Featured HELP! 1 day hold 4 me - Large, Antique, Metal Hand Crank Toy Egg Laying CHicken - Not a Toy!

I'd think so....

 

The chicken has come home to roost!
PS - I asked one of my fellow thrift store pickers if he wanted to buy a box of 70+ game boys for $200 because I wanted to but this chicken - he told me he didn't want the games but would just loan me the money - and did. Good people!

 

Even not working or for parts it's worth more than the $200- I found one site where just the top half/chicken head sold for over $500!

 

Yay!

 

One thing - the photos I saw of other interiors all seemed to have different egg holding/rotating mechanism designs?

 

I think mine is pressed zinc like this one LauraGarnet02 found: Figural Hen vendors • FORUM (pennymachines.co.uk)

because mine is definitely not cast iron. Does anyone agree (because I'm going to post on eBay for $2,000+ (or best offer) and I want to be sure I describe it correctly) - it feels like I said when I first posted, like cheap metal - the basket feels flimsy, but it must not be because it's lasted 100 years already = right?
Thanks for all the help everyone - I had no idea what I had; I just liked it because it was so different!

 

Somewhere in that thread I remember someone talking about in America they used tin instead of zinc to manufacture these. I haven't had enough coffee to go through that thread again, lol.
It doesn't look like there's any rust on your hen, so I would speculate zinc. I'm pretty sure a magnet would stick to tin. Try a magnet and see what happens!

 

Maybe just say it's cast metal, but you're not sure what kind.

 

Also, state the weight in the description. That would indicate cast iron versus tin for sure.

 

Great,great find J-that's a real piece of Folk Art.Personally I think the lady on the Penny Machine Forum UK over-restored her piece.Does the mechanism work ? Perhaps just a spritz of WD40,not totally functional-just loose & moving.

 

I put it on eBay for $2,500 obo - in an hour I got a message from a guy asking what shipping to France was & when I said I use eBay's global shipping he said he was going to check with friends in America about shipping to them.
He also said he had 3 of his own!

 

Why do you use the Global Shipping Program? Don't you still have to pack it and mail it? Why not just mail it to the person who bought it?

 

Make sure the Guy's Credit Card & Address are legit.

 

The scammers are usually after electronics or fine jewelry, not cast metal hens!
I can easily see a French buyer wanting to glom the hen. There aren't that many, and it would be a major rarity over there.

 

Evely- Sorry if i caused a ruckus or offended.think i've developed Ebay paranoia reading some of the gripe/scam boards.

 

I went and searched up your listing. It looks like the guy in France backed out since you've relisted it.

If he already has three in his collection I am speculating that these hen machines were made in France and are patented in France.

I would love to pick his brain. For instance, I could find no information whatsoever about a manufacturing company of coin operated vending machines called MUM. Only the mention of it on that UK site.

 

@Sdcookie2 Is there any good information in the description? What does puebla mean, having to do with the hen? Is that the manufacturers name?