I was the kind of child that, growing up at 8 or 9 years old, when I was well-behaved in the store, I could sometimes get something.  I have always loved candy and toys, but my parents weren’t going to buy me both, so when we went out, I knew I could get the $1 or $2 (item) and Pez came with both candy and the toy. So, that’s kind of what fostered my initial very small collection of Pez. I would put them on display in my bedroom and my brother would always come in and threaten to play dominos with them, but it was just one of those things I picked up and became really great gifts for my birthday or Christmas. As a kid, I probably had around 200, which may seem like a lot, but wasn’t. As I explored more, I was able to really start building my collection and learning more about what I thought were just (toys) from the ‘90s.

Does the history of Pez intrigue you?

For me, it’s not that big of a deal. But what I thought were just toys as I was growing up, ended up going  as far back as the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. I was more fascinated in the different characters and speaking to that, it’s also what kind of got my wife involved. In the Pez world, we have two groups: the “collectors” and the “enablers.” Enablers are typically the spouses or partners of the collectors, but often turn into collectors themselves. When my wife and I first started dating, Pez were good gifts, but I was to the point when she asked what one I already had, I didn’t know. She then started cataloging and organizing them for me, to make sure she knew what I already had and what she needed to buy me. In doing that, she also learned the history and that it originated from an Austrian family who created the dispensers – but started as a smoking deterrent like a mint. Pez got its name from the first, middle and last letter of the German word for peppermint (pfefferminz). She became fascinated with the history and also began collecting her own – mainly Disney characters.

About 4,000 dispensers and Pez-related items.

In college, I started to pick up the collection a little more and had a little more money to support it. I went from the 200 when I was young to then about 500, and by the end of college, had 750-1,000. By that time, I was now graduated and fully immersed in it. I bought a collection out of New Jersey that contained a bunch I didn’t have and the collection really took off. In doing so, I’d say that was a really pivotal moment because it is when my wife became far more invested in the hobby and we started going to conventions and learning even more about the Pez community.

There are (and) were several conventions – Pennsylvania, Connecticut, California, Texas, Las Vegas and Ohio, which is where the largest convention is located. We started going to a couple of the conventions and realized it isn’t your typical collecting community. A lot of collecting communities are very cutthroat, whereas the Pez community is very supportive and fosters a family-friendly atmosphere. That’s what kept us drawn to the Pez community. In 2015 was the first year we went to a convention and then have gone to a convention every year since. The conventions are set up in a hotel and you room hop from room-to-room. It’s kind of bizarre to an outsider, but people bring in their items, set them up in their rooms and then you can tour it and travel from room-to-room to buy, sell, trade and meet other fellow collectors. We have a nice collection, but there are some really elite collections that are sometimes less about quantity, and more about the quality of the products. The other cool thing is we have met some collectors who started collecting as children back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and have all their original dispensers still in the package that so many people, today, crave.

Yes, both! My favorite is a full body robot. Most dispensers you see have a head, stem, and if they are older, they will not have feet, which determines the age of the dispenser. When they first created it, there was a full-body Santa and a full-body robot made. The yellow full-body robot is my favorite – yellow is my favorite color and it’s just unlike the other dispensers, which makes it special. My most valuable one is called Make-A-Face, which is kind of like a Pez version of Mr. Potato Head with all those similar features. Because dispensers were made for children, and those little pieces became a choking hazard, there wasn’t a long production line for them. So, I decided to get that one on my 20^th year of collecting, as a treat to myself.

At every convention there is a charity that is involved and at every convention there are auctions that benefit that charity. Some conventions do charity for the SPCA or others will do one for local summer camps. Another convention benefits a program called Gliding Stars that provides adaptive skating equipment for children with special needs. My wife went from an enabler to collector to now having to run and host her own virtual Pez convention, which started about a month into (the) COVID (pandemic) when we were all stuck at home with nothing to do. One night it was decided to host a virtual Pez convention, and she and her co-host were able to organize it in 11 days, which normally takes several months. In doing so, a charity was selected to support local musical performers who had been affected by COVID, and money was raised (was) put toward those artists in need. The following year, they filed and were approved to be a registered 501c3 non-profit charity, and now have an established scholarship foundation.

The scholarship applicants are asked to demonstrate involvement in and service to their communities – broadly defined as geographic communities, school communities, or sports, activities and hobbies. They particularly look for those students who have made positive and innovative contributions to improve the communities in which they are involved. The largest scholarship is named in honor of a lifelong school librarian and Pez collector who was very supportive of the virtual efforts and passed away in 2021. This year from the generosity of the Pez community, $11,000 was raised through various charity events and 13 future or current college students received scholarships ranging from $500 to $2,000.

*Winners are selected by a five-member committee that include members of the general and Pez communities.