Blog

Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.

Antique Vintage 1916 Peggy’s Halloween Party Box Complete Unused Ultra Rare!

An item of this rarity, especially complete, surfaces so infrequently that a great number of collectors and potential bidders had added it to watchlists. I’ve only seen the slip of paper with the listing of contents one other time - in the set shown on page 127. I hoped the set would go for big bucks but was concerned with the opening bid level being too high. My experience is that a high opening bid discourages bidding and depresses interest, but I needn’t have worried given the reported final price. That said, it was interesting to note there were only six bidders. If there weren’t those last two determined bidders, the set would have ended in the $2,000s. This set is quite beautiful. I always felt the best thing about it was the box’s cover art. I had trouble displaying mine properly, so made the call to sell it in August of 2024. The new owner is one of my favorite collectors. She’ll be an excellent steward of the rare set!

Rare Vintage Halloween Trick or Treat Wowee Whistle Wax Chewing Gum Candy Box

What a beautiful item! Prior to this listing, I hadn’t seen this box before. Everything about it is stunning. I feel the buyer made a wise purchase. The candy box market segment has been very strong for about 3 years. Even the commonly seen Milky Way and Butterfinger boxes bring multiples of what they did 3+ years ago. I think I understand why - the boxes make excellent displays and the graphics are generally fun and eye-catching. I have a few of the more obscure boxes in the collection and seriously considered trying to add this gem to the others. Congrats to the prevailing bidder!

RARE Vintage Halloween Tin Cat & Bat Pan Noisema 1920s J Chein

These domestically produced small diameter pan clangers, whether they were produced by Chein or Kirchhof, are difficult to find. I’m not surprised at the reported ending price. Ones produced in either Japan or Germany typically bring even more dollars as they were produced in far fewer numbers.

Vintage Halloween Dennison U.S.A. Cardboard Candy Nut Cups lot of 4

These small late 1920s Dennison treasures don’t surface very often, especially when several identical designs comprise a single lot. I do wish the seller would have included many more photos, especially images of the other sides of the nut cups. As the listing stands now with over two days left, bidding has reached only $26.

05/26 Update: This lot sold for $240.50!

Vintage HALLOWEEN c1950 OWL NOISEMAKER Rachet.

I feel this is a married item. The heavily embossed owl diecut would typically be found on both sides of a clapper noisemaker as shown on page 196. I’ve not seen this combination before, leading me to think that someone just attached it to a generic ratchet. The marketplace seems to have shared my doubts as it only fetched $49.

RARE Antique Vintage Halloween Pumpkin Jack O Lantern Metal 58B10

Here’s a pretty strong result. U.S. Metal Toy produced three sizes of their tin litho candy pails. The smallest one, shown here selling for $231, has art unique to it compared to its larger brethren. There was some noticeable sun fading. This smallest size typically doesn’t have a horn nose, so that added bonus perhaps offset the condition issues and positively contributed to the closing price.

Vintage 14.5” Halloween Dandy Horn Litho Cardboard Witch/Cats by Marks Bros 1921

The one in the collection measures 15” tall, so I’d love to know if this, reported at 14.5”, is a size variant or whether the seller measured quickly. I’m puzzled by the reference to a “Dandy” horn as the word doesn’t appear on the horn itself. (The seller’s photos aren’t close enough to determine if the word appears on the horn that sold for $156.31.) These tall paper-litho-over-cardboard Marks Brothers horns rarely turn up. I haven’t seen one change hands for a long time, so can only guess that the ending price seems low. Thoughts?

Rare Vintage Halloween Decoration Full Size Skeleton in Original Packaging.

A collecting friend of mine inquired as to my opinion on the price this listing would achieve. I estimated $450-500, yet it fell well short of that. The envelope is the more desirable component. Its condition was problematic and the seller probably could have included more photos. The skeleton, wrapped as it was, typically changes hands for $300 alone. The buyer got a nice item for a decent price.

Vintage Halloween Diecut Black Witch Silhouette on Yellow Honeycomb Moon

This item was produced by Beistle during the 1960-62 seasons. They marketed it as the Flying Sorceress. Considering its fragility, it is in remarkably good condition. I thought it would perhaps bring more. I’ve noticed a definite decline in prices recently. I’m unsure as to the reasons why. Perhaps it is the time of year or a reflection of economic uncertainty.

Pook & Pook Auction

Pook & Pook, Inc. in Pennsylvania held an auction of the Alice and Art Booth collection over several days with the Halloween lots being sold on April 17th. Final prices were reasonable overall - probably due to the very high buyer’s premium of 27%. (These auction houses really need to think about the viability of their business model as such high rates discourage participation.) One thing I appreciated is that the few lots that were partially or wholly comprised of modern items were clearly listed as being modern items, eliminating any confusion newer collectors may have experienced.
Lots 853 through 860 (Lot 858 seems to have been placed amidst the grinning JOL items in error…) did very well as this market segment is avidly collected. The candle stick candy container fetched $4,600 excluding the exorbitant buyer’s premium, meaning the all-in selling price was $5,842!
Lot 872 was a small candy box with the rarest imagery. (Pieces from this set are so hard to acquire that I gave up on it decades ago.) It fetched $4,200 w/o BP and a whopping $5,334 with BP.
Another lot surprised me. I have never been an avid collector of German lanterns, and the owl ones in particular have always left me cold. However, 26 bids were placed on Lot 889. It fetched $3,200 w/o BP and a whopping $4,064 with BP.
Go to the Pook & Pook site and poke around. They had some nice items that by and large sold at or below what I would have forecast. I think if their buyer’s premium was a reasonable 10-12% the ending prices would have been materially higher.

Vintage HALLOWEEN c1910 JOL MAN SAXOPHONE NOISEMAKER Horn Veggie Man Carpentier

This seller has been offering a range of C-Level to A-Level items for many months but all with head-shakingly high opening prices. I firmly believe this practice is not conducive to getting market prices for items. High opening prices don’t motivate collectors to bid as there is zero possibility of getting any sort of bargain. (When his listings end with no action, he simply relists the item again with rarely any change to the opening price.) Sellers that routinely do well on eBay are those like zizsdream and mysweetjanene who start their offerings, independent of rarity and desirability, at a low price and trust in the auction process. I sold a JOL saxophone horn just like this in my annual auction last month. After some spirited bidding, the horn sold for nearly $1,400. This seller’s horn, although in lesser condition, sold for a pittance relative to what I feel he would have gotten if he would have simply listed it with an opening price of something like $9.99.