“It’s a huge deal.” Jones Auction House hosts largest blow mold auction for 10th year

SPRING BROOK TWSP., LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) — On Sunday, Hundreds came to Spring Brook Township for an auction, but they weren’t buying gold or jewelry. They were there for Blow molds.

“It’s a huge deal,” said Bob Jones, one of the owners of the Jones Auction House. “It’s almost as if you had collectors, a collector of baseball cards or whatever, and they all got together at a convention. This is like their convention. This is the convention to go to for blow mold collectors.”

A blow mold references plastic products, usually toys or decorations, that have been created by inflating plastic inside a mold, making it stretch and conform to that shape.

The Jones Auction House has been hosting the country’s largest blow mold auction for the last decade, and every year collectors come to bid on mostly holiday themed figures.

Some for as low as 10 bucks, others, for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

“You’ve seen them probably from probably through the 60s, 70s, the 80s, they kind of disappeared for a while,” explained Jones in the outside tent covering the blow molds going to auction. “Everyone threw them in the garbage, and all of a sudden there’s this big resurgence about 15 years ago, and now they’ve become so collectible. So, if you threw them out back then, you threw away gold!”

From minions to minnie mouse, snoopy to Santa Clause, or Jesus to gingerly snowmen – over a thousand of these blow mold models will be auctioned off by the end of the day.

“The variety here is phenomenal,” said Rocko Baress.

“It’s great,” continued Erin Baress, Rocko’s wife and new owner of a Mrs. Clause blow mold in front of them. “It’s very easy to keep raising your hand and not realizing how quickly the price is going up.”

The hobby of collecting the molds has exploded in the last decade, drawing people from all over to bid on and hopefully buy their idealized plastic image. Or in the case of Tommy Hache who drove from New Brunswick, Canada, his $500 Dracula blow mold.

“It was like a 14 hour drive,” said Hache. And when we asked him if the 14 hours and $500 was worth it, he said, “Yeah. Yeah, for sure.”

While the Jones’ work is done for Sunday, their inventory is already completely filled for November’s auction with another 1000 items.

It’s a niche collecting hobby turned community staple that has quickly become the Auction House’s biggest day of the year, and for the auctioneers and bidders alike it’s as if Christmas came early.