Great Original 1915 Dennison's Bogie Book Halloween Decorations w/ Envelope

OK, WOW! For avid Halloween paper ephemera collectors, seeing this listing should cause your hearts to race and your sphincters to seize. Seeing this quality listing amongst so much eBay dreck made my day. This is certainly the best listing I've seen come along in well over a year. 
Completing a set of customized Dennison Bogie Book envelopes or enclosures is high on my list. They surface so rarely they warrant an RSIN of 1, except for the 1919 enclosure that has been assigned a 2. (I am proud to own enclosures for 1909, 1914, 1915, 1917 and 1919. I have never seen enclosures for any of the other years Dennison Bogie Books were produced so cannot even be sure they exist. You can see these extant enclosures in my third edition.) From the ones I do own, this 1915 enclosure is the most cleverly designed and memorable of all the others put together. This is the ONE to own. Less interesting by comparison is the actual 1915 Bogie Book itself. This issue is not easy to find and the condition seems to be acceptable. I'm glad the seller included a shot of the Bogie inside its enclosure to show the cleverness with which this was produced. The guide value for the enclosure alone is $500, but there was only a single data point to support that specific valuation. In my view, the sky's the limit, so I'll be buckled in watching where this listing ends. 

08/23 Update: The air wasn't too choppy. Guide value for both items is $775 and it ended at $838. I feel the buyer got a very good deal overall considering the rarity of the enclosure. 

One Vintage Halloween ROSEN 50s TRIX OR TREATS sucker card MINT unused condition

Rosen made three distinct sets of their Trix or Treats cards. Set A consists of six cards, while Sets B and C consist of five cards. This is a card from Set B, the best of the three sets, produced during the late 1940s into the early 1950s. The RSIN for any one from this set is 3 and guide value is $70. Turn to pages 90-91 to see all cards from all sets. 

VINTAGE 1950's HALLOWEEN Party Embossed Foil Candleholder with Witch, Black Cat

I'm not normally keen on foil decorations as they are typically pretty dull and one-note. This, though, is an exception. Happy Holiday of Battleboro, MA produced this well-executed foil decoration during the 1950s. (A more anodyne company name I have yet to encounter...) Just look at all the design work that went into this great item. The base is intricate and the background scene to the witch busy. The witch is detailed enough that you can even see her skull pendant. These don't surface much, especially in this condition and offered by such a fine seller. 

08/24 Update: This fine decoration blew away my expectations by selling for $118.38. 

Vintage Halloween Party Table Decorations - Witches & Black Cats - 8

It was interesting to see what this lot brought. The lot consists of two four-sided light cardboard interlocking centerpieces, one comprised of four different vignettes showing cats on fence sections while the other is comprised of two different sides showing witches. Both were made by Whitney during the 1920s. These four-sided centerpieces seldom surface, and when they do they are invariably damaged in some way, most commonly by missing or creased tabs. Of the two, the cat centerpiece is more desirable and marginally more rare. Guide value for both together is $475, so these brought what I would have expected. 

Vintage Antique Beistle Witch with White Mice Halloween Die Cut Embossed 18" US

This is an eye-catching and quite large diecut produced by Beistle during the 1950s and into the early 1960s. It measures a whopping 17.75" high by 12" wide. It isn't particularly hard-to-find, having been made for so many seasons. The guide value is $65, FAR above the price this seller established as a BIN. Since the seller is open to offers, a fair offer would be $65. It is too bad that the seller's eBay handle so aptly describes the price that they so obviously plucked out of thin air. 

Antique Large German Halloween JOL

A friend of mine bought this late 1920s German JOL because she had not seen one with molded depressions around the eyes, nose and mouth before. I didn't notice these depressions when I looked at the listing, instead wrongly focusing on the fact that the the bottom had been so obviously replaced. Given the rarity of such molded features, a true bargain was had for $99! 

Rare Early Paper Mache LARGE Head Jack-O-Lantern Germany

I have received a surprising number of emails regarding this listing, all wondering if the world has gone insane. This has to be one of the least compelling JOLs I have ever seen, other than a cowboy JOL monstrosity owned, sadly, by two close friends of mine. This French's Mustard yellow JOL with its glaringly contrasting red certainly is unusual and memorable, much like once seeing a morbidly obese woman walking along a Hawaiian beachfront topless. Additionally, the shape is off and the condition poor. Why would it ever bring such dollars? As an aside, the seller states that this could have been made as early as the 1880s. There is no record of such things being made prior to about 1910. 

