Pook & Pook Auction

Pook & Pook, Inc. in Pennsylvania held an auction of the Alice and Art Booth collection over several days with the Halloween lots being sold on April 17th. Final prices were reasonable overall - probably due to the very high buyer’s premium of 27%. (These auction houses really need to think about the viability of their business model as such high rates discourage participation.) One thing I appreciated is that the few lots that were partially or wholly comprised of modern items were clearly listed as being modern items, eliminating any confusion newer collectors may have experienced.
Lots 853 through 860 (Lot 858 seems to have been placed amidst the grinning JOL items in error…) did very well as this market segment is avidly collected. The candle stick candy container fetched $4,600 excluding the exorbitant buyer’s premium, meaning the all-in selling price was $5,842!
Lot 872 was a small candy box with the rarest imagery. (Pieces from this set are so hard to acquire that I gave up on it decades ago.) It fetched $4,200 w/o BP and a whopping $5,334 with BP.
Another lot surprised me. I have never been an avid collector of German lanterns, and the owl ones in particular have always left me cold. However, 26 bids were placed on Lot 889. It fetched $3,200 w/o BP and a whopping $4,064 with BP.
Go to the Pook & Pook site and poke around. They had some nice items that by and large sold at or below what I would have forecast. I think if their buyer’s premium was a reasonable 10-12% the ending prices would have been materially higher.