Fiesta Challenge update

A good while back, I mentioned here on this blog that I was not collecting Fiesta. Then, I said that I would only buy pieces I found for dirt cheap. Pennies, I said.

Well, and then I said I'd keep track of it here. A public documentation in the hopes I'd keep myself to my word.

Well, I lied. At first it was just a few additional .29 teacups from Goodwill. Not exactly worth posting about. Then it was a couple of super-scratched up dinner plates from a charity shop.

But the real kicker happened when I walked into a GW one day and they were selling an almost-complete service for 8 - in a shade of California Raisin purple that I still don't know the rightful name of (plum, most likely) - for 25 bucks. (And if you've ever met either me or my kitchen cabinets in person, you'd know that I need another china pattern like I need 13 pet raccoons).

All said and done, my "pennies" magically turned into around 35 dollars. Not really terrible, but more than I was intending.

Well, in one smooth move, 1 single additional piece, and *bam* I've nearly doubled my Fiesta shame. Have I ever mentioned how much I love turquoise? I think I have, or at least, I feel like I've mentioned it about a thousand times here.

A vintage Fiesta coffee pot. I'm still really, really surprised to even have this. This body shape & color combination I believe was discontinued in 1956. Every single piece I've bought up to now - besides one lone teacup - has been the post 1986 modern Fiesta. It's all plenty expensive enough - new OR vintage - but of course, the vintage stuff is another one of those categories of collectibles that is well & truly out of my price range.

I paid 25 bucks for it. Not the kind of cash I'm used to forking out at little makeshift side-of-the-road affairs. And there is a catch. It has an inner-rim chip, that I honestly have no earthly idea how badly it affects it's value. It's not so bad that it shows from the outside. But still, a chip is a chip. And since I know so little about Fiesta, I don't know what a "fair price" on this piece actually is. Without flaws, a general poking around the net leads me to $200+ price points. I genuinely believe I got a bargain at 25 bucks, I just don't know exactly 'how much of' a bargain it really was.

At any rate, this is a piece that I bought simply because I fell in love with it. I had no idea it was vintage at the time. I didn't even know for certain it was a coffee pot, as opposed to teapot. I just knew these pieces were pretty expensive, and chip-or-no, it wasn't very likely I'd find such a nice piece in my favorite color any time soon.
And here it is with my only other vintage piece, a rose teacup. I'm such a sucker for '50's colors.

And this, brings my Fiesta damage up to 60 bucks total. *Eeep* Worse still, I'm putting myself through a crash-course in how to identify vintage Fiesta from new - which is a whole 'nother aspect to fuel the addiction that I haven't fully owned-up to yet, lol!

Same place, for a quarter a piece, I found two more small additions to my Federal "Petal" collection. Small base piece for the hurricane lamp, and a small bowl that I believe the color is called Sun Gold - bringing my colors up to 3. I've been lucky to find these pieces in such a short time. My grandmother gave me two pieces of it in clear, and after some research, I decided to try to assemble a small rainbow of the various colors it was made in, instead of trying to build up a more uniform set. I've been blessed with very good luck that I continue to be very grateful for!

Happy Collecting!