The vintage Halloween hobby is broken down into many different market segments. Over the last few years, most segments have strengthened over an expected trajectory, some have weakened and a few have strengthened more rapidly than expected. Examples of the last category would be Dennison and Gibson diecuts from 1928-1934 and many blow molds. (I can hardly believe it myself!) This owl blow mold from the 1960s is a good representative of this new reality for this market segment. Will Gurley candles and common tin litho ever strengthen?
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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.
Vintage Halloween Embossed Cardboard Black Cat Face German Germany 1920's 1930's
I’m impressed with the condition of the highlights on this cat head diecut. The green, red and white highlights were applied by hand. These highlights are often degraded over time with use and light exposure, so it is a treat to see one with near-perfect highlights. Rolled-ear aside, I hope it brings strong dollars.
06/07 Update: This brought $129.02.
Vintage 1930s Embossed BEISTLE Die Cut HALLOWEEN Silver Foil PUMPKIN Rats Mice
I love these silvered diecut variants from the long-produced complete set of twelve diecuts from Beistle. They began production in 1932 and continued with some interruptions through the early 1950s. (The variants were made for only a season or two very early in the total run.) When these hard-to-find variants surface, they typically are in poor condition. The ones being offered by this fine seller are in better-than-average condition. It’ll be fun to see what they bring.
Vintage Halloween Place Cards Lot
This partial set of place cards was produced by Hallmark during the later 1920s. (The H within a circle is the mark Hallmark used at that time.) Hallmark undoubtedly used the imagery under license from Nash, as this imagery was first used by them as part of their postcard line. (I don’t have my postcard reference with me just now, so I am citing Nash from what may be a faulty memory!) These Hallmark place cards are fairly common. The child in the spotted costume may be the hardest to find of the four shown. The seller is asking $300 for them. I feel an achievable total would be $70-85.
RARE 30's Original Beistle Vintage Halloween Lightning Wumpus Electricity Dragon
There are several things I find irritating about this listing. The first is its bare-bones description. I guess the seller could hardly be bothered with providing a detailed description. The second is the photographs. Where is a photo of the reverse side? eBay allows 12 photos. The third is the cutesy pricing. Starting it at $666 is just so trite. The fourth is the seller cribbed from this very site with no acknowledgement or thanks.
This seller should have just started this at $49.99 (or thereabouts) and let the auction run. Slapping an already fully-valued opening price for an item in rough condition is just a bad practice. Trust the system.
05/26 Update: The seller has listed and relisted this again and again, varying the opening price but largely keeping the BIN price of $750 intact, down from the original listing’s BIN price of $999. They would have been better off just listing it with a modest opening price. Sellers should emulate long-time sellers like zizsdream, who wisely starts the vast majority of her auctions at $9.99 and lets them run. A high percentage of the closing prices she fetches testify to the wisdom of this approach.
06/02 Update: This mercifully sold on May 28th for $100. If the seller had simply offered it in an auction format beginning at $9.99, it would surely have brought more.
RARE! ANTIQUE/VINTAGE GERMAN HALLOWEEN BEISTLE DIECUT LANTERN - DOUBLE-SIDED JOL
This lantern was produced in two sizes for one season (1928) by German designers working for Beistle. It is the direct ancestor for Beistle’s now-iconic 1930-1931 lantern, also produced in two sizes, and shown on page 32. I really appreciate the fine seller taking such care in describing the lantern. I wish that all eBay sellers would take such a detailed approach with their listings! It’ll be fun to see what this brings.
Vintage Halloween OH HENRY! TRICK OR TREATS 40 COUNT CANDY BOX - AS IS!
Not that long ago these perfunctorily designed candy boxes wouldn’t have brought much. I was surprised to see this box, in quite poor condition as described by the top-notch seller, fetch nearly $48. I wonder what candy boxes with interesting graphics and in near-mint condition would fetch?
GERMANY Halloween Composition JOL Pumpkin Head Veggie Figure Musical
This is a piece from another set much-loved by me. A long-time collector passed away in 1994. I was called to attend her estate sale. There, I was able to scoop up scads of vintage Halloween figurals and candy containers. Among the large purchase were all the band members shown on page 84. (Since then, I’ve added at least one more to the set.) The RSINs for the items shown on that page are all 2. I’d like to introduce some granularity to that assessment made about 10 years ago. I feel that the sax and drum players remain 2s, with the others being 3s. The French horn player, not shown, would also be a 2. It doesn’t surprise me that this drum-playing figural brought such strong dollars. It is the best of the band. Kudos to the prevailing bidder!
