Blog

Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.

Vintage Halloween 1930 Beistle Black Cat Jack-o-Lantern Bat Nut Cup

It’s not every day that you see this Beistle nut cup come available. As I write on page 221, I suspect this design was issued for a single season, in either 1930 or 1931. They were sold in envelopes of four with a stock number of 760N. This seller is stellar. I have had many thoroughly positive interactions with him over the years, so I don’t understand the feedback left on a transaction involving a Kokomold item. You can deal with him with confidence.

Beistle Beistle’s Halloween Party Helps Fortune Telling Game Antique Rare HTF

Beistle enveloped items are having their well-deserved moment in the sun. Beistle was clever in that they very often used the same concept and items but wrapped everything in new packaging. They issued this game in both enveloped and boxed sets. The envelopes are more common. This listing is appealing in that there is double collateral and three extra JOLs. What’s not to like?

Very Rare Beistle Vintage Halloween Party Centerpiece -Owl, Scarecrow, Black Cat

Beistle produced only two table top centerpiece designs in 1955. Both are quite coveted and typically bring far more than this one brought. Condition certainly contributed to the ending price, but time of year may have played a part as well. As I write on page 233 about these centerpieces, “It, for me, represents the last gasp of the best of Beistle’s iconic imagery before the blandness and silliness of their later designs ran rampant.”

Vintage Halloween Singing Moon Beistle Diecut 1935 SAMPLE Look

I’ve never understood the attraction of this diecut. (Another design from the same set is a donut and cup. That, too, leaves me cold.) Great companies like Beistle can’t always hit home runs. No organization does. However, sometimes the strike-out is so spectacular that I wonder if the Art Director at the time was sacked for poor judgement. This design rivals the Dennison frog diecut for having little logical tie-in to Halloween iconography.

VERY RARE Antique Vintage Halloween Full Set 4 Flip-Out Placecards Beistle 31-32

After wading through the tiresome lingerie listings by the seller, iiniim, that eBay somehow allows to clutter up what should be a stand-alone Vintage Halloween category, it was oh-so-nice to see this listing for a set that is truly exceedingly rare. Beistle produced this lightly embossed complete set of four place card designs during the 1930 and 1931 seasons. I don’t think they actually produced many. Remember that the tentacles of the Great Depression were infiltrating all economic sections of the global economy at that time, so virtually all firms were under great pressure. I think Beistle took a flyer on these, as they differ so much from their usual fare. I haven’t seen a complete set offered publicly for many years. (I did hear of a private transaction where a collector shelled out $3,500 for a truly mint set maybe 2-4 years ago.) It will be instructive to see what this set fetches.

08/24 Update: This complete set of four fetched $2,650. I feel that’s the right price for a complete set these days. $3,500 should be considered the high-water mark, with waters that will almost surely not crest that high again. I expect to see more of these surface now.

Vintage Halloween SET OF 5 PUMPKIN HEAD CUT-OUTS w/ENVELOPE - BEISTLE VERY RARE!

This is a nice set - and hard to find. As these great sellers have indicated in their listing, their assortment of four designs over five cut-outs mirrors the set in the collection. I have often said that quality control back then, especially with Beistle, wasn’t to the high standard we assume and expect from today’s producers. Interestingly, many of the truly vintage bags Beistle used have the circular Moon Republic Bag Company mark. I’ve not been able to discover anything about this firm. Even though the envelope is not in stellar condition, it would look darn good framed. The sellers are top-notch, so deal with them with confidence. It’ll be instructive to see what this fetches.

05/21 Update: This sold for $467.99.

vintage Halloween decoration

Beistle produced a set of eight small diecuts during the early 1950s, of which this is one. It is a great set overall although there is one clinker - the maniacal clown. (You can see the full set on page 157.) The smoking JOL, the skull with the racing cap and the witches are truly super designs. Diecuts from this set have been bringing strong dollars for the last few years as collectors wake up to the set’s appeal.

