Club Haunt: Is
collecting vintage Halloween memorabilia expensive?
Richard Miller:
Collecting Halloween can be as expensive as you want
it to be. You can make a great collection consisting of vintage
diecuts, antique Halloween postcards, or small vintage trick or
treat bags for a very reasonable price. Many wonderful cardboard
die cuts can be purchased for $5 to $20 each. And if you have
the budget and desire, you can spend thousands of dollars for
some of the rarer Halloween pieces.
CH: Can you tell
us about your web site Spookshows.com? When was that started and
what has been the feedback from other collectors?
RM: Before the website
was called Spookshows.com, it existed as “Halloween Collectibles”
and was the first website online dedicated to antique Halloween
collecting. This was in 1995. The name changed to Spookshows.com
several years later. I intend to expand the site to include an
even more obscure interest; the memorabilia related to “Spook
Shows” which were sort of public “fake séance”
put on by magicians from the early 1900’s through about
1960. There is a book called “Ghostmasters” by Mark
Walker which covers the phenomena of Spook Shows in depth. The
book is out of print, but can be found used on Amazon.com and
often on eBay as well.
Reaction to my website; Spookshows.com,
has been overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic. I had no idea
how many others love Halloween. I regularly receive email from
people who were touched by my website and want to share their
own Halloween experiences with me.
CH: Are there any
good books out there for the beginner interested in collecting?
RM: Yes, several!
The first books were “Halloween in America” by Stuart
Schneider, and “Halloween Collectables” by Dan and
Pauline Campanelli. There are also several good books written
by Pamela Apkarian-Russell, and the newest book by Mark Ledenbach
contains some of the rarest pieces in the best condition that
I’ve seen. All of these books can be purchased through Amazon.com.
CH: If you only
had one piece of advice for the beginner, what would it be?
RM: Buy what appeals
to you. Buy what you like and make sure the item is in reasonably
good condition for the price.
CH: Lastly, do you
still dress up for Halloween?
RM: Sometimes. If
we are having a party at our house, or if I am going to a party,
I tend to transform from Richard Miller to “Sir Wretched
Miller"; a 448 year old vampire. It’s also a bit more
fun to dress up as an adult, especially with the quality of costumes
available here in Hollywood. I started as a four year old with
a plastic mask and one piece printed costume and today I can afford
to wear black velvet vampire capes, etc. The costume budgets got
better for me as I got older!
CH: Good answer.
-Richard Miller, the creator
of Spookshows.com
can be reached from his website for additional questions and comments.
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