wild and wonderful exploration online for truly sustainable toothbrushes. I ended up deciding that the ones made with bone handles and boar bristles were the best option.


No way would I put boar bristles in my mouth, no matter how much they've been sterilised and processed. 

 

I use an Ashley & Martin hairbrush that probably has boar bristles but as I bought it in an op shop I don't know what it's made of.  I doubt it's plastic because the rest of it's wood.  I haven't been able to find a decent brush for thick hair for quite a few years so I'm glad I've got this one.  It would have cost a fortune new but I paid a pittance at least 15 years ago.  It hasn't lost a single bristle in all that time so it's definitely quality.  

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Nothing new with plastic in the world of computers, electronics and audiovisual media. I wonder how many broken records and chewed tapes have ended up in landfill in the past 50 years...

As for the topic of posting Ooshies, a friend received a gold Ooshie in a plain DL envelope with 1 solitary stamp on it two days ago, I have absolutely no idea how that got through the system!
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@springyzone wrote:

Probably. Except I won't be here in 50 years.

 

It wouldn't be much fun having a collectable set though if you couldn't take it out sometimes to look at or show your children & grandchildren.

I've no doubt the little things will be a collectable in 50 years because I think a lot of them have just been thrown out and even in 20 years or so, people may toss out the cases as junk.

Some of the early McDonald's toys (unopened) are now worth a bit, apparently. But who can bother keeping every bit of plastic junk that comes into the house. Most of these things just become landfill.


In 2001, McDonald's produced a range of 16 Snoopy toys, including one called the Fireman, with red helmet, yellow safety jacket and hose. I found one of these when clearing some junk, still in his original sealed wrapping, so is in pristine condition. I've had it listed for $10 but no-one has bought it, so I don't think even in 50 years, the Ooshies will be valuable. 

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Nostaligia is often a huge part of what forms the perceived value on stuff like that - the happy meal toys that I know of which can still garner a pretty decent price are some of the old handheld electronic games, they weren't particularly good but were popular at the time because they already had nostalgic value when they were released (I got a couple, lol, cos I loved nicking my brother's Oil Panic when I was a kid Smiley LOL ), and so now there is more than one generation of people that have nostalgia for them (parents bought into it at the time based on their own nostalgia, and the kids that played with them also now have nostalgia for them). That sort of toy is now produced purely to tap into the nostalgic market these days, but with something like a Snoopy toy, I suspect the prevalence of such toys in general prevents a happy meal version from ever really climbing in nostalgic value. 

 

If something is only ever produced to be held in a folder and looked at, or kept sealed in wrappers, or put on display etc, where will the nostalgia come from in 50 years time? No one is ever going to go "oh yeah, I loved looking at that thing when I was a kid, I wish I had some to look at now", JMHO. I can see some mild interest in "so that's what washing powder boxes looked like in the olden days", but if that has interest and value to someone, it's going to be a real packet over a plastic replica that would have any real value (again, JMHO - just like it's the old, original biscuit tins people like and value, not the new replicas). People tend to need to have memories tied to it that are greater than the momentary excitement of seeing what was inside a packet. The kinds of "don't touch" collectibles that genuinely maintain (or increase in) value have more than nostalgia attached to them - things like rarity and quality craftsmanship. 

 

Stamps and cards are probably one of the few things that acheived value when you couldn't really do anything with them other than put in an album, but even stamp collecting has diminished greatly because postal services started producing things purely to collect, thus taking out a significant part of the hobby for many collectors - the thrill of the hunt. Plus there is / was other aspects to a hobby like that (eg getting stamps from all over the world can be fascinating).  

 

I could be wrong, maybe I'm just not seeing the true value of these things, maybe one day I'll regret not hangng on to my Looney Toons tazos, or the full set of fluro Dragon Ball Z tazos I had, but I doubt it. 

 

 

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@gumleaf_goodies wrote:

@springyzone wrote:

Probably. Except I won't be here in 50 years.