1930s *RARE* Vintage Halloween German WINDOWPANE Diecut WITCH w/ Moon Embossed
The quartet of designs comprising the 1930s windowpane diecuts produced in Germany have long been avidly collected. Prices have escalated markedly over the last 5 years. That said, this is a very strong price, deservedly so for this fine seller. I really like the time she takes to explain what is being sold and some data points on past sales for similar items. Make sure you formally follow agmccloskey!
1920’s Vintage Halloween Tally Card Skeleton Smoking Pipe Top Hat Orange Gloves
That is the most rounded and snowy skeleton I’ve ever seen. It is actually a snowman with top hat, Bob Cratchit scarf and shovel. The tally has nothing to do with Halloween. it is a fine tally with great Christmas imagery.
2 Vintage Halloween Cat Band Members Diecut Decorations Beistle Luhrs, 1940s-50s
Beistle produced the complete set of eight black cat band members for many seasons beginning in the 1940s. These two diecuts are representative of the other six - each playing a different musical instrument. The set has special resonance for me as it was the first thing I purchased when I began collecting in 1988. I was fascinated by the design while being mystified as to why some had white gloves and others had orange gloves. As this awesome seller points out, Beistle varied the set by the gloves. Over these many years I have upgraded the set several times, with the ones part of the collection now being near-mint or better. My favorite has always been the guitar player. Around 2003 a licensed set was produced that has notable differences from truly vintage set members. Read page 154 for more information.
05/19 Update: I’m flabbergasted that this pair brought $170.08! I’m thrilled for the seller, but the buyer will be hard pressed to sell and break-even.
Site Email Not Delivered
I realized this morning that I hadn’t received any emails from this site for ~2 weeks. I contacted my site host to inquire as to whether there was a problem. There was. Apparently, some setting on their end changed. This change caused Outlook to classify emails coming through my site as spam. Thankfully, the fix was easily made.
If you’ve sent emails through my site during the last few weeks, they never reached me. However, as stated, the problem has been solved. Please send away. Thanks!
RARE Vintage Halloween Orange Paper Mache Owl Container Decoration 3.5”
Prices for simple pulp items like this 1950s owl and a corresponding cat, typically seen with yellow eyes, have really escalated over the last 1-2 years. This owl is mystifyingly difficult to find in very-fine-plus or better condition. The example sold yesterday for $202.51 just edges in to the lower range of that condition scale. Maybe that accounts for the ending price. A few years ago, it would have maxed out at $70-90.
OLD Halloween Candy Container BOX, Little Witch Girl on Broom w/Bats, Dennison
Here’s a completed auction I found from about 1.5 months ago for a rarely seen Dennison Bon Bon Box. Dennison produced two designs, both shown on page 262. Both premiered in their 1919 Bogie Book. Of the two, this one seems to turn up more frequently. (I have yet to locate the second design for the collection.) I’m not surprised to see the strong dollars fetched for this diminutive box. Dennison items have been white-hot as of late, with special Carolina Reaper pepper-level hotness seemingly reserved for Dennison diecuts from the 1928-1932 period. I think the frenzy to obtain Dennison items from this period stems from whomever their art director was. He or she gave a specific, highly stylized look to everything from seals to diecuts. They left before the 1933 products were designed, as Dennison items from this year and for many years thereafter are forgettable.
RARE ANTIQUE HALLOWEEN WITCH PAPER LANTERN MADE IN GERMANY
This hanging witch with a latticed-paper body was merely one design among six that the Minnesota-based seller offered with very strong results. There were a few more Halloween designs produced beyond the six offered, but collectively the ones on eBay give a great representation of the cleverness, if not fragility, of these kinds of things. Because they are so difficult to display, I long ago purged the designs I owned from the collection, so it was fun and instructive to see what they fetch these days. The range was from $227 to $589. These are almost certainly among the earliest German paper Halloween items produced and exported to the United States.
