Collecting 101
One of the best things about collecting vintage Halloween toys is the variety and range of prices for collectors. You can find items ranging from a few dollars to over a thousand dollars for a rare item. There are all kinds of vintage Halloween toys to choose from. Noisemakers and plastic toys are the most popular, but there are wind up toys, metal toys, wooden toys, toy cars and trains, and other items to choose from.
Collecting vintage Halloween items is getting to be a very popular thing these days. At auctions and estate sales, people are buying up these items as soon as they hit the floor. There are specialized price guides for collecting vintage Halloween items, and even shows like PBS's Antiques Roadshow has been known to feature vintage Halloween items. I really have seen a lot of collectors show an interest in collecting old school Halloween items, and what is especially encouraging is many young people find vintage and antique Halloween items very cool (which is something you don't necessarily see with younger people in regards to collecting other kinds of vintage and antique items).
The best advice I can give you before you purchase an item is to like it. If you enjoy your collectible, that's the most important thing. The second best piece of advice I can offer is condition is king. What really sets vintage Halloween toys apart from each other is the shape that they are in. These items are often harder to find, and thus you will most likely pay more, but you will be happy you made the extra investment if you ever decide to sell your item at a later date.
Where are the best places to find vintage Halloween toys? You can sometimes find items at garage sales, estate sales, and auctions (both online and live auctions) as well. Some people have online shops where you can purchase items. Another thing to remember is the new Halloween toys of today will turn into vintage toys eventually, so if you see something that's cool today, you can always pick up the item, and years down the road you may have yourself a Halloween treasure.
How do I determine values of the items listed on my site? I use a combination of sources that include certain price guides, what certain items sell for in antique shops and shows, and other listings. The values that I list may be less or more then another website or price guide. The thing to remember here is that the prices I have listed are what similiar items or the exact item that is pictured have sold for.
IMPORTANT TIP:
I am trying to build some degree of uniformity in regards to values of items. I have been collecting and researching vintage Halloween toys for over 10 years with prior experience selling in vintage toy shows (and my parents collected and sold in antique shows for many years as well). It is always disturbing to me when I see certain "dealers" try to mark up an items worth way beyond what other similar items sell for. I see this more and more unfortunately. You will see several identical items sell for a certain and consistent price (let's just say in the $100 range). Then you have some dealer who has the same item who tries to outrageously inflate an items value by charging (let's say the item that routinely sells for $100 and the dealer tells people the value is $1000) 10 times (or more) the amount the item usually sells for. Do your research, and please don't encourage these people by paying ridiculous amounts for your vintage Halloween items. Do your research please.
Your item may be worth less or more depending on factors like condition, market demand, the time of the year (vintage Halloween items always sell for more money from late August through late October), and how or where you buy or sell your vintage Halloween toys. You will most likely pay more for an item at a high end antique shop in a big city then you would at a country antique store in a small town or flea market. If you have or are looking for a rare vintage Halloween toy, you may pay a lot more then the prices my site or another resource lists as a value for an item. Just remember what I said earlier, if you enjoy your collectible, that is the greatest value of them all!
Collecting vintage Halloween items is getting to be a very popular thing these days. At auctions and estate sales, people are buying up these items as soon as they hit the floor. There are specialized price guides for collecting vintage Halloween items, and even shows like PBS's Antiques Roadshow has been known to feature vintage Halloween items. I really have seen a lot of collectors show an interest in collecting old school Halloween items, and what is especially encouraging is many young people find vintage and antique Halloween items very cool (which is something you don't necessarily see with younger people in regards to collecting other kinds of vintage and antique items).
The best advice I can give you before you purchase an item is to like it. If you enjoy your collectible, that's the most important thing. The second best piece of advice I can offer is condition is king. What really sets vintage Halloween toys apart from each other is the shape that they are in. These items are often harder to find, and thus you will most likely pay more, but you will be happy you made the extra investment if you ever decide to sell your item at a later date.
Where are the best places to find vintage Halloween toys? You can sometimes find items at garage sales, estate sales, and auctions (both online and live auctions) as well. Some people have online shops where you can purchase items. Another thing to remember is the new Halloween toys of today will turn into vintage toys eventually, so if you see something that's cool today, you can always pick up the item, and years down the road you may have yourself a Halloween treasure.
How do I determine values of the items listed on my site? I use a combination of sources that include certain price guides, what certain items sell for in antique shops and shows, and other listings. The values that I list may be less or more then another website or price guide. The thing to remember here is that the prices I have listed are what similiar items or the exact item that is pictured have sold for.
IMPORTANT TIP:
I am trying to build some degree of uniformity in regards to values of items. I have been collecting and researching vintage Halloween toys for over 10 years with prior experience selling in vintage toy shows (and my parents collected and sold in antique shows for many years as well). It is always disturbing to me when I see certain "dealers" try to mark up an items worth way beyond what other similar items sell for. I see this more and more unfortunately. You will see several identical items sell for a certain and consistent price (let's just say in the $100 range). Then you have some dealer who has the same item who tries to outrageously inflate an items value by charging (let's say the item that routinely sells for $100 and the dealer tells people the value is $1000) 10 times (or more) the amount the item usually sells for. Do your research, and please don't encourage these people by paying ridiculous amounts for your vintage Halloween items. Do your research please.
Your item may be worth less or more depending on factors like condition, market demand, the time of the year (vintage Halloween items always sell for more money from late August through late October), and how or where you buy or sell your vintage Halloween toys. You will most likely pay more for an item at a high end antique shop in a big city then you would at a country antique store in a small town or flea market. If you have or are looking for a rare vintage Halloween toy, you may pay a lot more then the prices my site or another resource lists as a value for an item. Just remember what I said earlier, if you enjoy your collectible, that is the greatest value of them all!
One thing I'd like to mention here is purchasing items that have been "touched up" or altered in some way either through additional paint (some people like to customize their items or add back paint that had been worn off over the years), or some other way. In general, try to stay away from these items unless you really have to have them or you pay very little money for them. Adding new paint to an old item destroys the value incredibly. In addition to that, I have seen items that have been "reconditioned" and the seller will say, "you can easily remove the paint yourself". This is not true. Most older plastics are very brittle and fragile, and if you put any kind of paint remover on the item, it will thin the plastic even more and/or discolor it.
