Now that Halloween for 2018 is over and all trick-or-treaters are probably enjoying their “loots” at their warm comforting homes. You can now relax and get ready for the next excitement: Retirement Day for Department 56 products on Friday, November 2nd.
I know, I know, this used to be a lot more anticipated in years gone by when collectors would get up at the break of dawn to buy a copy of the USA Today newspaper in order to find out which Snowbaby pieces or which Village buildings had been retired by Department 56 and then they would drive miles and miles to stake out early in their local Department 56 retailers so that they could purchase the retired products. After all, who would want to miss a chance to purchase something that had been discontinued and something that would certainly go up in value now that they would no longer be available in retailers, right?
Oh well, time sure has changed. First of all, thanks to Internet, Department 56 does not have to send their retirement list to a newspaper publication anymore … they can publish the information on their own web site! Secondly, due to the abundance of Village and Snowbaby products (new and retired) available for purchase online and in stores, they no longer hold their values and cannot be considered as “collectibles” anymore. Thirdly, the number of dedicated/active/”crazy” Department 56 collectors has certainly dwindled over the years due to age, affordability or simply running out of space at home, product retirement is definitely not as big a deal to collectors as it used to be.
If that is the case, why bother writing about the Retirement Day, you may ask. I guess for me, a Department 56 collector for over 20 years, who has not purchased many Department 56 pieces for quite some time and will, like everyone else, eventually stop buying the products in the future, is still curious about what the company is doing with this line of “Christmas ornaments”. After all, when some products are retired, it just means there will be new ones coming out in the market the next year; that is, the product cycle will keep going, right? Or will it?
I suppose only the company will know how long they will keep manufacturing these beloved products. For the time being, I am still curious what they will do next. So, I bet I will still faithfully check out their web site (www.department56.com) this Friday for the retirement announcement. But will you?
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