A Vintage Halloween Minute with MBL - 01 Beistle Winged Ghoul

This is the first of a planned release of one dozen short videos. I will be releasing these over the next 6 weeks or so. Enjoy! 

Caveat Emptor 11/09/12

Here are several items that are either reproductions or fantasy pieces. In each case - caveat emptor, which as all of you Latin lovers know means "Buyer Beware."

Ebay Item Numbers:  190751048411, 190751048490, 290809234016, 140866085212

VINTAGE HALLOWEEN DECORATION GAME RARE WITCH DEVIL GHOST SKELETON

This game, made by Beistle in the 1930s, is not terribly hard-to-find. The fact that this game brought $535.99 is an example of the sometimes crazed nature of Ebay. This result is a definite outlier. The seller should be ecstatic at landing a big fish. The fish needs to bone up on relative scarcity and current values, else they will have a very expensively put together small collection. 

VINTAGE HALLOWEEN CANDY CONTAINER PAPER CAT PUMPKIN RARE DECORATION G.M. CO

This container, part of a well-known set of six, was made by the General Merchandise Company in the 1950s. All of the pieces from the set are fairly common, so to see this one bring $115.49 indicates that more than one bidder really wanted it. (You can see the others to this set on pages 57 and 58.) 

German Cardboard Black Cat Candy Container

So many of these cylindrical gesso-washed cardboard containers have been reproduced that the originals have lost a substantial part of their vintage value. Make no mistake about it, this is a vintage item. One of the quick ways to spot a repro in this specific genre of candy containers is that the character’s hat brim has a broad swoop downward from one side to the other, rather than the even hat brim as seen in this auction item. 

Vintage Halloween Place Card Mint

This place card was made by Hallmark in the 1930s. The manufacturing mark used at that time was a simple “H” within a circle. (You can see it toward the right end of the card.) Hallmark’s designs then were, for the most part, rather pedestrian. Today’s market doesn’t value Hallmark’s vintage output in the same manner as it does the vintage output from Beistle, Dennison or Gibson.

WELCOME!

Welcome to my newly redesigned site! I have wanted to give my site a face lift for some time, and finally found an excellent resource to allow me to achieve the goal. Thanks Bob! The new format will allow a wider range of activities, such as the occasional posting of video clips, the ability for me to post even when I’m not in front of my desktop and the ability for you to comment. I am pleased with the new look – especially the collage banners at the top of each page. I hope you enjoy the changes too!

NEAR MINT Vintage Halloween Siren Horn Noisemaker Marks Brothers 1920s!

Ends 10/31

I, too, like the color scheme of this horn better than the other one shown on page 180 of the book. This is arguably the second best horn Marks Brothers manufactured. My personal favorite is the one with the wavy lines shown on the same page.

(I'm happy that someone snatched this great horn up at what I consider to be a very fair price!)

Complete set of 24 Beistle Fortune Verses

Ends 11/02

This rare set was made by Whitney of Worcester, MA. The company went out of business in 1943. Except for their post cards, Whitney almost never marked any of their output making identification dependent on familiarity of their imagery. This set, especially in this condition, seldom surfaces. 

(Were you as surprised as I was that this set brought such high dollars? This ended at $372.87, a result FAR higher than I would have forecast.)

Vintage Halloween Japan Tin Toy Pumpkin Noise Maker

Ends 11/04

Here is a clicker you don't see too often. Contrary to the seller's estimate, this was made in the later 1930s.

Vintage HALLOWEEN WITCH DIE CUT DIECUT GERMANY Deeply embossed

Ended 10/28

Although this is a harder-to-find diecut, and it is in remarkable condition, the fact that it sold for $250 is surprising. I figure that the buyer paid a premium of nearly 100%.

VINTAGE GERMAN PAPER MACHE WIND UP HALLOWEEN WITCH W/BOX

Ended 10/27

What a real shame that someone threw away $575.00 on an item like this that has no real age to it. Did you notice how the seller simply calls it "vintage" without defining how the word is defined?

Vintage Halloween Bat Diecut

Ended 10/26

This seems to be an absurdly high price to pay for this quite common table decoration, especially so when factoring in condition.

Vintage Halloween Beistle Hitchy Witchy Game Model Cardboard Witch

Ends 11/18

Be careful here. As I point out on page 21, reproductions of this game have been made wherein the lithography is only on the one side and the printed instructions are missing. This is more likely than not a reproduction.

VINTAGE HALLOWEEN PUMPKIN MUSICIANS COMPOSITION GERMANY

Ends 11/12

I love unbridled optimism - especially at this time of year. Although this partial set is quite desirable, given the many condition issues this seller's Buy-It-Now price is the very definition of unbridled optimism.