Early Beistle jointed Halloween skeleton with orange background

This attractive skeleton diecut with its unusual orange background was manufactured by Beistle during the early 1930s. It has an RSIN of 2, which surely accounts for why this item, suffering from some serious head damage, still brought $35.77. I tend to think the guide value of $75 for a near-mint example is a tad low given the recent strength of the skeleton diecut sub-genre.

Antique Halloween Crepe Paper Candy Bag Trick Or Treat By C.A. Reed Co Vintage

This vintage bag produced by Reed has nothing going for it - it is simply orange crepe with a sewn black section and a formed bottom. This sort of generic item is not coveted by collectors and typically wouldn't rustle up even $5. However, the seller, mesmerized by the age perhaps, has slapped a BIN of $99.99 on it. It conjures the opening words to a melancholy Anne Murray tune, "Dreamin, I must be dreamin..."

JACK-O-LANTERN HALLOWEEN CANDY CONTAINER VINTAGE (??) PULL TOY BAT CAT WITCH OWL

I haven't seen one of these come up for sale in some time. This slot-and-tab candy box was made by the Dolly Toy Company of Dayton, Ohio under their Fibro Toy line. The items were produced sporadically between 1934 and 1953, much less regularly than the witch pulling cart and cat pulling cart Fibro Toys. These are never marked for some reason. They have not yet been reproduced. It'll be fun to see what this brings! 

08/14 Update: This brought a healthy premium to guide value: $338.33 versus $250. 

Early Dennison Nut Cup Candy Container unfolded Cat Bat Jol Moon ca 1920s mint

I love the four nut cups that comprise a full set, of which this is one. This was produced by Dennison in the late 1920s right before their art changed radically to a more cartoonish style. The four were sold only as a set. Its RSIN is 2, meaning "rare." Turn to page 259 to see the full set. 

Early Beistle Vintage Halloween Invitations with Owl Envelope Witch/Cat/Owl

The seller left considerable money on the table listing this with a BIN of $150. This is perhaps the earliest Beistle packaging I've seen and probably dates to 1918. (Beistle didn't even have their name on the envelope, or a stock number or even a witty description of the contents.) If I had seen this I would have excitedly added this to the collection. I would think that owlcreek15 could have gotten at least double, and perhaps more, than the $150 BIN price assigned!

VERY RARE Vintage Halloween Witch on a Broom Diecut Decoration Germany 1920s-30s

The seller describes this broomed witch diecut as having some light fading, but the fade is intentional. There were a number of diecut designs produced for a season or two that had this color finish to them. Collectors sometimes pass these by thinking they don't want something so faded by the sun, but this is a mistake. I know collectors who seek these "faux faded" diecuts out specifically for their collections. This diecut is hard-to-find in any finish: faux-faded, regular matte or regular glazed. 

08/07 Update: This brought $141.89, very close to guide value, $135, so I'm glad the bidders weren't mistakenly thinking it was faded. 

EARLY BLACK CAT HALLOWEEN CARDBOARD ACCORDION NOISEMAKER

I haven't seen this accordion-style noisemaker with handles before. Looking closely at the photos, the handles do appear as if they were originally with the noisemaker when produced. Virtually all of these sort of noisemakers I've seen with such handles were made in Japan, so it is possible that the original design was used by an unauthorized manufacturer in Japan which added these handles. (This is entirely conjecture on my part, however.) In any event, it is an interesting variant on a hard-to-find, typically German-made noisemaker. 

08/08 Update: This sold for $110, indicative of the fact the buyer felt it was made in Japan, in my opinion. 

VINTAGE GERMAN FORTUNE TELLING/MAGIC TYPE HALLOWEEN GAME-MIRACULUM

This dealer should know better than to list this item in eBay's Vintage Halloween category. It has nothing to do with Halloween. Some Halloween collectors do collect these fortune telling games, but the crossover only occurs when the game's imagery has some substantive or meaningful connection to Halloween. Other than an owl and a bat, this doesn't and therefore should be listed elsewhere.