Vintage Halloween Owl Get Wise Pick a Feather Rare Collectible

Although it is great to see such a rare item on eBay amongst all the garbage, I sure wish this seller would have spent more time taking photos and providing a detailed description of condition rather than the formal gobbledygook they employ. This rare game was produced by Gibson during the early 1930s. There should be twelve feather fortunes. It is unclear just how many remain. There seems to be spotting at the bottom. One ear seems bent. Are there any other condition issues? What does the reverse look like?

01/02 Update: I’m glad to see the seller added a photo of the reverse.

01/14 Update: This game fetched $559.89. I can’t help but wonder if the ending price would have been higher if the seller had better photos and a more concise description. Sellers should always remember that buyers are just interested in many clear photos with a concise description devoid of nonsense.

Vintage Cardboard Halloween Candy Container Skeleton Pumpkin Wheelbarrow G.M.CO

Seeing this listing prompted me to remind you that this is one of the few G.M. candy holders to be reproduced. Reproductions will have a black interior, unlike the plain white interior of this recent listing.

vintage Halloween decoration

Beistle produced a set of eight small diecuts during the early 1950s, of which this is one. It is a great set overall although there is one clinker - the maniacal clown. (You can see the full set on page 157.) The smoking JOL, the skull with the racing cap and the witches are truly super designs. Diecuts from this set have been bringing strong dollars for the last few years as collectors wake up to the set’s appeal.

T Cohn Vintage Scarecrow Halloween Tin Litho Clanger Noisemaker wood Handle

T. Cohn made a wide variety of tin litho items for the holidays, but their two putty knife designs have remained strong sellers for many years - even when the tin litho noisemaker segment was colder than a brass toilet seat in the Yukon. This was produced during the later 1930s. The other design can be seen on page 201. With over four days to go, the bids stand at almost $61. The month of December is hands-down the worst month to sell vintage Halloween items, so it’ll be interesting to see at what price this listing ends. Sending good thoughts…

01/01 Update: The time of the year really worked against this listing as the noisemaker fetched only $188.05

Vintage Halloween Owl Cat Bat Jack O Lantern Honeycomb Band Hat Beistle # 1

I’ve always liked this great Beistle band hat design. They released it as a stand-alone hat in 1933 and discontinued doing so in 1941. Beistle entered into what I call their fairy mania phase in 1923, so this hat was released well after that mania had ended. In the year this hat was released the country was ensnared in the icy grip of the Great Depression. This is a good example of how companies with a reservoir of designs to call upon used already completed work to try to make some money when the retail markets were oh-so-tight. Production was ceased as WWII began for the USA in December 1941.

Vintage German Halloween Die Cut Paper 3 Owls Pirate Tiara

It’s great to see a few nice things amongst all the off-season garbage strewn along eBay’s alleys. I’ve said it often, but why can’t eBay offer more defined holiday categories so that lookers don’t have to wade hip-deep in garbage? There are work-arounds, but why should we be put in a position to devise work-arounds when the solution is simply that eBay should better respect their users? Stepping off the soapbox, these German tiaras have had quite a run these last 2-3 years. For a short time they were bringing very strong dollars - primarily due to one determined buyer who simply didn’t care what she paid. Knowing that the tiara market was being driven skyward by one person, and more importantly, that market values would plummet once she was sated, I hurried to sell a few for $2,000 each to finance the acquisition of two truly rare German porcelain pieces. Since then, values have been reasonable - in the $400-750 range. Although there have been blips up with a few listings, I wonder if those heady days when any tiara in decent shape would fetch $2,000 aren’t permanently behind us.

12/25 Update: This tiara sold for $639.