What do you value the most with your smurf collection? Perfection or is it the desire to every smurf that has been released.
I recently found myself asking this question when I received a Baseball Smurfette (Schleich ref# 20186) that had clearly seen better days. Her front shoes were damaged, there was paint rub on her nose and even after a bit of a clean I still could see some grim marks on it.
We find Baseball Smurfette wearing a pink and white baseball uniform with purple socks and purple trim around her hat. In her hands is her baseball bat. The markings to be found are: Made in Hong Kong W.Berrie & Co Schleich S Peyo (c) 1984.
However I was also fully aware of the significance of Baseball Smurfette. This was considered by many, one of the hardest smurfs to find. This is because Baseball Smurfette was only sold for a short time around 1984/85 by Wallace Berrie and was originally only sold in the USA. I was also fully aware that the rarer the smurf the more likely there are fakes out there.
Once again I inspected my newly acquired Baseball Smurfette and carefully studied the figurine. How do I know if I am holding a genuine or fake Baseball Smurfette. Previously I had only seen pictures and read about this being on people’s most wanted list. So now I found one in my actual hands and I had not paid a fortune to get it.
I took a deep breath and started to ask myself some questions about Baseball Smurfette that I knew were important if I was going to reassure myself that I was the owner of a rare smurf. I was determined to reassure myself I had not purchased a fake!
The markings under her feet were clear and did not appear blurry. The number 1 on the back of pink jumper was hand painted on and was stamped on. The more I studied the figurine in my hands the more I was convinced that it was genuine.
So I asked myself again – Do I want to keep a really rare smurf even though it is not in perfect condition? My answer was definitely YES. To be honest there was never ever real doubt that I would throw it away just because it wasn’t mint condition.
Most of my smurfs would never be considered to be in mint condition. I have smurfs that are in excellent condition right down to smurfs who have major paint rub and are almost beyond recongnition to their original condition. This has never really fazed me as in my opinion this is what makes my smurf collection more interesting to view.
So ask yourself what do you value the most with your smurf collection?
Keep on Smurfin
Kath B