German Nutcrackers » Vintage German Nutcrackers

German Nutcrackers on Ebay – The state of the market

Paul — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:03:42 +0000

A search for German Nutcracker on Aug 16, 2009 brings up 39 listings, but only 23 are actual auctions. The rest are store listings. Six of them have bids.

The most popular item is from an estate sale in is one of the more old time looking items offered. There are seven Steinbach's and 1 Christian Ulbricht.

A seller from Texas is offering two German Nutcracker barstools. That is not something I have seen before. Since his starting bid is $1,000 I am guessing they will not sell.

In other words, the market at this time is slow and prices are on the low end. There are always a few optimists who put on a very high BIN price of course.

I will return and post in a few weeks since it will be interesting to see how things change, if they do, in the weeks after Labor Day.

Expertic – GDR – DDR – Nutcrackers

Paul — Thu, 07 May 2009 03:33:31 +0000

These terms all apply to German Nutcrackers made in East Germany before the wall came down. They are of particular interest to those of us who like the old style handwork.

We have elected to display some of collections of these special kinds of nutcrackers and other items on display at

Antique Nutcrackers

DDR Zeit

Expertic

It will take some time for us to get these sites updated with good pictures and configured to be a good reference for visitors looking to identiy and value old German Nutcrackers.

Vintage German Nutcrackers

Paul — Thu, 07 May 2009 03:08:21 +0000

Vintage is a VERY slippery term. One persons almost new is someone elses almost antique. Unfortunately, it's the word used by the majority of nutcracker sellers who don't have a signed Steinbach or other major "name" to brag about.

It is, however, a great term for finding "sleepers" . A great many of these German nutcrackers came to the USA with German War Brides. That generation is getting old so more and more of the old and antique nutcrackers show up at estate sales. They are purchased by sellers who frequently know little about them. If you take the time to educate yourself there are bargains to be found.

An additional issue is the spelling of "Erzgebirge". It's not an easy word for a native English speaker to get right. For example, I found this spelling in the title of an auction "ERZABIRGE" although the seller got it right in the item description. Since most buyers search by keyword and don't include the item description in their search, this item will probably sell for less than it should.

Below is a small sample of the vintage German nutcrackers for sale now.