Vintage Halloween Owl Cat Bat Jack O Lantern Honeycomb Band Hat Beistle # 1

I’ve always liked this great Beistle band hat design. They released it as a stand-alone hat in 1933 and discontinued doing so in 1941. Beistle entered into what I call their fairy mania phase in 1923, so this hat was released well after that mania had ended. In the year this hat was released the country was ensnared in the icy grip of the Great Depression. This is a good example of how companies with a reservoir of designs to call upon used already completed work to try to make some money when the retail markets were oh-so-tight. Production was ceased as WWII began for the USA in December 1941.

Vintage Halloween Party Invitation Opens Up Grandfather Clock USA

I was initially excited when I saw this listing, then I realized that it is missing the mechanical piece that should be present between the front and back. This piece was meant to move both to the left and to the right sides revealing spooky imagery. (See page 124…) One complete example sold in my March auction for a record $3,600, so the missing component has a major bearing on value. Even though the remaining invitation looks great - what is missing is important.

VTG RARE Beistle PINK SKELETON W/ JACK-O-LANTERN ON HORSE Diecut HALLOWEEN 1960

I love this diecut - and am surprised I do. (My opinion has changed {matured?} since 2014.) The darker designs with ominous portent are those that appeal to me the most - and this is galaxies away from that design aesthetic. From my anecdotal pulsing of other collectors’ opinions of this design, I find it be divisive. Few are ambivalent. Others either love it or despise it. Beistle released this for the 1960-1962 seasons. I have grown to appreciate the weird colors and out-there design. Beistle produced similar designs during this small window leading me to believe they had hired - and soon parted ways with - an art design manager with an eccentric outlook. Given these don’t turn up that often, I also suspect it wasn’t a strong seller.

08/15 Update: This brought $189.50.

Rare Vintage Halloween 3 Piece Witches & Pumpkin Fluorescent Die Cut Decorations

These diecuts were produced by Beistle. The witches were released as a trio of designs during the later 1950s. Even in rough condition like these two are, they bring strong dollars as evidenced by the ending price. The large JOL was released during the years between 1952-1963, inclusive. It is not as sought after as the witches. I feel the seller would have have achieved higher gross dollars by listing these items separately.

VINTAGE HALLOWEEN BEISTLE DIECUT * WITCH * BLACK CAT * BAT * 12" BY 18.5" *

Beistle produced five different designs in this large form factor, all with scalloped edges, beginning in 1932. You can see four of these designs on pages 149 and 150. The enduring mystery of this set involves the fifth sibling - a puzzled skeleton in a graveyard shown on page 137. Whereas the other four typically trade in a range up to $700, the skeleton has routinely brought a minimum of $3,000, with several examples far exceeding that figure. The mystery is why the latter diecut is so scarce. Catalogs from the 1930s show the skeleton over several years, but I know of perhaps ten in existence, 3-4 of which are in poor-to-fair condition. My working theory is that Disney objected to the design as being too reminiscent of one of their shorts and demanded their removal from the market. (Now, I have zero proof of this theory, but I’ve struggled to come up with a real-world answer to the mystery.) If anyone can shed light on this matter with some proof, like Ross Perot, I’m all ears.

LARGE ANTIQUE VINTAGE BEISTLE PAPER MOON AND WITCH ON BROOM HALLOWEEN DECOR

Halloween values seem to be soft at the moment with exceptions, of course. The mystery here is why this broomed witch diecut, produced by Beistle during the early 1960s, has been bid up to $104.50 with a tad less than two days remaining. The condition is quite bad with more than some rubbing and creasing at the edges. There is a tape remnant in a prominent place and the witch’s hat is missing its pointed end.

I’ve noticed a trend of some sellers over-grading the condition of their wares. Being a collector of Bronze Age DC horror comics as well, I’m sensitive to how paper items should be graded. I almost never use descriptive terms like “mint” or certainly “dead mint.” When a seller uses such terms really peruse the item being sold. If it doesn’t meet that lofty condition threshold, call them out on it. Few truly vintage Halloween items will actually meet that threshold.