Are Cats Meow Collectibles the New Beanie Babies?

Are Cat’s Meow Village pieces going the way of Beanie Babies… no resale or collectible value?

It does seem like it. A quick ebay or Google search  provides tons of available Cats Meow houses at rock bottom prices. Even though dedicated collectors are still buying new issues and collector club pieces at retail value, ($4.95 – $23.95), the collector’s market seems so flooded with CMV retired pieces that values have bottomed out.

Of course there are still exceptions, any particular piece could happen to be the one several collectors need, and the price will go up as expected, but it seems more likely that you’ll see most retired pieces that retailed around $12.95, in the $2 or $5 range in the resale/collector’s market.

A quick search of ebay finds plenty of Cat’s Meow Village collectible pieces starting at 99 cents, and whole multiple-piece lots going for $5 or $6 bucks! Even bulk lots of 10 or 15 Cat’s Meow Village pieces are going for less than $20.00. And a Google search provides plenty of retail websites trying to sell retired pieces at 33-50% of original retail price.

This may be bad news for folks trying to sell their collections, but for those of us trying to complete a series or theme set it means we get great value for our money.

One exception seems to be pre-1990 series. These wooden collectibles were made before Faline Jones switched her manufacturing process to pressed wood and all screen-printed decorations. The early series were made on real wood blocks with the wood grain showing on the bottom, and even though the piece decorations were screen-printed, the piece info and Faline’s signature were hand-stamped on the bottom. These Cat’s Meow Village collectibles generally go for a higher value than most retired pieces because thay are a little harder to find.

Since ebay began changing to be more like Amazon, more and more vintage and collectibles sellers have begun moving to other sites like, Bonanzle, Etsy, or iOffer. You can find many of these early Cats Meow Village pieces at iOffer.com or Bonanzle.