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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.

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.

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.

vintage Halloween plastic PUMPKIN JOL WITCH CAT CANDY HOLDER container

It seems that hard plastic has been on a bit of a tear of late, but even so, this result is surprising. (Values for blow molds from the 1960s have moved sharply upward during the last ~2 years - a related market segment.) There are a handful of hard plastic items that are nearly ubiquitous - and this is one of them. Seeing this fetch $50 is startling. Typical pricing is $20-30.
I’ve never collected hard plastic, as the market segment generally doesn’t appeal to me. However, I have grown fond of most of the Kokomold line from Elkhart, Indiana.

VINTAGE ROSEN CANDY SUCKER DIE CUT HOLDER HALLOWEEN CARD TRIX TREAT OWL BAT POEM

The once ubiquitous Rosen Trix or Treats cards are seen less frequently these days - a statement I’ve been spouting for the last few years about vintage Halloween in general. Know that all three of the Rosen sets plus their assorted variants are commanding strong dollars. These two great cards comprising the eBay lot are from the first such set Rosen produced, a set of six that I’ve called Set A. Sets B and C are comprised of five cards each - and the dimensions of these cards are smaller than any card from Set A. Set B cards with their blue backgrounds seem to be the most coveted - with the dancing skeleton card from this set commanding the strongest dollars, followed closely by the graveyard card. You can see all of these cards on pages 90-92.

VINTAGE ROSEN HARD PLASTIC HALLOWEEN CIRCUS SET 4 ORIGINAL BOX CANDY CONTAINER

I typically don’t pay much attention to the hard plastic segment as I’ve never collected it, but I learned something from this listing. Who would have guessed that Rosen sold these four pieces together as a “Halloween Circus?” The existence of the box, tattered and beaten up as it is, adds significantly to the knowledge of how these companies sold these once low-priced items. I’m sure Rosen never guessed what kind of prices they’d bring decades later on the secondary market!

10/21 Update: This lot fetched $565.

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 Halloween E Rosen Tweety Pops Black Cat Candy Container Tub 1950s/1960s

This listing is a good illustration of how design sensibilities changed (degraded?) from the 1940s through the 1960s. Take a look at the Halloween Owl Pops bucket on page 51 from the late 1940s. It is much more intricately detailed with more subtle colors. The bucket up for auction now is from sometime after July 1963 as it has a zip code. The imagery is cute, colors are bright and the entire thing is forgettable.

04/11 Update: I was surprised that this item brought $127.50. It seems like a lot to pay for something like this.

04/16 Update: The same seller listed another one of these which sold today for $102.50. I think that price is still too much for this.

RARE ROSEN MAGIC POT CAT CANDY CONTAINER STORE DISPLAY

As of this writing there are over 8100 items listed on eBay in the Vintage Halloween category. Only ~3% of these listings are worth a second glance, and this surely is one of them. I’ve only seen this for sale one other time - when I purchased it in 2007. The one in the collection is more visually appealing in that the highlights are orange rather than light blue, but if you are someone who wants rare and amazing items in your collection - this listing is for you. Rosen produced a small but very desirable array of mechanical candy boxes and holders. (Look at pages 116-118 for some others.) This small segment of the market is surely within my top five loves. In 30 years of collecting I’ve only located seven different examples. There is at least one design I don’t yet have. I saw it in another collection several years ago. I’ll be watching how this listing fares with great interest.

10/02 Update: This rare item sold for the opening bid of $1,195, a relative bargain in these bubbly days. I wonder if the price would have been higher if the seller would have started it at a much lower price?

Vintage Halloween trix or treats sucker holder card ghosts in graveyard E. Rosen

The five Rosen Set B cards are the best overall of their Trix or Treats cards. (You can see the other sets on pages 90-92.) The sellers are very knowledgeable, long-time collectors who I had the true pleasure to meet in Pennsylvania at an event in 2003 called the Halloween Opera. Bid with confidence.

09/18 Update: All five cards from this set realized exceptionally strong prices! This particular card fetched $130.50.

ROSEN ROSBRO KOKOMOLD FUNWORLD HALLOWEEN PLASTIC EXTRAVAGANZA!!!

This Moon Pop mechanical was produced by Rosen during the 1950s. It was sold as part of an omnibus Moon Pops boxed set comprised of 45 Trix or Treats cards, 9 suckers and 9 of these mechanicals. (What makes it a mechanical is that part of the witch's cape can be moved up and down.) The graphics are interesting. Because it was meant to stand, it can be part of en eye-catching display. 

05/09 Update: This sold for $403.50 with a number of bidders going FAR beyond SGV of $50. This is a result that I don't understand. These Rosen items come up with some regularity. The seller was quite fortunate.