Vintage Metal Lunch Box Articles

Lunch Money
Lunchboxes for fun and profit
By wholepop.com

Something Old

So you've got a '54 Lone Ranger box and you're greedily salivating, wondering if you can sell it for a fortune?

Probably not. True, some go for the big bucks: a Jetsons domed box that went for $3000 during the go-go 1980s, for example. Other rare or sought-after ones, like the 1973 Action Jackson in mint condition could be worth $550, or the '66 Beatles, $400, or the '62 Bullwinkle, perhaps $800?

But those kinds of prices are uncommon and the price guides are often written by box retailers setting the price they'd charge with profit markup, so you have to consider them the high end. Most boxes from the 50's onward, though, are not going to make you rich — maybe net you something between $10 and $100.

However, you're in luck, if you're the hypothetically seller we started with: A 1954 Lone Ranger with a blue band lunch box in mint condition, is valued at $475.

Something New

Aladdin, Ohio Arts, and the rest — all the old lunch box manufacturers have gone by the wayside, leaving only one from the old days: Thermos. They have a lot of classic entities in molded plastic and fabric soft-sided lunch kits, like Superman, Scooby-Doo, Disney, Warner Brothers, Barbie, Sesame Street, and the Teletubbies. But wait! They also have three steel lunch boxes this year: Godzilla, Hot Wheels and Small Soldiers.