Peg and I piled into the Fiat and made our way to one of our favorite events of the year on Saturday. The PA Purple Cow hosts a free gathering of PEZ collectors each year which they call “PEZylvania”. You can find most of the current releases of PEZ and many vintage PEZ at the Purple Cow’s large shop inside Renninger’s Market in Kutztown, PA. But, the big draw during PEZylvania are all the PEZ vendors stuffed into the meeting room.
We always seem to spend more than we think we are going to at this event. If you run low on cash you can try the ATM but I wouldn’t count on it having enough for bills everyone. Almost all sales will be cash only but a few vendors will take a check; no one takes credit cards. Often you can find vendors here selling the hard to find European varieties of PEZ but their rarity state side raises the prices. Don’t be afraid to try and bargain to a better price especially with the vintage items. If you need some guidance on pricing we would recommend picking up John Laspina’s PEZ pricing guide. John also has a great selection of vintage PEZ at fair prices. He tends to be able to part us with our hard earned cash easier than most other dealers for some reason.
But the real reason we love making the 3 hour trip is visiting the farmers’ market side of the building. Oh sure, Renningers is a great place for collectibles but the farmers’ market is to die for! The farmers’ market has been running at this location since 1955 and it wasn’t until much later in 1975 that the antiques market was started. You can find several butchers, a good group of bakers, veggies, fruit, spices, etc., etc., here for you to purchase from and all of their good are top shelf. Peg’s poor little Fiat’s boot was stuffed when we left for home.