I’ve received a couple of emails from fellow bunny fiends.
One expressed interest in one of my all time favorite bunnies. It is an adorable figurine of a girl bunny dressed in a purple checked hat and dress, standing next to a wheelbarrow full of lavender stalks.
It’s called “Life is a Garden of Dreams” and is part of the 2000 Herb Garden series-the very last Blushing Bunnies series that Enesco produced.
The series consisted of only four pieces-3 figurines and a plaque. There was also a display backdrop…I don’t know where I’ve put mine, but here are some photos of the figurines.
Here are the three figures...
There is the lavender girl, #786624-“Life is a Garden of Dreams”
The chamomile girl by the white picket fence, #786616-“Gardening is Good for the Soul.”
And the thyme girl, reading on a bench. #786608-“Take Thyme to Savor What You’ve Sown.”
Then there is the plaque. #786632-“My Herb Garden.”
The bad news is-these don’t show up a lot. By the time they were released, most of the little gift shops had already stopped stocking My Blushing Bunnies. So you don’t have a lot of stores going to ebay to sell out old stock, or collectors who are selling theirs after losing interest in the collection.
Chances are, if a collector liked them enough to chase them down when they were available, and pay the comparatively high initial price of $20-$25 for them, you’re going to have to pry them out of their cold, dead hands.
The herb garden plaque is probably the easiest to find-it comes up quite a bit on ebay, and usually sells for a reasonable amount-around $10.
The others-it’s pure luck, but I do have a few tips that I will share with bunny fiends who contact me through my email, which is domino102@hotmail.com, and through my ebay account, which is allura77.
One thing I will tell everyone-don’t go crazy when you bid. Sellers will hate me for telling you this, but…oh well. They can consider it payback for all of the times I’ve paid WAY TOO MUCH!
The fact is-as soon as you get into a bidding war and run that rabbit up to $200, all of a sudden all of the people who have them stored away will think, “Hey! I sure could use some extra cash, and these silly bunny fiends have more money than sense! I think I’ll put mine on ebay too.”
Then you get to experience that sinking feeling you get when you’ve just dropped a couple of hundred bucks on a piece, only to see it sell for $9.99 a week later.
I’ve been there, done that. Too many times.
Now, another reader was puzzled by what I referred to as “color variations”.
When Enesco produces a figurine, they test out different color palates to see which looks the best. Often, the test figures are destroyed, but sometimes people have picked them up as a prototype. They weren’t made available to the general public, and that makes them very rare.
An example-this figurine is called “You are the Sunshine of my Life” and is a little girl rabbit dressed in a nightie, surrounded by two little stuffed bunnies.
The figure on the left is the prototype. The dress is pink. On the right is the actual figurine that was available to the general public. The dress is white.
Here’s the prototype…
And here’s the real figure…
You can see on the bottom that the prototype just has a sticker with a number, as opposed to the printed information on the figurine that was actually produced.
The prototype is probably the very rarest bunny I own. I have only seen it on ebay 1 time. I soon found myself in a bidding war…and, alas, I was defeated. By like $1.
I did get the last laugh, however. I did a search for Blushing Bunnies prototypes and found an obscure little online store that had one-for only $25. I snatched it up…and gloated. A lot.
It was only by chance that I happened to find out about it-I had the original, and noticed the color difference on an auction. There may be others that I haven’t seen-if you know of one, please share it with us!
Thanks so much for the emails, bunny fiends. It helps keep me motivated!
One expressed interest in one of my all time favorite bunnies. It is an adorable figurine of a girl bunny dressed in a purple checked hat and dress, standing next to a wheelbarrow full of lavender stalks.
It’s called “Life is a Garden of Dreams” and is part of the 2000 Herb Garden series-the very last Blushing Bunnies series that Enesco produced.
The series consisted of only four pieces-3 figurines and a plaque. There was also a display backdrop…I don’t know where I’ve put mine, but here are some photos of the figurines.
Here are the three figures...
There is the lavender girl, #786624-“Life is a Garden of Dreams”
The chamomile girl by the white picket fence, #786616-“Gardening is Good for the Soul.”
And the thyme girl, reading on a bench. #786608-“Take Thyme to Savor What You’ve Sown.”
Then there is the plaque. #786632-“My Herb Garden.”
The bad news is-these don’t show up a lot. By the time they were released, most of the little gift shops had already stopped stocking My Blushing Bunnies. So you don’t have a lot of stores going to ebay to sell out old stock, or collectors who are selling theirs after losing interest in the collection.
Chances are, if a collector liked them enough to chase them down when they were available, and pay the comparatively high initial price of $20-$25 for them, you’re going to have to pry them out of their cold, dead hands.
The herb garden plaque is probably the easiest to find-it comes up quite a bit on ebay, and usually sells for a reasonable amount-around $10.
The others-it’s pure luck, but I do have a few tips that I will share with bunny fiends who contact me through my email, which is domino102@hotmail.com, and through my ebay account, which is allura77.
One thing I will tell everyone-don’t go crazy when you bid. Sellers will hate me for telling you this, but…oh well. They can consider it payback for all of the times I’ve paid WAY TOO MUCH!
The fact is-as soon as you get into a bidding war and run that rabbit up to $200, all of a sudden all of the people who have them stored away will think, “Hey! I sure could use some extra cash, and these silly bunny fiends have more money than sense! I think I’ll put mine on ebay too.”
Then you get to experience that sinking feeling you get when you’ve just dropped a couple of hundred bucks on a piece, only to see it sell for $9.99 a week later.
I’ve been there, done that. Too many times.
Now, another reader was puzzled by what I referred to as “color variations”.
When Enesco produces a figurine, they test out different color palates to see which looks the best. Often, the test figures are destroyed, but sometimes people have picked them up as a prototype. They weren’t made available to the general public, and that makes them very rare.
An example-this figurine is called “You are the Sunshine of my Life” and is a little girl rabbit dressed in a nightie, surrounded by two little stuffed bunnies.
The figure on the left is the prototype. The dress is pink. On the right is the actual figurine that was available to the general public. The dress is white.
Here’s the prototype…
And here’s the real figure…
You can see on the bottom that the prototype just has a sticker with a number, as opposed to the printed information on the figurine that was actually produced.
The prototype is probably the very rarest bunny I own. I have only seen it on ebay 1 time. I soon found myself in a bidding war…and, alas, I was defeated. By like $1.
I did get the last laugh, however. I did a search for Blushing Bunnies prototypes and found an obscure little online store that had one-for only $25. I snatched it up…and gloated. A lot.
It was only by chance that I happened to find out about it-I had the original, and noticed the color difference on an auction. There may be others that I haven’t seen-if you know of one, please share it with us!
Thanks so much for the emails, bunny fiends. It helps keep me motivated!
Melissa
1 comment:
I know it has been years since you last updated this blog and you might not even see this. But, if you are still out there collecting "My Blushing Bunnies" and are looking for some I have a pretty good collection. All have their original boxes and many have never been put out on display in my home or been out of the boxes. I'd be willing to sell. If anyone else sees this post and is interested please feel free to email me at pbandj526@gmail.com.
Thank you,
pbandj526@gmail.com
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