The ending price for this doesn’t make sense until you look at the bidding history. This Dennison place card, first available in 1922 with a stock number of H-15, surfaces regularly and typically trades far below the value established in this listing. There were two bidders driving the action. The prevailing bidder probably thought the price would never creep as high as it did, but a determined underbidder with little feedback, and presumably little knowledge of the RSIN of this item, placed five bids, driving the price up, surely to the seller’s delight. eBay is a forum where such upside surprises can tickle and delight, but these upside surprises are seldom sustainable.
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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.
Vintage Halloween Dennison Place Card Haunted House - MINT
This place card wasn’t produced by Dennison. It was probably produced by a regional manufacturer with a limited marketing reach. Dennison was quite disciplined about marking virtually all of their small paper output.
Vintage Halloween 1920s German Tiara Diadem Diecut Jack O' Lantern Clown RARE
The Germans produced a set of twelve different diadem or tiara designs during the 1920s. The prices for these tiaras blipped up in 2020-21 mainly due to one collector who was determined to complete her set regardless of cost. Prices for virtually all designs went to a consistent range of $1700-2100 during this brief interval. Then, the one buyer driving the market was sated. Collectors rushed their tiaras to market hoping to capitalize on the mania, but once that single-buyer bubble burst, prices very quickly drifted down to what I consider to be a sustainable level, exemplified by the ending price of this listing.
vintage halloween place cards,nut cup, tally miscelleous
Some savvy buyer got a bargain scooping up this lot for a veritable song. (I wish I had seen this lot while it was still active.) The stars of the lot are the Beistle candy tray envelope, the one Beistle candy tray, the cauldron and flames card, the Dennison “Night Scene” place card and the Hallmark place card with a blue-hatted witch. I feel just the envelope alone justifies the price of the entire lot. Congrats to the prevailing bidder!
RARE Antique Vintage Halloween Diecut & Crepe Paper JOL Table Decoration Germany
This micro-segment of the overall market, German crepe and cardboard table top decorations, has really come into its own these last five years. Before that, you could barely give these kinds of things away. The Germans cleverly designed thin lithoed paper appendages and glued them onto a simple orange or black crepe sleeve. Once slapped together, they were sold for pennies. The few I’ve kept around for any length of time stood due to the sleeve bottom being filled with tissue paper or bubble wrap.
Vintage Halloween Dennison Lid & Instructions Centerpiece JOL Witches Fence
I’m surprised that someone would shell out $45 for this tattered remnant of a Dennison Halloween set from 1933.
VINTAGE HALLOWEEN GERMAN DIE-CUT 8 " TALL BLACK CAT PLAYING TROMBONE
The tip of one ear is definitely missing on this glazed, rather than matte, German diecut. As with almost all of the glazed diecuts from this period of the 1920s, the colors appear strong.
Vintage Halloween Decoration Cat Jointed Pull my tail Beistle RARE
What a delightful and grin-inducing item from the good people at Gibson! This is an item I had only ever seen in a Gibson catalog, so the opportunity to acquire one in superb condition was irresistible. Sadly for me, I was an underbidder.
RARE find. 1920s Vintage Halloween Gibson Store Window Advertising Display
It is exciting to see an item I’ve never seen before, especially on the markedly degraded eBay site. Gibson employed some clever designers to produce such a colorful and stunning store or window display as this. Gibson really tried to keep pace with their contemporary competitors, Beistle and Dennison. This would certainly be an example where they outshone these rivals. This is an instance where I was undecided on bidding as the condition was rough enough that I was uncomfortable bidding much even though I’m certain I won’t see another. I struggle sometimes with this balancing act. I felt it would bring more than what it actually brought, so perhaps I should have tossed a bid into the mix. I felt the lucky buyer got a solid deal on a stellar item that certainly enhanced the sloppy one-size-fits-all category that eBay shoehorns items into these days. Bravo!
Vintage Devil Halloween Party Invitation
This is actually a diecut. Dennison produced this only for the 1926 and 1927 seasons. They assigned it a stock number of H444 and weirdly classified it as a “large cardboard cut-out,” while also reporting its height as 5”. This design is exceedingly rare and typically trades in the $250-300 range. Sadly, the condition of this example is so bad it will surely struggle to reach 10-15% of that level.
Vtg Buzza Halloween Die Cut Witch Invitation Card Party
What a great invitation! I’ve gained a new appreciation for Buzza products after purchasing a large small-paper collection. I like how the hand would have been punched open to hold the “fence” open. Where did these companies find such talented designers?
ANTIQUE HALLOWEEN GERMAN DIECUT BLACK CAT VINTAGE
The Germans made three designs of this cat face diecut. This one looks down, one looks to its left and one looks right at the viewer. There are other differences as well, namely teeth shape and hat design. This design is the hardest one to find. Contrary to the seller’s description, this is actually in pretty decent shape!
Antique Vintage Halloween Lantern Knorpp Candy Co Cat Owl Devil Skeleton
This was one of the first lanterns I acquired, not knowing at the time just how few times I would see another complete example. Knorpp was a candy company in Brooklyn. The firm patented the “Four-In-One-Lantern” design in 1916, so this is an early commercially manufactured item. Like almost every example I’ve seen, this one is missing its bottom. This is more important than usual because the bottom attaches at one side to the lantern’s interior. (With most other lantern designs the bottom is a separate piece.) That and the overall condition of the lantern mitigates against this bringing strong dollars, although the current bid of $248.50 with over four days to go is already strong.
Knorpp really got into this lantern design. Not only is the exceedingly rare envelope a visual treat, but they adapted each side into a tiara. Please turn to page 128 to see for yourself.
06/17 Update: This lantern brought a strong $387 despite its missing bottom.
Vintage Halloween (Owl) Trix or Treats Candy Holder Card E. Rosen Prov RI
Prices for the five-card Rosen set that this design is from, Set B, have risen dramatically over the last three years. The owl is arguably the least interesting design. Moreover, the condition of this listing is perhaps very good+, making the end result all the more surprising. A sustainable price is $85.
Vintage Halloween Germany Windowpane Diecut Decoration Owl Antique 1930s HTF
The Germans produced four windowpane designs. If you are going to see one design, chances are it will be this one, the owl. (You can see the others on page 170.) What makes this particular example noteworthy is its condition. It seems to have a minimal amount of surface paper loss and crackling. The seller states that this was produced during the 1930s. Although that cited date is more often than not correct, it isn’t in this case. There is a black circular mark on the reverse of the diecut that indicates it was made during an interval of 1946-1949 in an occupied zone of Germany. This shouldn’t have a material difference on valuation.
06/10 Update: This fetched $732.53.