 

It wouldn't be much fun having a collectable set though if you couldn't take it out sometimes to look at or show your children & grandchildren.

I've no doubt the little things will be a collectable in 50 years because I think a lot of them have just been thrown out and even in 20 years or so, people may toss out the cases as junk.

Some of the early McDonald's toys (unopened) are now worth a bit, apparently. But who can bother keeping every bit of plastic junk that comes into the house. Most of these things just become landfill.


In 2001, McDonald's produced a range of 16 Snoopy toys, including one called the Fireman, with red helmet, yellow safety jacket and hose. I found one of these when clearing some junk, still in his original sealed wrapping, so is in pristine condition. I've had it listed for $10 but no-one has bought it, so I don't think even in 50 years, the Ooshies will be valuable. 




Um the ooshies are valuable right now so no need to worry about them in 50 years.

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Yes, it's called Strike while people are stupid  the iron is hot.

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@heihachi_73 wrote:
Nothing new with plastic in the world of computers, electronics and audiovisual media. I wonder how many broken records and chewed tapes have ended up in landfill in the past 50 years...


That is precisely my concern. It's not new; it's still happening; even with the increased level of knowledge we have about the effects of plastic, plastic is still being produced and used.

 

It worries me.

 

 

 

 

Re nostalgic value, I do tend to agree with digital*ghost about the role of being tactilely involved with items is more likely to be associated with that feeling of nostalgia than looking at sealed items or items sitting on a shelf.

 

As for the current craze where parents are prepared to spend ridiculous amounts of money on these Ooshies and so on, that says to me one or other of the following:

 

  • parents are the actual "subjects" or "targets" of the craze
    • Since parents are the ones with the ability to purchase (i.e., have the money) and are the ones more likely to be swayed by "rareness" factor of the furry Ooshies, for instance;
  • children are the actual "subjects" or "targets" of the craze, but the parent-child bond has also been manipulated to ensure that parents are receptive to their children's wish to collect these items
    • two-pronged advertising/manipulation, which seems less cost-effective as well as results-effective, unless the advertising/manipulation can be achieved on both targets with one stroke;
  • childrens are the actual "subjects" or "targets" of the craze, and no further manipulation was needed because a high number of parent-child bonds are currently dysfunctional, with parents signifcantly at the mercy of their children's whim
    • This may be a bit hit-and-miss; quite a number of children who are malleable to advertising designed to make them want to collect these items may not have equally malleable parents, which represents lost opportunities;
  • some combination of any of the above.

 

Have any of you seen Derren Brown using his mentalist skills to persuade Simon Pegg (the actor who starred in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) that he (Simon) really, really, really wanted a particular item? Clearly there are ways to tap into the mental constructs of desire or wanting for things. Watch this - and watch it again to try to see how on earth he does it! (I could see some of the trigger words being used, but I'm sure I missed some.)

 

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Luckily for me I have no children and am a self-centred sob.

 

I watch ads, as I watch free to air, but even the Aldi ads (which I find funny) won't convince me to support the German economy.

 

The advantages of being self-centred and, normally, being unaffected by advertising.

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I consider myself, generally speaking, unaffected by advertising, but of course in actuality that can't be true. I suppose in my case it's more that I have strong passions and wants that are not mainstream, which means that mainstream advertising may not work on me... but that the minute there's a Heston Blumenthal commercial advertising some bit of kitchen tech, or Sandrine Piau advertising a breathing regime, or Pierre Deligne advertising a series of retreats designed to maximise your brain potential, or David Mitchell advertising a course on How To Release Your Inner Savage Wit, or Jonas Kaufmann advertising Lieder recitals... I will no doubt cave in.

 

Well, I HAVE caved in. Blumenthal's endorsement of the Breville stick blender was a factor in that particular purchase.

 

davewil, do you think you may possibly still be suggestible to some forms of advertising, perhaps some that's more specfiically targeted? (Obviously no children in the ads...)

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