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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.

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.

2 Vintage Halloween Cat Band Members Diecut Decorations Beistle Luhrs, 1940s-50s

Beistle produced the complete set of eight black cat band members for many seasons beginning in the 1940s. These two diecuts are representative of the other six - each playing a different musical instrument. The set has special resonance for me as it was the first thing I purchased when I began collecting in 1988. I was fascinated by the design while being mystified as to why some had white gloves and others had orange gloves. As this awesome seller points out, Beistle varied the set by the gloves. Over these many years I have upgraded the set several times, with the ones part of the collection now being near-mint or better. My favorite has always been the guitar player. Around 2003 a licensed set was produced that has notable differences from truly vintage set members. Read page 154 for more information.

05/19 Update: I’m flabbergasted that this pair brought $170.08! I’m thrilled for the seller, but the buyer will be hard pressed to sell and break-even.

Vintage Halloween Skeleton Jack o lantern Owl Cats Lot

I sure wish I could have been at that estate sale and snatched these items right up! The buyer almost surely got a tremendous bargain. Not only are the 1930-1 Beistle lanterns a key find, but the assortment of German diecuts is quite nice. Don’t let the small bat escape your notice. The lot has already been bid up to $356. It has a lot of room to run.

Set of 10 vintage Halloween die cuts.

This is an interesting assemblage of diecuts. Although the condition of each is poor, the star of the lot is the hobo clown made by Hallmark. These were made as mirror images, so one may face right while another faces left. The effect on value is nil. The four others going clockwise from the clown were also produced by Hallmark. The cat face was not made by Dennison, but was almost surely an unauthorized item made in Japan. (The colors are wrong, the eyes differ and there is no "Dennison" craftily woven into the design at one ear.) 

08/15 Update: This lot sold for $78.77, about what I would have guessed. 

BOX FOR EMBOSSED GERMAN HALLOWEEN DIECUTS~1920'S~VERY EARLY DESIGNS~NO.669/45

Original boxes showcasing the various ways German diecuts were bundled and sold are quite a hot sub-genre at the moment. I sold one in my May auction (I'll be conducting another auction on this site in May 2016, again only open to those who have purchased a copy of my third edition.) for $425 and this very energetic box fetched $488.14. I've only seen this box design twice in 25 years of collecting. This very box, identifiable from the written markings, was sold on Ebay in early 2013, according to the photographic archives I've assembled, and now once again in 2015. An identical box, in better condition, sold in October of 2013. Other than these two examples, I've not seen this box design before. Kudos to both the seller - one of my favorites - and the buyer. 

2 Vintage Halloween Decorations Witch & Bat Made in Germany Cardboard Die Cut

This was a solid score. Happily, good friends of mine snagged this pair of German diecuts. The sustainable guide value for the bat alone is $150. It always amazes me when sellers list something as a BIN without any knowledge of what they are selling. It reminds me of one of my favorite sayings: "The sum of the intelligence of the planet is a constant. The population is growing." 

#185 ANTIQUE HALLOWEEN 3 CARDBOARD DIE-CUTS MAID WITCH CLOWN GERMANY 1920s/1930s

This is merely one example of the great bargains to be had this time of the year for Halloween collectors. (Although a great time to buy, it is a horrific time to sell, since the recently passed holiday seems to have sated collectors' appetites, a phenomenon that occurs regularly from about early November through late March.) My advice, unless you have to sell, just wait until early April to begin selling anything noteworthy.

Vintage ca. 1960 Beistle Halloween Kit

The very high reserve price was met only because the prevailing bidder, a good friend of mine, wanted this badly as it rekindled a childhood memory of her mother purchasing an identical decorating kit. Except for this serendipitous circumstance for the seller, this surely wouldn't have met reserve, languishing well below half of the ending price.  

A Group of 6 Early Die-Cut Embossed Halloween Figures, Germany, Cat Owl Bat

I think this seller made a poor decision to group these diecuts and sell them as one lot. The "wear" on the cat and owls isn't wear at all, but the highlighting technique the Germans used for a short time. I feel it is nearly always best to sell vintage Halloween items that are in fine or better condition singly. If this seller had done this with these items they would have surely reaped a much better overall return. 

Super Large Dennison's 1931 Salesman's Sample Book, 23 Halloween Decorations

These great salesmen sample books surface once or twice a year and are a wealth of information as to what was still being peddled in a specific year. They typically will fetch about what this one did. I received many questions about this listing, with the main question being, "What do you think it will go for?" My answer was around $500. Everyone thought that figure was much too low given the rarity of many of the diecuts contained within the book. However, when you look closely, many of the diecuts were truncated in some way or were otherwise damaged by being placed in such a book. All were affixed to pages, meaning that if you were successful in extricating them, some paper restoration, and the costs associated with such work, would have to be borne to bring the diecut up to a reasonable collecting standard. As a curiosity, these books are pretty awesome, but as a source of actual diecuts to be displayed outside of its pages, not so much. 

One additional note, many of these diecuts were originally produced before 1931. Their inclusion in the book only indicates that Dennison was still actively selling the design in the 1931 Halloween season, not that the design was originally produced in that year. 

All in all, I think whomever the buyer was got a fun item at an eminently reasonable cost. Congrats!!

LOT OF 5 VINTAGE Halloween PAPER/CARDBOARD MASKS 1940's WITCH CAT SCARECROW PUMP

This lot of masks and one rare-ish diecut was produced by Beistle, with most having long runs from 1938-1954. The witch face diecut is hard-to-find, and was produced only from 1933-1938. Given that this seller has smartly started the entire lot at a very reasonable $9.99, someone may be able to score a bargain if this lot contains items that interest you. 

St. Patrick's Day update: The lot sold for a very reasonable $65.00!