Vintage Halloween Collectibles - Die-Cuts, Jack O'Lanterns and Vintage Halloween Postcards
Emma Martin
September 17, 2007
Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. Partly it is because my sister’s birthday and mine fall to either side of it, so when we were kids my mother used to hold off on throwing me a party (my birthday was first) so we could have a Halloween birthday party for both of us. My mother was also a big fan of Halloween and each year she’d hand sew new costumes for us -- one year I went out trick or treating as a black cat with full tail, paws and whiskers and my sister went as a pumpkin, including a little green stem at the top of her head.
With that kind of history, it’s not surprising that I still love Halloween. I’m also a vintage lover at heart so most of the items I find to collect tend to be vintage Halloween collectibles. Vintage Halloween postcards are some of my favorites because I move fairly often and postcards are a nice and easy to transport collectible. There are many other types of collectibles available though and as with any collection, in order to avoid it getting out of hand, it usually makes some sense to decide what you’d like to collect.
If you find yourself drawn to antique Halloween items in particular, you’ll have a lot of collecting niches to consider -- including die-cuts, papier-mache, lanterns and vintage candy pails -- the pre-cursor to the “trick or treat“ bag. The most popular Halloween collectibles are American or German made. All of the early German Halloween items were actually made and exported to the American market during the post-war period after World War I when Halloween was increasing in popularity as a holiday in the US.
Other Halloween collectibles that are highly sought after currently are hard plastic items, mostly toys, but also cake picks, candy holders, plastic pumpkins and Jack O’Lanterns. For years, most of the plastic collectibles were easy and cheap to purchase, but now they are so hugely popular that you’ll see these plastic Vintage Halloween collectibles go for big prices in Ebay auctions. So if you’re looking to get into collecting, but need to mind the budget, you may consider a different Halloween collection focus or just be very selective about your hard plastic toys.
With that kind of history, it’s not surprising that I still love Halloween. I’m also a vintage lover at heart so most of the items I find to collect tend to be vintage Halloween collectibles. Vintage Halloween postcards are some of my favorites because I move fairly often and postcards are a nice and easy to transport collectible. There are many other types of collectibles available though and as with any collection, in order to avoid it getting out of hand, it usually makes some sense to decide what you’d like to collect.
If you find yourself drawn to antique Halloween items in particular, you’ll have a lot of collecting niches to consider -- including die-cuts, papier-mache, lanterns and vintage candy pails -- the pre-cursor to the “trick or treat“ bag. The most popular Halloween collectibles are American or German made. All of the early German Halloween items were actually made and exported to the American market during the post-war period after World War I when Halloween was increasing in popularity as a holiday in the US.
Other Halloween collectibles that are highly sought after currently are hard plastic items, mostly toys, but also cake picks, candy holders, plastic pumpkins and Jack O’Lanterns. For years, most of the plastic collectibles were easy and cheap to purchase, but now they are so hugely popular that you’ll see these plastic Vintage Halloween collectibles go for big prices in Ebay auctions. So if you’re looking to get into collecting, but need to mind the budget, you may consider a different Halloween collection focus or just be very selective about your hard plastic toys.
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