1930 rare sexy flying witch Halloween tambourine

This rare tambourine might very well have brought a stronger price if the seller, seemingly new to eBay, had posted numerous, clear photos. Simply posting one blurry photo and providing a skimpy description was a poor effort on the seller’s part. This Deco witch flying over a cityscape tambourine noisemaker is rare enough I’ve never seen one in good enough condition to acquire. It was produced by T. Cohn during the 1930s.

I just received this email from the buyer - an informed and savvy collector: “… looking forward to your upcoming auction. I have been looking for a mint condition version of this tambourine for my collection. After many requests for additional pictures with no results I was able to get the seller to tell me it is in mint condition.  I took a chance and paid $300 for it. I will let you know if I made the right decision.”  

03/12 Update: The acquiring collector turned out to be thrilled with his purchase. It turns out the tambourine was in near-mint+ condition. I wonder why the seller didn’t bother posting several clear photos?

Vintage Dennison Halloween JOL Traffic Cop Die Cut - Rare

This diecut was last offered for sale on eBay in May 2018 as part of a lot of three diecuts. Sadly, it was in horrific condition, yet still the lot brought $305. This example is in superb condition with bright colors and should easily eclipse that last price. This JOL-headed traffic cop diecut was produced by Dennison and first appeared in their 1930 Price List pamphlet. It was produced on the thin yellow-stock paper Dennison used often at the time. It makes a good companion piece to the Hallo' Inn diecut shown on page 142. I know of many collectors who have been waiting for this rare diecut to surface in this condition, so it’ll be informative to see what this sells for.

03/07 Update: Wow, this brought $597.99, tip-top dollars indeed.

NICE VINTAGE HALLOWEEN OWL PARTY DECORATION MARKED BEISTLE CO.

I was surprised to see this diecut sell for such a high price. It was produced by Beistle during the late 1940s. These used to surface much more often than they do now, but I’d still assign an RSIN of 3 to it.

6 Vintage Dennisons Haloween Cutouts

This is a tough boxed set of cut-outs to find. Add that to it being complete and in near-mint condition, I am not surprised it brought a strong price. Dennison first issued this set in 1924 with a stock number of H101.

VINTAGE 1920’s HALLOWEEN Witch With Broom Planets Stars Tally Card

This tally was made by Hallmark during the 1920s. The art and coloration match a score book with a cat on the cover that I have for sale now. This is a rare enough item that I’ve never seen it before. Sadly, it isn’t in the condition I require.

03/03 Update: This sold for $46.75.

ANTIQUE VINTAGE HALLOWEEN CARDBOARD CREPE PAPER ACCORDION BAT HANGING DECORATION

I’ve been away for nearly a week on vacation and have taken few opportunities to wallow in eBay’s listings. Imagine my surprise when amongst all of the crapola, I see this exceedingly rare item in nice shape! This sinister devil bat diecut was produced by Beistle during the interval of 1925-1931. I haven’t seen one in this condition for many years. (Typically, one of the horns and at least one foot are long gone.) The orange honeycomb wings look essentially unused. Beistle also made this item with black honeycomb wings. This deserves to bring a very strong price, indeed.

03/05 Update: And it sure did bring a strong price - $970 - perhaps a record.

Vtg Chevron Halloween Paper Trick or Treat Bag Hawaiian Girl Native Costumes

Trick or Treat bags like this seldom have more than a very modest value. Although the Hawaiian imagery is unusual, the market for these sorts of things hasn’t developed - and maybe never will. The seller has a BIN price of $111.11 but is willing to consider offers. I think $18-22 is the correct range.

Smiling Jack-O-Lantern Face Vintage German Halloween Candy Container; Mint!

It was refreshing to see such a high-quality item appear on eBay. This genre of item is among my favorites. (Check out pages 58-60 to see the items in the collection.) These were made from 1916-1921. They seldom surface in such nice condition. There is an identical design made in a slightly larger format that you can see on page 59. The ending price was right where I expected it to be.

VINTAGE HALLOWEEN CARDBOARD BLACK CAT-PART OF A PULL TOY

This seller, who has been selling Halloween items for many years, really should have been able to identify this remnant. It wasn’t “…originally part of a pull toy.” It was a part of a slot and tab decoration manufactured by Dolly Toy as part of their acquired Fibro Toy line during the 1930s. You can see the complete item on page 296.

Vintage RARE 1950's Rosbro Halloween BLACK Witch on BLACK Motorcycle Candy CONTA

I’ve never appreciated hard plastic items enough to bother collecting them. A result like this makes me wonder if I made an error in seldom buying any! As in nearly all such cases, there were two determined bidders. If I was the underbidder, I’d be breathing a sigh of relief.

1920s Halloween Jack O'Lantern Black Cat Box Pumpkin Antique Holiday Candy

The nut cup was produced by Gibson during the 1920s. The JOL is merely a piece from the “Pick-A-Pumpkin” game shown on page 125.

Very rare antique witch die Cut

Beistle issued a trio of broomed witches diecuts during the late 1950s. This is arguably the best design of the three. (You can see the others on page 159.) This trio is almost impossible to find in collectible condition for some reason. They are large on thinner paper stock. I don’t think Beistle produced many of these in the grand scheme of things. A good paper restorer could probably work wonders on this damaged example.

02/21 Update: I almost keeled over when I saw that this damaged diecut sold for $510. I agree that a competent paper restorer should be able to make this look near-new, but that would cost ~$200, making the total investment over $700, significantly over what this diecut has sold for in near-mint, unrestored condition.

03/07 Update: This same diecut in better condition sold yesterday for the shockingly low price of $103.51. I have to chalk it up to the vagaries of eBay.

11 Vintage Dennison Halloween Embossed Pumpkin Decorations & Original Packaging

Dennison used a now-opaque numbering system, making it difficult to accurately date when products premiered, short of playing detective with Bogie Books arrayed before you. It seems they used a different system based on the product: seals, illuminated silhouettes, matboards, cut-outs and the like. All seem to have been on separate tracks. Given that these are matboards and that 15 and 16 were first issued in 1914, it seems logical to assume these were issued around the same time.

1917 HALLOWEEN Place Card w/ Jack-O-Lanterns & Black Cat

This intricately designed and whimsical place card was one of Dennison’s earliest finished goods. For too long Dennison made crepe products and coached end-consumers on how to make decorations from them rather than emphasizing finished goods themselves. They finally wised up around 1914 when their selection of such goods began to greatly expand. These place cards don’t surface too often, so even though this has been used it may be worth picking up.

02/21 Update: This sold for $22.49.

Vtg Halloween Dennison Witch On Broom Moon Owl Black Cat Die Cut 1950s

Here’s another mystery. This 1960-1970s diecut is in poor condition with far from memorable imagery and yet someone actually bid $125.50 on it. I know eBay has been a wasteland of late, but this result boggles the mind.

02/14 Update: This same seller has listed three more of these as of today.

02/21 Update: As expected, two of the three sold for less than $30 each. The third sold for $50. The person who spent $125.50 must be wondering what possessed them.