ULTRA RARE Vintage Halloween Pumpkin Pops Mechanical Countertop Display 1930s!

If I had to name my top 5 vintage Halloween market segments, Rosen “Pops” boxes and their related output would make the cut. If you look on pages 116-118 you’ll see examples of these mechanical and non-mechanical gems. I bought three from a 1997 Dunbar Gallery auction: Spook Pops, Owl Pops and Pumpkin Pops. Since then, I’ve never seen complete examples of the first two and only two other complete examples of the third - and that would include this listing. (The last one, offered in October 2015, had noticeable damage. The clueless seller offered it then for a BIN of $79.99.) This listing has a lot going for it: the condition seems to be nearly as good as the one I purchased in 1997; the seller is tops and the opening price of $9.99 invites bidding. (In fact, within hours of debut the bidding was $350.) Given that an envelope for a Flaming Fortune game brought nearly $2,000 recently, this should command a significant premium to that result. If this market segment appeals to you, get a HELOC and bid! :)

08/07 Update: The result surely didn’t meet the seller’s expectations but should be cause for relief if not delirium to the prevailing bidder, having sold for $1511.99. This underperformed the what-it-should-have-been case. I wonder if there are simply too many high-end items being offered in too short of a time frame and in too steady of a cadence.

E. Rosen Company Pumpkin Pops Mechanical Countertop Display, mid-1930s

eBay is generally such a wasteland that it is bracing to see a truly high-quality item properly included in their Vintage Halloween category. This is only the third time I’ve seen this complete item offered for purchase, but those three times involve only two different complete examples. What do I mean? Well, the first time I saw this great Rosen mechanical design was in 1997 when it was auctioned. I acquired it then for the collection. The second example was sold in late 2015. This second example is now being offered for sale again.
Rosen didn’t produce many mechanical lollipop holders. They are all ingeniously designed with fun graphics. In my opinion, the best one is the Spooks Pop mechanical with the haunted house as the central image and ghosts popping up from the bushes. I feel this is the next best design. (You can see the ones in the collection on pages 116-118.)
Any collector with an affinity for the best in paper would be proud to have this item as a centerpiece of their collection. It will be fun to see where this ends. It deserves some big dollars. By the way, I have concluded based on some information contained on the bottom of a Rosen Valentine Pops box that the Rosen mechanical and non-mechanical "Pops" boxes were not meant as retail countertop displays, but were actually sold to the end-consumer. I included this new insight as part of the errata for my book maybe two years ago.  

05/14 Update: This item brought $1,444.69.

Vintage E. Rosen Company Pumpkin Pops Display, Halloween, Eyes Roll

This listing underscores the peril of listing an item with a BIN when you don't have much of an idea what it is that you are selling. If this seller had listed this as an auction style listing, it surely would have reached a price in many multiples of what his ill-chosen BIN price brought. This Pumpkin Pops mechanical point-of-sale sucker holder is exceptionally rare. This is only the second time I've seen a complete example for sale. (The prior time was in 1997 when I purchased the one in the collection from Dunbar Gallery.) Even with the unfortunate damage, this is a prize, and the person who snatched it up for a song is surely singing a very sweet tune. Refer to pages 116-118 for other examples of these wonderful Rosen creations.