I did a posting on my blog not too long ago where I talked about overzealous bidders going crazy on certain vintage Halloween items, while other items were going far lower than they probably should have. 

Here’s another example:

This is a neat 2 faced Halloween bucket/pail that was made by Empire Plastics in the late 1970’s. It is a cool piece, but these buckets are not extremely difficult to find, and when they turn up, they usually sell for between $20-$30 (which would probably include shipping). I know that late August through the end of October is prime time for selling vintage Halloween items, but this example sold for north of $70!!! It’s a cool piece, but C’mon people, it’s not a $70 item ($40-$45 I could see on a great day in near mint condition, but $70???).

I also saw a Clint Toys (Clinton Toy Corp.) Glenn Strange Frankenstein Pail sell for close to $700. The last 3 or 4 examples of that pail sell for fetched around $350. There was a vintage tambourine that featured a sexy witch coming out of a pumpkin (great graphics, and a rare piece for sure) that sold for north of $700. The same item sold for $300 a year ago. 

I can understand very rare items like the Frankenstein pail and the tambourine selling for big bucks, as they are super cool, and there just are not many of them around in good condition (but I was still surprised what they ending up selling for). The more common items like the 2 faced Trick or Treat pumpkin pail selling for $70+ is CRAZY! 

You never know what things are going to sell for….I recently sold a Frankenstein pail made by Sideshow Collectibles that was reasonably difficult to come by (I hadn’t seen one available for several months), and it sold for less than half of what I thought it might. I’ve also watched several cool items get purchased for near garage sale prices that were cool and relatively rare items. So you never know what is going to happen. I’ll definitely re-evaluate my valuations for the items I have listed on Vintage Halloween Toys at the end of the season.