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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.

Vintage HALLOWEEN Eureka Bat Ghost Cat Cardboard Die Cut USA Jack O Lantern 16"

I’ve been tracking selling prices for the variety of diecuts produced in the later 1950s and into the early 1960s by Eureka for about two years now. I feel it is an emerging market segment unto itself. There was a time not long ago when you could hardly give them away. Several years ago I offered ~8 Eureka designs in one of my annual auctions. Each brought a then-record price. I feel there is great likelihood of continued increasing valuations associated with this market segment, so if you like Eureka’s gentle and sentimental take on Halloween, begin buying these diecuts right now.

vintage halloween decorations pre1960

This seller has several interesting assorted lots up for auction. The star of this lot is the gourd-shaped Beistle diecut, which seems to be intact and in collectible condition. Bear in mind that there are material issues with several items: the three-sided Gibson JOL shade is missing its black top-piece that serves to hold the lantern together, the Beistle walking witch diecut has no legs and the bottom ends of the large Beistle diecut of a cat with a smiling moon behind have been trimmed. I’d advise bidding accordingly.

07/29 Update: This sold for much more than I would have expected - $710!

Vintage Halloween CARDBOARD CAT DRIVING JOL CAR CANDY HOLDER - 1940'S - USA!

The G.M. Company produced a number of slot and tab candy boxes during the 1940s and 1950s. Their most popular and easily found designs were a set of six first produced during the mid-to-late 1940s. This whimsical cat driving a skeptical JOL is one of this set of six. (You can see the others on page 54.) These are not typically found in this superb condition. Even the colors are bright! If you care about doing business with knowledgeable and upstanding sellers, you can’t go wrong with klectibles!

08/02 Update: This brought an astounding $225.35.

New Additions to the Acquisitions Page

Be sure to check out the items I just added to the Acquisitions page. If you haven’t explored that page yet, it now shows a great representation of items I’ve purchased from 2014 through October 2018. As I have time, I’ll continue adding a sampling of items purchased from October 2018 up to the present.

Vintage Halloween Plastic Blow Mold Lighted Pumpkin Jack O Lantern Witch Hat

Unfortunately, the site that will typically reveal what the Best Offer selling price was for an item just shows that this sold for $65, although the price was lower than that. Let’s assume that it was $50, a much higher price than I would have expected. Virtually all blow molds are super common and seldom bring meaningful dollars. (There are exceptions, of course. The tall orange or green haunted houses, the slanted orange haunted house and the standing witches with arms outstretched holding some object are some examples.) This design is common, so even $50 would have been a surprise, especially given that it has significant fading and has scuffing and no light. Is this result an outlier or an indication that there has been strengthening in this market segment?

Antique Vintage Halloween Pumpkin Creamer GERMANY

Whenever an unmarked basic tea set item is offered for sale, collectors should assess whether it is of German or Japanese manufacture. The latter were derivative of the former, tend to be more goofy looking, have less finished detailing and have a clunky feel to them. Many are overly knobby. Japanese tea set pieces bring ~50% or less of those tea set items made in Germany. (Refer to page 119 for more information.) This creamer is certainly a German-made item. This market segment has been hotter than many, so I’d expect the ending price to be significantly higher than the $61 level currently bid.

07/27 Update: This sold for $270.01.

Vintage Halloween Diecut Full Moon Witch on Broom USA 12" tall cardboad

After wading through several screens of eBay garbage, I was stopped short by this great design. Although this example seems to be in poor condition, I haven’t seen this Beistle creation offered for sale for a long while. It was issued in the very early 1960s. Later in that decade, Beistle reissued a double-sided version. I would change its RSIN from “3” to “2.” Given its condition, a bid at the opening price of $35 surprised me some.

07/27 Update: This sold for $51.

I've Been Away

Hello Faithful Readers,
I’ve been away in the wilds of Montana doing little and having a great time doing little! I haven’t been too motivated to post given the amount of garbage listings that one must wade through now, but I will try to post more often. I’ll be adding items to the Acquisitions section of the site over the next few weeks. It is a good resource to see what seldom-seen items I’ve added to the collection since the 3rd (and final) edition was published. The For Sale page is well on its way to being depleted. I have a great line-up building for next year’s auction, but not too much yet to significantly add to my For Sale page. (That can change at any time as I am given opportunities to acquire collections.) Relative to next year’s auction, my plan is to have one in March, as that time frame works better for me. Stay tuned for more details as that time draws nearer.

Vintage Halloween Rust Craft Greeting Card Witch Jol Cat Moon Gold Accents 1920

Wow, this result boggles the mind. Yes, this Rust Craft card is superb. Yes, the seller is knowledgeable and frankly, wonderful. But will we see a result like this often? My worries about our hobby becoming only for the well-heeled will be strengthened by similar results. I don’t feel cards from this series are worth more than $150-200 on a good day.

Vintage Halloween German JOL-faced hat box candy container

eBay has been so full of dreck that it is gratifying to see a true quality item listed and sold. This German hat box candy container is one of the more common items from what is a surprisingly large set of such items. (Turn to pages 58-60 to see other items from the set - some of which you won’t see elsewhere.) The price realized was strong, especially when you must swim against the current of crap that eBay has foisted upon the collecting community by consolidating all Halloween items into a one-size-fits-all category. One seller actually listed ~300 lots of masks that I was frustrated with having to wade through.

Witch Lantern Cardboard Two Faced w/ original inserts. Vintage Halloween 1940's

This witch head lantern has always been tough to find. I haven’t seen one surface for a long time in this superior condition. The manufacturer had a tentative grasp, at best, of color constancy. The witch face is sometimes bright green like this and sometimes a dusty camo color. The hat is sometimes red, sometimes orange and sometimes yellow. The ending result seems in line with how prices across most vintage Halloween fronts have escalated dramatically over these last 18 months.

VINTAGE HALLOWEEN MARS MILKY WAY CANDY BOX EMPTY FOR TRICKS OR TREATS FREE SHIPP

There was a time not that long ago when empty candy boxes like this one or for other widely marketed candy bars wouldn’t fetch much, probably because the graphics were rarely that well executed. I’ve noticed a sustained uptick for these empty candy boxes. Is that uptick a result of how hard it has become to find graphically superior items or is there a true groundswell for these items independent of anything else?

Halloween Vintage 9 Piece Embossed Die Cut Halloween Wall Piece Collection

This seller is offering nine diecuts as one lot. (The JOL head with a feather on the cap is a remnant for a Beistle hanging decoration.) All are forgettable except the smoking JOL. That is one of eight from a tough set to complete. I wish the seller would have provided a photo of its reverse. That alone is worth the opening price assuming it is in very-fine or better condition.

Vintage Halloween Germany black cat playing violin embossed 15” diecut

I’ve long loved this small set of heavily embossed German diecuts. Three band cats comprise the full set, with the other two playing a trumpet and a saxophone. (You can see all of them at the top of page 176.) It is hard to find one of these large early 1930s diecuts in superb condition like this one. The seller is knowledgeable, so you won’t go wrong here.

07/01 Update: This brought $261, lower than I would have thought.