It is so nice to finally see some quality items appearing on eBay. With their lack of differentiation of holiday categories and time periods, one has to wade through so much garbage. This mechanical fold-up nut cup was produced by Beistle for a single season in 1938. Four comprise a full set. I was lucky enough to buy multiples of each design in 2015, so this may have once been part of that collection out of Massachusetts. The seller is stellar, so bid with great confidence.
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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.
RARE Antique Vintage Halloween Stunt Place Card Right Off the Bat Gibson 1920s
I enjoy waiting to see what this fine seller lists. She seems to have a nice variety of things across many market segments. Save her as a favorite seller. This is a great Gibson mechanical, showcased well in the photos the seller provides. I give high marks to those who list with the fewest words and the best photographs, an unbeatable combo.
VERY RARE Vintage Halloween Die Cut Mechanical Scarecrow Nut Candy Cup, Beistle!
This result surely was a significant disappointment to the seller/consignor, but a true bargain for whomever was lucky enough to snag this for $262, especially given its condition. I don’t understand the result, so I have to attribute it to the vagaries of eBay. There are four of these Beistle mechanical designs. This same seller offered the strongest design of the quartet, the witch, not long ago and it fetched $938. If the other two designs are offered, it will be instructive to see what they fetch.
EXCEEDINGLY RARE MINT Vintage Halloween Mechanical Witch Nut Cup Beistle 1930s!!
Beistle produced a set of four of these mechanical nut cups in one year only - 1938. I was fortunate to acquire four complete sets of these nut cups in 2014 from a seller in Massachusetts, plus a few singles. I kept one set, sold one set each to two close friends and offered the fourth and final set in my inaugural auction in 2015. That set was acquired by the person consigning this to zizsdream. So, this is one of the very nut cups from that 2015 auction. (I would expect the other three designs to follow from this great seller in short order.) These are intricate and delicate confections made from art Beistle recycled from earlier seasons. This recycling was common during these later Great Depression years when companies were just trying to survive.
1910-1917 Vintage Mechanical Sacred Be Ye Fire O Halloween Die Cut Cat Witch
This is one of the set of four produced by an unknown firm from 1910-1917. It is only the second one I’ve ever seen with the cat’s tail still attached.
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.
RARE ANTIQUE HALLOWEEN ROSEN MAGIC POT BLACK CAT CANDY CONTAINER STORE DISPLAY
Rosen produced some of the most unique ways to contain candy. Their mechanical products are extremely hard-to-find. (Look at pages 116-118.) This particular Magic Pot is sure nice, but has a number of condition issues. Even so, it brought $1,325! So, even though prices seem to have softened very recently, this is an example of a strong price.
Vintage HALLOWEEN MYSTERY BANK Tin Litho NOMURA TOYS T.N TN Japan Wind Up Hand
This genre, comprised of few items (Japanese tin mechanicals), has really been hot. There was a time when even fine examples like this one would linger before someone bought it at prices far below what this one brought. How I wish I would have kept mine!
1910 -1917 “Sacred Be Ye Fire O Halloween” RARE Early Mechanical Decoration
An unknown manufacturer produced four mechanical Halloween designs pre-WWI. Two are interesting but not too out there, whereas the other two are quite eccentric. (You can see the foursome on page 284.) I’ve seen this mechanical witch at cauldron decoration a good 12-15 times and in every case the cat’s tail is missing. This seller obliquely states they have one with a complete tail. I invite this seller to send me a photo. I’d love to see a complete example. If I get it, I’ll post it.
08/29 Update: The seller took me up on my offer and sent the two photos below. She made it clear that it isn’t for sale. This is the first time I’ve ever seen one of these mechanical decorations complete with a cat’s tail. Quite nice.
Vintage 1920s Halloween Party Mechanical Fortune Placecard
What a great item. I am tantalized by the last photo the seller included showing the box from which this mechanical place card came. Wow! I would have been a bidder but was away in an area of Montana where the connectivity was spotty. Darn…
Vintage Halloween BEISTLE Witch Mechanical Invitation with Envelope
This primitive set of mechanical invitations is arguably among the earliest Halloween items Beistle offered on a retail basis. If you look at the last photo this seller includes, you’ll see what I wrote about the set in my third edition. Every example I’ve seen of this envelope - and I have seen ~30 examples - has the same handwritten strikeout over the printed quantity with the same number, 5, handwritten on the envelope. I don’t know why this was done, although my theory is that the quality of these early offerings caused Beistle senior management to get rid of excess inventory as quickly as possible without the added expense of reprinting the envelopes. I speculate…
07/23 Update: Surprisingly, this didn’t bring strong dollars - $72.
early vintage Die Cut OWL 9"x14" mechanical USA
These were originally sold in one envelope as “Mechanical Hallowe’en Silhouettes” by Beistle. They were produced in the early 1920s. The owl is in rough condition yet still brought an unsustainably high price. The bat seems to be in significantly better condition yet brought a bit less. These results are a result of two apparently deep-pocketed collectors escalating the price beyond reason.
Vintage Halloween 1920s Dennison Bat Mechanical Stunt game unused 5.5"
This was produced by Gibson, not Dennison. It is a hard-to-find item with a mechanical feature.
09/12 Update: This brought $166.50.
1930`s Die Cut Mechanical Witch in Caldron Dennison Tally Card #4
This is another example of the over-heated small paper market segment. This tally, produced by Dennison for the first time in 1928, surfaces enough that this ending price is eyebrow-raising, if nothing else.
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.
