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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.

Vintage 1920's Dennison Halloween Cutouts, Original Box, Carrot w/ Face

Whomever the fortunate buyer was got a major score in scooping up this errantly priced BIN listing. Dennison produced this boxed set of 6 anthropomorphic carrots for one or two seasons beginning in 1928. The set is coveted and nearly always trades for ~$325. Sellers should stay away from BIN listings unless they have expertise in the item's field. This poor schmuck sacrificed nearly $200 for simply not doing the necessary research before listing a fine item. 

Old Vintage 1930s Halloween German Skull and Crossbones with Hat Beret Diecut

I love seeing rare and visually compelling items populating the generally drab Ebay listings - and then to find such an item being sold by a premier seller - just makes the treat that much richer. There were at least two variants the Germans created in the 1930s of their basic skull and crossbones design. One is this one being sold now while the other, with a plume, can be seen on page 178. Both are valuable, with sustainable guide values of $525. 

10/29 Update: The end of the season is drawing near and lots of money has been spent, making the great items listed this late end at relative bargain levels. The buyer scooped this up for a mere $404.99. 

RARE Old BIG Antique Vintage Beistle / Luhrs HALLOWEEN DIE CUT Skeleton Pumpkin

This diecut, made by Beistle during the early 1960s, is a divisive one. Most collectors either adore or abhor it. The former find it whimsical and humorous while the latter find it dumb and uninspired. I fall in the former camp. How about you? 

Someone in the "former" camp obviously acquired this as it sold at an unsustainable price of $294.90, versus a sustainable value of $175. 

Vintage 1940 Halloween Black Cat Tail Ring Game Tin Litho

This dexterity game, made by Gilbert using Dennison art, surfaces regularly and typically sells for $20-40. This result, therefore, makes no sense. The seller must be simply agog while the buyer may be wondering what hit them. Sometimes I think that some buyers inadvertently form a group that could be accurately described by the title of John Kennedy Toole's most popular novel. 

Beistle 1930s 4-Sided Lantern Mint!

This lantern is very fragile, made from thin paper. To have the opportunity to acquire one of this quality and in this condition is a rare event in and of itself. This collapsible form doesn't lend itself to longevity, as you can well imagine. Beistle only made this lantern for a few seasons. As I point out in my book, the cat's head was also used as part of the art of Beistle's I'm a Dumbskull game. 

10/27 Update: Whoowee! The lantern sold for an astonishing $455, increasing the number of examples wherein vintage Beistle items have sold for unsustainable, some would say insane, prices. 

Set 3 Halloween Black Cat Stand-up Decorations Glassine Envelope

This set of three fold-out small cat decorations was made by Whitney. This Massachusetts firm, which closed in 1943, was diffident about marking their many wares. Nearly the sole way to identify a Whitney item is to train your eye to recognize their art. The way I did it was to closely examine Whitney postcards, all or nearly all of which are marked. Imagery appearing in their postcards often become table decorations. Whitney also used a very open, unadorned font that is easy to identify. (Jason Walcott, a famed font designer and fellow Halloween collector, may be able to shed light on the precise name of the Whitney font.) 

LARGE EARLY 1900S HALLOWEEN GERMAN CANDY CONTAINER NODDER IN BOX MINT NOS

The seller writes that this "Looks like this just came off the country store shelf." The reason it does is because it could very well have been made yesterday. Such questionable items are being seen in greater and greater numbers as the seasons pass. Bear in mind that such items, with few, if any, advanced collectors considering them truly vintage, have zero collectible value, merely scant decorative value. 

RARE VTG Jack-O-Lantern Halloween Lamp Light BEISTLE Honeycomb Cat Witch

The belle of the ball this cycle has most definitely been Beistle. Virtually all of the offerings for top-shelf Beistle items have been snapped up for prices that seem excessive to me. Although the overall condition of the dual faces seemed pretty choice, it was still missing its header, making the result that much more difficult to fathom. That said, arguably this is the most iconic Beistle item out there, alongside their 1923 fairy clock and their early Party Outfits. 

Hard-to-find vintage Beistle Halloween laughing donut on mug cutout decoration

Wasn't Beistle scraping the VERY bottom of the creativity barrel when they issued this as a Halloween diecut? The once great firm, responsible for some of the most iconic Halloween imagery during the 1920s and 1930s, was reduced to this by the 1950s. They rebounded some after this but never again regained the preeminence they enjoyed during Halloween's Golden Age. (Beistle would be smart - and all of us would benefit - if they would hire an artist like Matthew Kirscht to helm their Halloween creative output today.)