If you are a collector of anything; comics, music, toys, cars, clothing, etc. then you probably have a wish list. These might be things you are on the hunt for, things that are super rare, or even super expensive. On that list you might even have a handful of “holy grail” or “white whale” items. These are things that are so rare / expensive that they might never come up in your lifetime. For those that don’t know I am a huge fan of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. I have a large collection of Oswald items, some going back to the origins of the character.
Oswald was the cartoon star that Walt Disney created before Mickey Mouse. Walt lost the rights to Universal Studios back in 1928, and the Disney company didn’t get the rights back until 2006. One of my favorite eras of the character were just before Disney got him back. Universal made a big push to reintroduce the character as part of the Woody Woodpecker cartoon reboot circa 1998. The Universal Studios Park in Osaka Japan released merchandise featuring a blue-colored version of Oswald. As a fan of the “rubber hose” style of classic cartoons I fell in love with this look. My goal was to acquire as many items that were produced during that era. Arcade developer Taito actually created many of these for the parks, but also as claw machine prizes in the arcade. They came up with some wristwatches for the prize machines.
Interestingly enough when Disney got the rights back most of their first collaborations debuted in Japan as well. The studio partnered with Citizen, and the designers at Hirob to release a watch. It featured Oswald with his arms as the minutes, and hours hands. This was a nod to the original
Mickey Mouse watch by Ingersoll. More than 20 years ago I spent every day on the Japanese bidding sites tracking down Oswald items. Much to my surprise I eventually scored both the dark background, and light background versions of the Disney / Hirob watch. Unfortunately the ones from Taito never showed up. So I put them on my grail list, especially the one with “Mickey Mouse” movement.
When the Disney company in the US started releasing Oswald watches I wasn’t really impressed with their offerings. Almost all of the merchandise in the USA, from stickers, to pins, shirts, and hats featured Oswald in one of a handful of poses. Master animator Eric Goldberg made him black, and white, and changed his style from Universal. As cute as the art was, it lost its charm when it was stamped on everything. The variety of art, and products featuring the rabbit at Universal was much more diverse. To make collecting harder some of the first US Oswald items were limited to the parks. Imagine spending over $150 just to get into Disneyland, and then being told that the Oswald pocket watch would run you an additional $500. Like I said I was a huge Oswald fan, but I also wasn’t made of money. I had to pass on a lot of Disney’s official merchandise because it was priced out of my budget. Less expensive wristwatches would eventually show up at the US and Japan Disney parks. I was able to get my hands on a few of these over the years, but not all of them. Some watches I didn’t think were worth it.
In early fall 2025 a grail watch popped up. While checking for items on eBay I noticed a Japanese seller had posted a Taito watch, complete in the box! It wasn’t the Mickey Mouse movement that I wanted, but it was still on my list. After 25 years of searching I never thought that it would turn up, let alone include the box. Unfortunately the seller wanted over $250 USD for it. The item may have been rare, but it did not warrant that price. There were only a handful of people that I could think of that would even be interested in collecting it. I was hopeful that the seller might budge on the price because the item was listed “Or Best Offer.” So I started with what I thought was a generous offer of $125. It was declined right away.
If you don’t know how the bidding works on eBay you only get five “best offers.” If the seller does not accept your offers then you have to pay the “Buy it Now” price if you still want the item. I’m on a strict budget. There was no way that I would spend over $200. I doubted that anyone else would either. As the weeks went on I would offer a little bit more, at the same time the seller would begin dropping the price. From $250, to $245, to $240… The seller stopped at $200, and I budgeted myself for $175 including taxes, and shipping. So there was still a gap in my maximum price, and the seller's minimum. Then one day the seller sent a private message. He said that he noticed I had made multiple offers. He then said he would be willing to extend to me a special offer of $180. I asked my family if I could tap into our holiday budget a little for this and they said of course. They knew how much the rare Oswald items meant to me.
I waited, and waited. Sadly the offer never came, and the seller never responded to my follow-up messages. He eventually put the watch on “sale” where he dropped the price to $193. This was still too rich for my blood. I used my final offer for $180, and that was also declined. I had to step away from this grail item. The seller was simply asking for too much. Fast forward to the end of 2025. I was surfing various Japanese bidding sites looking for Sonic Team, Namco, and Oswald items. I discovered that the eBay seller had listed the same watch on Japanese auction pages, except he was asking for ¥10,000 Japanese Yen which was about $65 USD. This was probably double how much he actually paid for the item to begin with.
I was shocked that it hadn’t been snatched up at that price. With taxes, shipping, and handling from Japan the total would be just over $80. Oswald's luck must have rubbed off on me. Needless to say I bought it right away. I was willing to pay almost three times that price when it was on eBay, but the seller’s greed cost him in the end. As far as collections went 2025 had been extremely kind to me, and to my family. I’d like to know if you ever lucked out when chasing a grail item. Tell me about it in the comments section! If you want to find out more about Oswald then click the links below.
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