Thread: First Halloween sighting in stores...

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velvet, i think those canisters and pestle and bowl are very sweet indeed

LOL. Me too! Thanks for your reply.
I want the Canisters badly. The only place I've found them so far is at Mr. Nostalgia. He's got them listed on ebay at a retail of $69. I emailed him several days ago to ask if the labels were silkscreened or paper stickers, and he hasn't bothered to reply. So I'm looking for them elsewhere...

Originally Posted by hallorenescene

velvet, i think those canisters and pestle and bowl are very sweet indeed

Originally Posted by sambone

Hello Kittyvibe, i dont recall any pictures of the lifesize witches at homegoods, Is there a picture somewhere of the witch holding the crystal ball for $100? I have been calling like a madman for the scaretaker, I finally got him last friday, some of the employees at some stores gave me the impression they were expecting more lifesize items, If I see anything lifesize and different from the scaretaker in the metro detroit area I will definitely post pictures

Sambone there have been a few picture links since they came out (always pays to click on people's links). I think Bellelostdrake was the first to capture them. Here's the original post and link to the album:

First Halloween sighting in stores...

Originally Posted by Velvet Vampire

.... I like the Mortar & Pestle Treat Bowl. The same company that makes the Treat Bowl (Midwest of Cannon Falls) also makes a great Skull Canister Set. Has anyone seen it for sale anywhere?

Thanks!

Velvet Vampire, if you look at the photobucket pictures that Bellelostdrake posted back on 8/6--look at Home Good 4, you'll see some of the canisters on the shelves. When I saw the post I checked a few of the HomeGoods in my area for a few weeks hoping to find them but never did. I remember seeing those white skulls (3/packs) pictured near them though. I assume they were part of the same shipment and my stores either sold out or never got them in. Doubtful a whole set came in though to one store.

BTW I also found them listed at Seasonal Reflections where they sell them separately and at Scary Decorations.

As far as the mortar and pestle, I have a few items from this collection (it was part of one of the Deptartment 56 Halloween collections a few years back). Unfortunately all of my pieces are packed away and not easily reachable at the moment. I do believe all printing was silkscreened on however. I bought my pieces on eBay a year or so ago, months before Halloween was coming up--and pricing was less expensive when not so close to Halloween.

As you mentioned some of these items are on Mister Nostalgia's website and are rather pricey (well let's just say pretty much Dept 56 original retail pricing). However if you can get to the stores and get lucky I can tell you I have seen since late July-August many, many of these Dept. 56 items really discounted at places like Ross and HomeGoods, for example.

The face pumpkins were selling at Ross for $6.99 and $9.99 (medium/large); the computer screen haunters ran anywhere from $6.99 to $8.99 (Bones/Witchy Woman) at Ross; Mummy Skull head candle holder, just paid $4.99 at Ross; I've seen the devil cake server at several Ross' and saw the Witch Arm Wall sconces ($14.99) just a few days ago in a Ross.

As for HomeGoods, I've seen the candy baskets, nightlights, monster plush dolls ($4.99) and a number of other Dept. 56 related items at great deals from the original retail pricing. I'm sure those canisters were selling for quite a bit less also. Don't know if this helps you at all but it should give you a good perspective of what's out there this season.

Here's a site, the Holiday Barn, that has tons of vintage looking halloween items.

Hey guys, I did get the canisters that day, 2 of them anyway. Another customer came up and fell in love and I had to let her have one of them. They had seperated them and were priced at $6.99 each. I hadn't seen the mortar and pestle, but I LOVE it. I'm already going to Home Goods and Ross constantly, so I'll keep you guys posted if I find it.

Originally Posted by bellelostdrake

Hey guys, I did get the canisters that day, 2 of them anyway. Another customer came up and fell in love and I had to let her have one of them. They had seperated them and were priced at $6.99 each. I hadn't seen the mortar and pestle, but I LOVE it. I'm already going to Home Goods and Ross constantly, so I'll keep you guys posted if I find it.

Oh you are too nice Bellelostdrake! I figured the price on those at HomeGoods was around what other items there were costing, like the $5-$20 range for the most part.

When I was looking through your pics when you posted them I got all excited when I saw the canisters off to the side there in the picture. I knew the stores were getting a lot of Dept 56 stuff in and I had recognized those pieces from when I had seen them before. It's so hard to know whether you will get lucky or not shopping in discount/closeout places like Ross and HomeGoods but it can be worth the trip. I'm very happy with the things I've bought this year.

Went to Marshall's yesterday and they actually had some Halloween stuff out. I'm hoping they aren't done though because it's not nearly as much as they had last year (maybe a little over half) and it's pretty much all cute. No tombstones, no gargoyles, no skulls. The only thing I saw that wasn't cutesy was the skeleton couple candlestick that HomeGoods has. They did have some large, pretty, metal (tin?) decorations though - a witch boot and two different shaped pumpkins. They were solid on the back and the front had a lattice-type design so you could see inside, where the back wall was painted purple for the shoe and orange for the pumpkins. Can't remember any more details though.

I scored Yankee candles at my marshalls. Last year's scents called purcholi and trick or treat. only 7.99 for the medium jar. So naturally I got three of them!!

Oh, and Michael's finally had out their Martha Stewart Halloween items. Some really cool vintage skeleton stuff. No props of course, but some nice bottle labels (new ones, but they did still have the older set too), cupcake papers with a skull and "poison" on the bottom, food picks, and a fabulous scrapbook paper stack.

And speaking of Martha Stewart, I got my Grandin Road Halloween catalog last night. There are some very cool things that I'm hoping will go on clearance after Halloween! Check out the website if you haven't recently - there's more now than there was a week ago.