This result, when the overall market has been soft, beggars belief. This is merely a copy of an original photo. It is an interesting photo, but it is ONLY A COPY! When you look at the bidding history, as in almost all such cases, two bidders intent on prevailing drove this price up and up beyond the even-then unreasonably high price of $60 placed by a bidder other than the two that drove this to the stratosphere. Wow…
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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.
VINTAGE! UNUSUAL HALLOWEEN GERMAN TIN RATCHET NOISEMAKER - DEVIL, WITCH & CROW!
When I was browsing the listings I saw this and thought, “I haven’t seen this Japanese ratchet design in some time.” When I took a closer look and realized it was actually produced in Germany, my eyebrows raised in pleasant surprise. Seeing this design from Japan is good, but seeing the much rarer (and I feel, more desirable…) German version is a true treat. The added kicker are the sellers. You’d be hard-pressed to interact with two nicer people.
ANTIQUE GERMAN HALLOWEEN JACK-O-LANTERN PUMPKIN TIN TOY TWO FACED NOISE MAKER
The Germans didn’t produce a great number of tin holiday designs during the 1930s, the decade this was issued, due to constraints placed on their use of metal by the Versailles Treaty. A high percentage of what they did produce during this time skewed to the edge of normality, certainly one of the reasons German holiday tin from this era typically does so well. The sterling feature of this design is the cigarette shown on only the one side. This one surfaces rarely, so although this is a bit rough compared to other items this seller has been offering of late, it may be worth a look.
MINT RARE Antique Halloween Skull Match Safe Victoria Carlsbad Austria 1891-1918
This is a superbly crafted item - one I’ve not seen before. As the great seller states, this piece was made sometime during the interval of 1891-1918 based on the mark used by the Schmidt and Company’s Victoria Porcelain Factory in Altrohlau, Bohemia. A different set, this one complete from the same factory during the same interval, can be seen on page 130.
VINTAGE PAPER MACHE GERMANY HALLOWEEN BOBBLEHEAD/NODDER DEVIL /DEMON/KRAMPUS
A long-time reader sent me an email wanting me to confirm this devil is not a vintage item. I so confirm. These soulless space-takers started polluting the hobby in 1995. This was produced sometime during or anytime after that year. It has decorative value only, perhaps $20-25, well below the $1500 the optimistic seller has as a BIN.
New Items Added to For Sale Section
I added ~30 items to my For Sale page yesterday afternoon. Go ahead and check out the page. You may find something you can’t live without!
Vintage A. MASTER Halloween Party Game - Punch Hole Game As Made, Never Played
One sees many of these punch games - but this is an earlier one made by Masters of Brooklyn, NY during the later 1930s. The most commonly seen versions were produced later in Japan and are marked as such. So, the fact this is an earlier version in unplayed condition should give it a slight boost to value. The seller started it at $35. There is already one bidder, but I feel the game as it is won’t bring too much more. We’ll see…
SCARCE Vintage Halloween Tin Putty Knife Clanger Noisemaker Decoration, Cohn 30s
The overall market for tin litho has been the slowest to strengthen these last ten years, although with the famous Bernanke “green shoots” sprouting here and there, hope springs eternal that this market segment will finally get some momentum. One of the green shoots has been the two “putty knife” designs T. Cohn produced during the 1930s. (You can see the other on page 201.) When either of the designs come to market, they routinely bring strong results. With nearly five days left on this listing, the price is already at $217. What will be the ending price?
Antique Vintage Germany Halloween Diecut Decoration Owl, 1920s, Deeply Embossed
The Germans produced a solid variety of owl diecuts in this large size during the 1920s. Few are in such nice condition as this one. Yes, an area of the hand-painted beak highlights has disappeared, but that’s minor given how battered most of these sized diecuts are after 100 years of existence. The seller is a nice person, too!
NEAR MINT Antique Vintage Dennison Bogie Book Halloween Thanksgiving Décor, 1925
Dennison produced many annual issues of their Bogie Books. The first one, from 1909, is represented by only one known copy. Those produced from 1912-1917 are devilishly difficult to find. Those produced from 1919-1926 are more common. What differentiates this 1925 edition is condition. Dennison smartly published and distributed these Bogie Books to end-users, not to retailers. The typical person interested in decorating for the season would page through these staple-bound references with nary a thought for keeping it in nice condition. (Most people didn’t think about future value at this time.) So, to find an issue in near-mint or better condition, regardless of the year of issue, is unusual. Given that, and this seller’s reputation and reach, I expect this to do quite well.
Vintage Halloween Dennison Place Card Witch And Cauldron RARE - Near Mint
The ending price for this doesn’t make sense until you look at the bidding history. This Dennison place card, first available in 1922 with a stock number of H-15, surfaces regularly and typically trades far below the value established in this listing. There were two bidders driving the action. The prevailing bidder probably thought the price would never creep as high as it did, but a determined underbidder with little feedback, and presumably little knowledge of the RSIN of this item, placed five bids, driving the price up, surely to the seller’s delight. eBay is a forum where such upside surprises can tickle and delight, but these upside surprises are seldom sustainable.
Vintage Halloween Dennison Place Card Haunted House - MINT
This place card wasn’t produced by Dennison. It was probably produced by a regional manufacturer with a limited marketing reach. Dennison was quite disciplined about marking virtually all of their small paper output.
Vintage Halloween 1920s German Tiara Diadem Diecut Jack O' Lantern Clown RARE
The Germans produced a set of twelve different diadem or tiara designs during the 1920s. The prices for these tiaras blipped up in 2020-21 mainly due to one collector who was determined to complete her set regardless of cost. Prices for virtually all designs went to a consistent range of $1700-2100 during this brief interval. Then, the one buyer driving the market was sated. Collectors rushed their tiaras to market hoping to capitalize on the mania, but once that single-buyer bubble burst, prices very quickly drifted down to what I consider to be a sustainable level, exemplified by the ending price of this listing.
vintage halloween place cards,nut cup, tally miscelleous
Some savvy buyer got a bargain scooping up this lot for a veritable song. (I wish I had seen this lot while it was still active.) The stars of the lot are the Beistle candy tray envelope, the one Beistle candy tray, the cauldron and flames card, the Dennison “Night Scene” place card and the Hallmark place card with a blue-hatted witch. I feel just the envelope alone justifies the price of the entire lot. Congrats to the prevailing bidder!
RARE Antique Vintage Halloween Diecut & Crepe Paper JOL Table Decoration Germany
This micro-segment of the overall market, German crepe and cardboard table top decorations, has really come into its own these last five years. Before that, you could barely give these kinds of things away. The Germans cleverly designed thin lithoed paper appendages and glued them onto a simple orange or black crepe sleeve. Once slapped together, they were sold for pennies. The few I’ve kept around for any length of time stood due to the sleeve bottom being filled with tissue paper or bubble wrap.
