Which factors affect on Moomin mug prices? 

Moomin mug values vary a lot depending on a mug. This listing was made to help you identify your Moomin mugs and find out the estimated values of Moomin mugs to help you out whether you are selling your mugs or buying more into your collection. Moomin mug price points keep changing and we do our best to keep the list up to date. We have also added links to Muumimukit Rahaksi Moomin Shop under “Check availability” buttons, there you can find the actual real-time price the mug is for sale for.

Moomin sticker or label

Moominmugs.com shows the price for each Arabia Moomin mug with and without a sticker. Some of the mugs weren’t sold with stickers on them. Some of the Moomin mugs were sold with a box or a tag instead, there will be a mention on how that affects the price of the mug for each mug.

How rare the mug is?

The less mugs were made, the more likely the mugs are going to be more expensive. Due to increased demand of the older Moomin mugs lately, many of those have gone up in value. So it is actually not the age of the mug that makes the mug expensive, but the exclusivity of the mug. Since the production quantities were lower in the 90’s, most of the 90’s mugs have increased a lot in value. Arabia has not disclosed the production quantities for their Moomin mugs, so the prices just tend to follow supply and demand. 

There are only two Moomin mugs that had their production numbers published. 2005 pieces of Moomintroll Daydreaming mugs and 400 pieces of Fazer Moomin mugs were ever made. Both of these mugs are extremely valuable nowadays.

Condition

Is the Moomin mug in a good condition? If the mug is missing a piece, even a small one, the value tends to go significantly. For example an excellent Moomin Mug Drawing might sell for 250 euros, but if it is missing a tiny piece or has a crack – the price might be only 50 euros. That is -80% unfortunate discount.

White dots, scratches and surface scratches on the glazing matter for pricing of the Moomin mug. Those tend to matter slightly more than production errors on the print or glazing bumps. Since condition matters so much for pricing Moomin mugs, instead of giving estimated price for the mug, we decided to give a price range for each Moomin mug. Upper end of the price range is for the mugs in perfect condition and lower end of the price range is for the mugs in average condition.

Stamp on bottom of the Moomin mugs

There are several different kinds of stamps for Moomin mugs, such as: Crown stamp, 75-year stamp, Moomintroll with paintbrush stamp, Moomin mug serial number stamp, Moominvalley Park Japan stamp and Tampere Museum stamp. Some of the mugs were produced only with one kind of a stamp. But other mugs might look the same from outside, but have a different bottom stamp and it can effect the mug’s price a lot. For example if your Moominvalley Park Japan Moomin mug has 1st anniversary stamp on it, it is about twice as valuable as the one without. 

Test versions of Moomin mugs

Some of the Moomin mugs that did not make it into production still exist. If you run into a familiar Moomin mug that has a different color than the ones you have seen, the chances are that it might be a test version and perhaps the only one ever made. These sample Moomin mugs tend to be very expensive, even though number of people collecting these is much lower than traditional Moomin mug collectors.

Moomin mugs made in Finland

Are the Moomin mugs made in Finland? Or where are Arabia Moomin mugs made in? When Arabia started making Moomin mugs in 1990, it was in their factory in Helsinki, Finland. All the Arabia Moomin mugs that were produced pre 2005 are made in Finland. 

In 2005 some of the Moomin mug production was moved to Thailand, but the production in Finland continued until 2016. So some of the mugs during 2005-2016 period were in Finland and some in Thailand. The Moomin mugs made after 2016 are made in Thailand. All the Moomin mugs are still designed in Finland. Finnish publicly traded company Fiskars Oyj owns Arabia. Moomin Characters Ltd Oy owns the rights to Moomin characters. 

The history of Moomin mugs

Did you know that the first Arabia Moomin mugs were actually made already in the 1950’s. Moomintroll 1950’s and Snorkmaiden 1950’s mugs were actually designed by Tove Jansson. Back in 1954 when “The Evening News” was the largest newspaper in the world, they started publishing Moomin comic strips! This then sparked interest from the companies to co-operate and to manufacture Moomin products with Tove Jansson. 

When Arabia started to manufacture Moomin mugs again in the 90’s they partnered with Tove Slotte, who designed the first Moomin mugs and has been designing most of the Moomin mugs ever since. Tove Slotte began her work in 1989 and the first Moomin mugs were ready to presented to Tove Jansson and her partner Tuulikki Pietilä in 1990. After Tove gave another Tove green light, the first Moomin hit the Moomin shops later the same year. These were the first Teema styled Moomin mugs by Arabia. 

Tove Slotte actually continued designing illustrations for the Moomin mugs until late 2022 when she told about her retirement. At the time of her retirement there were 124 different Moomin mugs of which she had designed a large majority.