What collecting Pez involves

Most weeks the hobby takes ten minutes: a look at the candy aisle or the checkout rack to see whether a new set has arrived, then a new dispenser on the shelf at home. New series come out several times a year, tied to movies, holidays and long-running characters, and stores carry each one for a few months. The slower side is the secondhand hunt at flea markets, estate sales and online auctions, where you turn each dispenser over and read the stem. Once a year or so, collectors meet at conventions to trade duplicates face to face.

Two Pez dispensers with brown character heads standing next to two small toy figures against a yellow wall — Two dispensers out of the package

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How to read a dispenser

Parts

The head tilts back, the stem is the rectangular body, and the inner sleeve slides out of the stem to load 12 candy tablets. The small tab that pushes the next tablet forward is the kicker.

Feet

Two small tabs at the base of the stem, added in Europe in 1984 and in the United States in 1987. A stem with no feet (written NF in listings) is older than that and is what collectors mean by vintage.

Patent number

Molded into the side of the stem. In order of age the US numbers are 2.620.061 (issued 1952), 3.410.455 (1968), 3.845.882 (1974), 3.942.683 (1976), 4.966.305 (1990) and 5.984.285 (1999). The number gives the earliest a stem could have been made, not the exact year, and many stems from the 1970s and 1980s have none.

Injection mold code

A single digit or letter on the stem that identifies the plant. Together with the country name molded nearby (Austria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Slovenia, China and others), it helps confirm that a head and stem belong together.

Regulars

The earliest dispensers had no character head, only a plain flip top shaped like a cigarette lighter. The first one was shown at the Vienna Trade Fair in 1949.

Packaging terms

MOC is mint on card, MIB is mint in bag, and loose means out of the package.

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Ways to collect

Current releasesEvery new set as it reaches stores. It is the cheapest way in and it never runs out of things to find.

Start here

Open the upcoming releases page, write down the next set due in stores, and buy each character from it the first time you see them on a shelf.

PEZ upcoming releases

One character or themeEvery version of a single character, or one licensed line such as a film series. The want list is short enough to finish.

Start here

Pick the character, then go through the release archive year by year and list every version of it. That list is your want list; start with the versions still in stores.

PEZ History & Dispenser Archive

HolidaysThe Halloween, Christmas, Easter and Valentine assortments. They change a little every year, so the same witch or snowman exists in dozens of variations.

Start here

Buy the seasonal assortment for the next holiday on the calendar while it is in stores, and write the year on a slip of paper you keep with it.

VintageFootless dispensers from before the late 1980s, bought secondhand. Prices run from a few dollars to thousands, and this is where reading the stem matters.

Start here

Read the patent number and mold code chapters of a free collecting guide, then take a magnifier to one flea market or antique mall and read the stem of every footless dispenser you find before buying any.

Pez Collecting 101 (Pez Collectors Store)

CardedDispensers kept sealed on the card or in the bag. Sealed pieces hold their value better, and they need flat, dark storage instead of a shelf.

Start here

Next time you buy a new dispenser, buy two of it: open one for the shelf and stand the other, still sealed, upright in a lidded box away from light.

Open a direction to see its first step. Vintage can add a loupe to the kit and Carded can add storage boxes. The other three use the kit as it is.

A clear acrylic case holding rows of Pez dispensers with cartoon character heads on stepped shelves

04

Your first shelf

Seven steps, the first one free

05

What trips beginners up

Old does not mean valuable. Most footed dispensers from the 1990s on were made in the millions and sell for a dollar or two.
Price guides go stale. Printed values are years old, so check what the same dispenser actually sold for in recent online auctions before paying a guide price.
Missing pieces cut the value hard. Many vintage heads have separate parts (hats, ears, hair, glasses), so compare a find against a reference photo before you pay for it as complete.
Swapped parts are common. A vintage head on a newer stem, or a reproduction part on an original head, is worth a fraction of an untouched piece. The mold code and patent number should fit the era of the head.
Opening a sealed vintage dispenser cannot be undone. Open current ones freely, but decide what you want from an old carded piece first.
Buying whole lots too early leaves you with a box of commons. Buy single dispensers until you can tell what is in a lot from its photo.
A head that flops open usually has a weak or broken spring. It still displays fine, but pay less for it.

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Keeping them in good shape

Keep the shelf out of direct sunlight, which fades stems and yellows white plastic within a few summers.
Do not let dispensers lean on soft vinyl or rubber toys. Over years the softer plastic leaves melt marks on the harder one.
Empty the candy from anything you plan to keep for years. Tablets absorb moisture, turn sticky and gum up the sleeve.
Clean secondhand finds with lukewarm water, a drop of dish soap and a soft toothbrush, then dry them fully with the sleeve pulled out. Keep stickers and painted details dry, and skip hot water, which can warp a stem.

A wooden cabinet with carded Pez dispensers standing behind glass, among toy cars and figurines — Carded dispensers kept behind glass

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Where to learn more

The company archive lists every release by year, which makes it the quickest way to put a date on a footed dispenser.
A dealer's free collecting guide covers candy flavors, European releases and a full glossary, well past what fits on this page.
The visitor center in Orange, Connecticut, has the largest public display of Pez memorabilia, and a paid admission includes a small credit toward a purchase.
Conventions run through the year in several states. Expect a dealer floor, room-to-room trading in the hotel and games; the company events page lists what is coming up.

The archive, a free guide and where collectors meet

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Why the list is this short

The only thing you have to buy is dispensers, and the cheapest route is a single one from a store shelf. A wall shelf and a reference book are worth having once you own a dozen or so, because by then they tip over in rows and you start wanting to know what you are looking at. The magnifier belongs to the Vintage route and the lidded boxes to the Carded route, so add those only if that is where you are headed. Putty and extra candy are small conveniences, not needs.

Store display boxes of bagged Pez dispensers and candy on a dealer's table at a collectors' show — Bagged dispensers on a dealer's table

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Fill the first shelf

Compare the options on each line, then set your tiers and check out from the cart. Clicking a card selects it there. The dispensers, the shelf and the book start in the kit. The loupe joins when you switch on Vintage and the storage boxes when you switch on Carded. The putty and the candy refills are there for later.

Pez dispensers

Essential · The collection

The dispensers are the hobby. One is a start, a boxed set of four gives you a complete small series, and a case of twelve covers a whole line at once.

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Pez Collecting

What collecting Pez involves

How to read a dispenser

Ways to collect

Your first shelf

What trips beginners up

Keeping them in good shape

Where to learn more

Why the list is this short

Fill the first shelf

Pez dispensers

Narrow wall display shelves

Pez reference book

Lighted 10x loupe

Clear lidded storage boxes

Museum putty

Pez candy refills