tin halloween parade lantern jack o' lantern

This seller has angered a number of collectors who have repeatedly contacted him/her to tell him this was made by Bethany Lowe within the last few years and has zero collectible value. This seller refuses to accurately describe this lantern or list it in the Modern category. The dodge he/she uses is so old...stating that the age is unknown. It isn't. He/she simply refuses to be educated. 

06/17 Update: I feel for the buyer who dropped $632 on what is merely a decorative item. People: Do your research before dropping serious cash on things like this. 

Great Email Received...

I received an email from a faithful reader which makes a good point. Thanks so much, Glenn! 

You come down on seller's shipping prices a lot on your blog. What you may not take into account is that the shipping price often includes insurance since eBay does not separate insurance costs from shipping. Regarding your recent post about the witch whistle, the insurance alone on this would be $2.75 if the final price doesn't go above the $75 opening bid. That's the bulk of the shipping cost! I wouldn't want this shipped for $1.25 because that would mean the item was not insured. In my opinion that would be the "negative". Tracking may be included, but that is not insurance.
I personally overpack for safety. Often the box and packaging is 95% of the weight. It's better to ship something safely in a box than be sorry for a damaged item that arrived in a cheaply-shipped envelope.
Something to think about.

Vintage Beistle Black Cat Owl Bat Pumpkin Halloween Orange Tissue HoneyComb Hat

I haven't seen this choice hat surface for some time. Early Beistle (1918-1935) is arguably the hottest sub-genre of vintage Halloween right now, something that has remained true for many years. Even with the condition issues specific to this hat, it fetched a strong price. What captivates me about this hat is the energy the artist conveyed with the four principal figures. 

Vintage Halloween Die Cut Cardboard Witch Ring Toss Party Game 16-pc Set xx18

These are reproductions. Authentic ones were made by Beistle during the early 1940s, have dual-sided lithography and printed instructions on the handle. These have no collectible value. 

1920s Beistle Die Cut Halloween Johnny Pumpkin Head Easel Back Stand Up

This seller is very optimistic if she thinks this will fetch $275. In perfect condition, these at one time brought $100, but now they routinely bring significantly less. 
Beistle made an entire "family" of these in varying sizes and design. This small one, measuring ~5.25" is the most common design by a wide margin. Please see pages 122-124 for a nearly complete array of these Johnny Pumpkin designs. 

Antique Tin Germany Halloween Siren Whistle Witches Cats

This petite whistle noisemaker was made in Germany sometime during the late 1920s. Its RSIN is "2," so you know these don't surface much. Sustainable guide value is $150, so the opening price is actually not unreasonable. The whistling mechanism on these is often broken, so I consider it a slight bonus that this is purported to be fully functional. 
One negative with this seller is that the postage charge is $4.54. Given the item's small form factor and its negligible weight, postage shouldn't be more than $1.25, especially considering how tracking is now automatically included with First Class postage. 

06/11 Update: The buyer got a solid bargain when scooping this up for the pittance of $74.95. 

Rare 10" Vintage Halloween wind-up Pumpkin Head Walker Well-Preserved & Working

As with virtually every gear-based mechanical Halloween item I've seen offered on Ebay these last two years, this is not old. Be VERY cautious purchasing such items. The few indisputably authentic items I've seen all show their age and have that patina and look missing from this and other such items I've seen listed. 

1920's Vintage Halloween German Crow Die Cut NEAR MINT!!

Wow, this is one of the harder German diecuts to get, exclusive of the few produced for one year around 1935 and shipped only to eastern Canada. This looks to be in beautiful condition, although the photographs do lack that level of detail I'd prefer. The buyer got a great item at a very good price, considering that sustainable guide value is $325. 

1920's Vintage German Owl Bat and man in moon Die cut

I sure wish the photos were better on this listing. The seller grades this as "fine plus," but it is hard to make an independent judgement. Doing so is important, in that this diecut is so rarely found. One of six mini-diecuts made in Germany from the early 1930s through the late 1940s, this, in my view, is the one of the two best from the set, the other being the witch at her cauldron. (You can see the others on page 185.) 

2 Vintage Halloween Decorations Witch & Bat Made in Germany Cardboard Die Cut

This was a solid score. Happily, good friends of mine snagged this pair of German diecuts. The sustainable guide value for the bat alone is $150. It always amazes me when sellers list something as a BIN without any knowledge of what they are selling. It reminds me of one of my favorite sayings: "The sum of the intelligence of the planet is a constant. The population is growing." 

Vtg Mavrakos Candy HALLOWEEN CARDBOARD BOX,Witch,Black Cat,Pumpkin,St Louis RARE

This listing is full of wonderful detail that adds to the knowledge base for vintage Halloween memorabilia. It is unusual to find the inner waxed paper still extant with these often unmarked candy boxes. So, to find that it was issued by Mavrakos Candies of St. Louis, and then to have the seller provide the kind of operational detail that I love, this listing has hit a home run. It seems that the buyer of this rare box - I hadn't seen it before - got a solid bargain at $79.95. 

Devil Head Candle Holder Vintage Cast Iron Double Headed Talon Feet Set Matching

This pair of devils is a fantasy pair. They first began appearing in the mid-1990s. There is no record of them existing prior to this time. I hope that the seller, who states that he bought these at an estate sale, didn't pay too much as they have very modest decorative value only. 

1920s PUMPKIN HEAD JACK-O-LANTERN WITCH CANDY CONTAINER TOP

The seller inaccurately describes this is a candy container top. This is simply a very nice figural made in Germany during the later 1920s. Given its condition, the opening price of $125 is somewhat aggressive. The quoted shipping cost seems to be absurdly high. 

SCARCE Vintage Halloween Pumpkin Candy Container Purse, USA, E. Rosen Co., 1930s

These cleverly designed candy purses made by Rosen during the 1930s used to pop up more often than I've been seeing them do so lately. Rosen made a small variety of point-of-sale displays that I avidly collect. (Please refer to pages 116-118 to see those in the collection.) Although this isn't one of those, it exemplifies the attention to detail that characterizes Rosen output during this period. Of course, another positive of this listing is the seller, long on my list of those with whom I eagerly do business. 

Rare German Vintage Composition Halloween Skeleton Candy Container 3 3/4" Tall

This is not a vintage item, except as with the comment below, you feel a creation date of no earlier than the mid-1990s qualifies a seller to use that word. This item is merely one small part of the avalanche of items made in Germany and imported into the U.S. to take advantage of the significant rise in prices of truly vintage German candy containers and figurals that occurred beginning in the mid-1990s. This is actually part of the second wave that began assaulting our shores in the early 2000s. There are no truly vintage counterparts. There isn't a single instance where these are shown to exist in any printed material prior to 2000. The seller's protestations to the contrary, this isn't old. It is merely a pleasant decorative object that someday may have collectible value.