It started with an apple. Not a real one—a photo book. A customer, a boutique gift shop owner from Ohio, called me up in early 2024. She'd been selling M.I. Hummel figurines for a decade, but she had a problem: her inventory was stuck. She'd invested heavily in vintage Goebel pieces—rare nativity sets, crystal ornaments, a few of the more obscure candle holders. Customers came in, admired them, and then asked for something else.
'They want a photo book,' she said. 'You know, one of those apple photo books.'
I'll be honest: I didn't know what she meant at first. I'm a quality compliance manager, not a photo book expert. I review roughly 200+ collectible items annually—porcelain figurines, decorative plates, crystal ornaments. But a photo book? That was outside my wheelhouse. I told her as much: 'I'm not a photo book specialist, so I can't speak to layout or print quality. But what I can tell you from a collectible authentication perspective is what makes an apple photo book worth keeping.'
She laughed. I didn't get the joke. But over the next few weeks, her question sent me down a rabbit hole that changed how I think about the entire Hummel market.
The Initial Assumption: Vintage Goebel Is King
Let me be clear: I grew up in this industry believing one thing above all else: vintage Goebel Hummel figurines are the gold standard. The marks, the craftsmanship, the history—it's all there in the price guides. If you wanted a rare Hummel, you looked for a Goebel piece from the 1950s or 1960s. End of story.
That was my framework. It was comfortable. It was simple. And, as it turns out, it was incomplete.
In our Q1 2024 quality audit, we ran a blind test. We showed a group of 12 buyers—gift shop owners, collectors, and antique dealers—two versions of an M.I. Hummel 'Goose Girl' figurine. One was a 1960s Goebel piece with a full bee mark. The other was a modern Hummel-branded figurine produced under the newer licensing arrangement. I expected the room to gravitate toward the vintage piece. Instead, 67% of them identified the modern figurine as 'more desirable' without knowing which was which. The cost difference? The vintage piece was priced at $1,200. The modern one: $350. On a 50-unit order, that's a $42,500 swing in perception alone.
I was floored.
The Turning Point: An Apple Photo Book and a Customer's Demands
Back to the apple photo book. The Ohio gift shop owner finally explained: she wanted a photo book for her store—essentially a price guide and display catalog—but one that told a story about apples. 'Apples in Hummel,' she said. 'You know, the apple-themed pieces. The Harvest, the Little Apple Gatherer, the Apple Tree Girl.'
I didn't even know those existed. But a quick search of our inventory database confirmed it: there were about a dozen Hummel pieces with apple motifs, most of them from the 1970s and 1980s. None of them were what I'd call 'rare' or 'high-value.' But she insisted. 'Customers love them,' she said. 'They're approachable. They're not intimidating like a $5,000 nativity set.'
She was right. And I was wrong.
The most frustrating part of this realization: I'd been pushing vintage Goebel pieces for years, assuming they were what serious collectors wanted. You'd think that as a quality inspector, I'd have a broad view of the market. But my own blind spot—a preference for rarity over relevance—had limited what I recommended to customers.
The Modern Market: Candle Holders, Crystal Ornaments, and The New Collector
Here's what I learned from that Ohio gift shop owner and about a dozen other conversations I had in 2024: the modern Hummel collector is not who I thought they were.
- They're younger (millennials and Gen X, not boomers)
- They're budget-conscious (rare figurines feel out of reach)
- They're curation-minded (they want pieces that tell a story, not just hold value)
- They're buying for display, not investment
This has led to a surprising uptick in demand for categories I'd previously dismissed:
- Candle holders (functional art that fits modern decor)
- Crystal ornaments (giftable, affordable, and easy to ship)
- Modern figurines (the newer Hummel pieces with simpler designs)
- Photo books and price guides (the 'coffee table' collectible experience)
And yes—glass figurines. I used to think glass Hummel pieces were a niche interest. But based on our Q3 2024 sales data, glass ornament sales were up 22% year-over-year. For our 50,000-unit annual order, that's about 11,000 units in glass alone.
The Price Guide Problem
One area where I still hold firm: price guides for rare antique Hummel figurines. The fundamentals haven't changed—a genuine 1950s Goebel 'Boy with a Horse' is still worth $8,000+. But the market for those pieces is thinner than it was in 2020. Based on what I track from major auction houses, the number of high-value Hummel transactions dropped about 15% between 2020 and 2024. Prices held steady, but volume shrank.
I don't have hard data on industry-wide collector demographics, but based on our 5 years of quality inspections, my sense is that 80% of new Hummel buyers in 2024 are first-time collectors. They're not looking for rare antiques. They're looking for something beautiful that sparks conversation. Something like—ironically—a photo book of Hummel figurines holding apples.
What Would I Do Differently?
If I could go back to 2022, when I implemented our verification protocol for third-party pieces, I would add one rule: don't define a piece's value solely by its age or rarity. Ask two questions: 'Is it authentic?' and 'Will someone want to display it?' The first is about quality. The second is about relevance. Both matter.
The apple photo book order taught me something uncomfortable about myself. I'd been a gatekeeper of quality—but I'd also been a gatekeeper of imagination. I was so focused on marks, stamps, and provenance that I forgot collecting is supposed to be joyful. You can own a perfect, pristine Hummel figurine that nobody wants to look at. Or you can own something modest that makes you smile every time you pass it.
Neither is wrong. But pretending one is universally better than the other? That's a quality failure of a different kind.
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