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David Maylen, of Manistee, stands with some items from his candy collection. After deciding to get rid of his collection, Maylen was shocked to discover some of the items are rather valuable.
After deciding to get rid of his candy collection, David Maylen was shocked to discover some of the items are rather valuable.
Pictured is a box of Willy Wonka's Daredevils candy which David Maylen sold on eBay for $800.
Pictured are superhero-themed candies from the collection of David Maylen, of Manistee.
Pictured are candies from David Maylen's collection packaged to resemble laundry detergent.
Pictured is an assortment of chewing gum from the collection of David Maylen, of Manistee.
After deciding to get rid of his candy collection, David Maylen was shocked to discover some of the items are rather valuable.
After deciding to get rid of his candy collection, David Maylen was shocked to discover some of the items are rather valuable.
After deciding to get rid of his candy collection, David Maylen was shocked to discover some of the items are rather valuable.
After deciding to get rid of his candy collection, David Maylen was shocked to discover some of the items are rather valuable.
After deciding to get rid of his candy collection, David Maylen was shocked to discover some of the items are rather valuable.
After deciding to get rid of his candy collection, David Maylen was shocked to discover some of the items are rather valuable.
After deciding to get rid of his candy collection, David Maylen was shocked to discover some of the items are rather valuable.
After deciding to get rid of his candy collection, David Maylen was shocked to discover some of the items are rather valuable.
After deciding to get rid of his candy collection, David Maylen was shocked to discover some of the items are rather valuable.
David Maylen, of Manistee, stands with some items from his candy collection. After deciding to get rid of his collection, Maylen was shocked to discover some of the items are rather valuable.
MANISTEE — David Maylen loves candy.
His favorite part? Not the chocolate, caramel or even the nougat. What entices the Manistee man most is the packaging.
"I majored in food science at Michigan State. While I was up there, I had a lot of packaging classes," he said. "Packaging is really an art form, I find. It's quite interesting in terms of what packaging can accomplish. When I got out of college, got a job and had money to spare, I started collecting what I felt were unusually packaged candies."
Maylen enjoyed seeing trends in candy packaging.
"I find it clever that the packaging had themes. ... Footwear seemed to be a very popular thing," he said. "... Food is also popular. I've got my ice cream cones, my soda cans, Domino's came out with bubble gum pizza, Fleer had Pizza to Go. I've got egg cartons with little gummy eggs in them. Doughnuts, hot dogs, hamburgers, popcorn. And then these little Igloo lunch boxes have ... hard candy soda cans — you can see the pull top on them."
Maylen said packaging based on movies, sports, holidays, music, video games and even human anatomy were quite popular.
"Anatomy is always good. ... There's this (Barfo) candy. I would never eat it — I don't know why a kid would even want it," he said. "... There are a lot of liquid type candies, and these have to be the grossest. You were supposed to buy these and then squeeze them and then the throw up would come out of their mouths. Just crazy stuff."
Manistee has had a number of candy shops in its history. Mark Fedder, Manistee County Historical Museum executive director, said there were several candy and confectionery stores in the area throughout the decades.
"Going back as far as the 1870s, when ice cream was first brought to Manistee by local businessmen, the Seymour brothers, the area grew to have several ice cream shops, soda fountains and candy stores," he said. "One of the early candy stores was the Crescent Candy Shop that was located on River Street and lasted roughly a decade. The Sugar Bowl was also a popular candy shop in the first half of the 20th century — it was located right next door to the Lyric Theater. Others followed, and of course, if you grew up in the 1990s you remember Candy Mountain was a mecca for kids in Manistee."
Over the years, Maylen's candy collection has suffered some casualties.
"Unfortunately, a lot of my candy collection was spoiled quite badly. Some candies don't hold up well. Suckers and any hard candies tend to melt," he said. "There's still a lot of moisture in there, so all my suckers are gone. ... They melt slowly, so they would melt out of their wrappers and they ruined other things."
Maylen said he enjoyed seeing candy packaging improve due to advancements in technology.
"With the advent of computers, the ability to print cheaper and higher quality graphics, packaging's just taken off," he said. "It doesn't take a candy company long to recreate a different box. A lot of candy boxes will be the same size or shape and so they're very easy to switch out and print differently."
However, all good things must come to an end, and Maylen's candy collection is no exception.
"Everything must go," he said. "My wife says I don't collect any one thing — I collect collections."
When Maylen retired to Manistee about five years ago, the need to free up some space quickly became apparent.
"My wife and I are downsizing," he said. "We actually moved here from Novi, so this is a little bit of a smaller house than we normally have, and I just have a basement full of crap I have to get rid of."
After adding to his collection for decades, Maylen accumulated quite the stockpile.
"I graduated from MSU in '78, so probably most of this stuff is from the early '80s through the '90s. Then it just got to be too much," he said. "I would be at the drug store every day. A lot of it was a matter of storage. I've kept this with me for 40 years. It's been kind of crazy in that light."
Maylen said he and his wife are photographers, so he set up a small studio in the basement to photograph his items to list on the online auction site, eBay.
To his surprise, some of his candies are quite valuable.
"It's just been crazy. ... When the movie 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' came out, a Willy Wonka company actually formed and started making candies," Maylen said. "These Daredevils, I just had them up for auction and they just sold (Wednesday) night. This went for $800. I couldn't believe it. A lot of the Willy Wonka stuff goes for a lot of money."
Maylen's second most profitable item was a candy called Dirty Laundry, which is packaged in plastic washing machines.
"There's a little crank you can twist, and when you open them up there's like dirty socks and T-shirts. They're all Sweet Tart-like candies," he said. "I had a case of 24 of these and it went for $560. And I don't know why kids would be interested. They also came out with Whacky Wash powdered candy. It was packaged to look like your mother's washing machine soap."
Not all of Maylen's candies fetch top dollar, however, but he said listing them on eBay has been well worth the effort.
"I was ready to just throw this stuff in the garbage, but I've made a couple thousand dollars so far," he said. "What got me going was digging out all the Christmas decorations. I was going through these boxes and going, 'I have to get rid of some of this stuff.' That was my New Year's resolution: to get this stuff going and get it out."
Maylen said other candy collectors have been impressed with his stash.
"I got an email from this guy — he's probably the preeminent candy collector in the country. He's on the Food Network all the time talking about manufactured food," Maylen said. "He said, 'I've been watching the stuff you've been putting on eBay and it's just fantastic.' I've been corresponding with him and he's quite interested in my collection and some of the things I've got."
If and when Maylen rids his basement of its last piece of candy, he has a few other collections he would like to pare down, including non-sports Bubble Gum cards and six boxes' worth of the first editions of a number of comic books.
"I don't know if I'm going to live long enough to be able to get rid of all this stuff," he said.
I was born and raised in Manistee. I earned a bachelor's degree in English from Grand Valley State University. My hobbies include fishing, reading and playing music.