DENVER, Pa. - Ask any collector of Halloween, Christmas or other seasonal antiques and they'll tell you that every day has the potential of being a holiday, whether the calendar says so or not. On September 11th, Morphy Auctions will offer collectors 890 reasons to celebrate in a fantastic Holiday Auction featuring rarities from several renowned specialty collections. Internet live bidding will be provided by LiveAuctioneers.com.

The first 42 lots in the sale are from a wonderful collection of Halloween candy containers and lanterns assembled over the last 20 years by Connie and Jay Lowe of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The rare, early German-made items in this collection are of superior quality and are completely fresh to the market.

"Having the opportunity to acquire pieces from a collection as fine as Jay and Connie's does not come along very often," said Morphy's CEO, Dan Morphy. "There are so many highlights, it's hard to predict which ones will do best on auction day."

DENVER, Pa. - Worldwide competition for a high-end collection of antique toys resulted in a million-dollar gross at Morphy's on July 16-17 as the central Pennsylvania auction house presented the 28-year collection of retired California architect Michael O'Hearn. Internet live bidding was provided by LiveAuctioneers.com.

"Interest in the O'Hearn collection, and in all of the toy consignments for that matter, was fierce," said auction house owner Dan Morphy. "The gallery was busy all day with in-house bidders, and we had the largest number of Internet bidders in Morphy's history." The final tally for the 1,354-lot sale was $1,050,000. All prices quoted are inclusive of 15% buyer's premium.

A futuristic postwar Japanese friction racer known as the Atom Jet, measuring an impressive 25½ inches long, commanded a strong price due to its originality and excellent condition. Against an estimate of $4,000-$8,000 the bizarre, dorsal-finned vehicle finished in a mint green color sped across the finish line at $15,500.

DENVER, Pa. – The most convincing proof that quality Americana finds its buyers in any market condition came on Oct. 8-10 at Dan Morphy Auctions’ Fall Sale, which featured the revered Joseph and Lilian Shapiro Americana and folk art collection.

“The sale did over $1.5 million (inclusive of 15 percent buyer's premium), and the usual factors came into play – rarity and condition,” said Morphy's owner and CEO, Dan Morphy. “We specialize in genuinely fresh to the market collections that have been held for many years. When the quality is there and the antiques legitimately have not been available to the public for several decades, the collectors don't hold back. They buy.”

Antique advertising signs, salesman's samples and an extraordinary collection of decorative 19th-century folk art “bride sticks” (implements once used to push down laundry into washing water) generated tremendous presale interest. A beautiful 1890s paper sign advertising Soapine Soap, which previously had been displayed in the president's office at Kendall Manufacturing in Providence, Rhode Island, hit the midpoint of its estimate at $17,250. “It was a rare and spectacular example,” Morphy noted.

 PITTSBURGH - Ray Haradin's Old Toy Soldier Auctions will present a 640-lot selection of antique and vintage figures in an absentee, phone and Internet auction closing Nov. 21. The spotlight will focus on two important collections known to toy soldier enthusiasts worldwide: the late Dr. James "Doc" Wengert's collection of figures, vehicles and other scale-model toys related to military medicine; and the 30-year Britains collection of Deutschebank managing director Vincent C. Banker.

A third-generation physician, Doc Wengert was a U.S. Navy flight surgeon who served in Vietnam. Later in his career, Wengert changed his specialty to psychiatry and worked at V.A. hospitals in his native Nebraska. Throughout his life he harbored an interest in military medical figures - doctors, nurses, orderlies, stretcher bearers, wounded soldiers - and all the accoutrements a collector might desire in setting up a miniature M.A.S.H. unit, like operating tents, field kitchens, rescue dogs and emergency vehicles.

Doc Wengert was well respected among his fellow collectors. "He had a deep knowledge of the history of military medicine, and he never missed attending the Chicago Toy Soldier Show," said the event's co-promoter Steve Sommers. "He could spot a Red Cross on a made-in-Japan tin bus across a crowded flea market. No paint variation or casting difference in a figure was too subtle for Doc's eye."

YORK, Pa. - On Saturday, Aug. 29, Dan Morphy will host the 16th edition of the York Antique Toy, Doll, Holiday & Advertising Show at the Memorial Hall, York Fairgrounds, in York, Pa. The semiannual show has developed into a must-do event on collectors’ calendars. Approximately 75 to 100 top-notch dealers from North America and Europe are expected to participate in the upcoming show, which will feature around 200 tables of select merchandise.

The popular specialty event features wide aisles, excellent food service and ample, close-in parking. Some exhibitors drive long distances to sell at Morphy’s show because it’s not a long, drawn-out affair – it’s a one-day event with a seven-hour early buying session the day before.

"This is the best turnout of any auction I can remember in the last 30 years." That statement was made by toy restoration guru Joe Freeman of Allentown, Pa., describing the scene at day 2 of Bertoia's sale of the Donald Kaufman toy collection.

We would have to agree. It was much harder trying to think of those who weren't in attendance than to name those who were. So that begged the question, who are all the bidders who were either buying or underbidding so many of the lots during the second session? It's a tantalizing question, and its answer could be nothing but positive, as the only logical conclusion is that there are unknown and new bidders prepared to step up to the plate and buy big.

VINELAND, N.J. – The toy-collecting community came together with international force Thursday evening as Bertoia Auctions hosted the opening session of its sale of the Donald Kaufman antique toy collection. The March 19 event attracted bidders from all over the United States, as well as France, Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom, and such exotic ports of call as Curacao and Tortola.

FREDERICK, Md. - Absentee and Internet bidding will open on May 5 for Mosby & Co's debut auction featuring 500-600 lots of outstanding antique and vintage toys, games, carousel animals, sideshow banners and a fantastic selection of monster model kits.

Mosby & Co.'s owner, Keith Spurgeon, is a well-established antique toy dealer, collector and former auction company co-owner. In lining up the consignments for his premiere event under the Mosby banner, Spurgeon cast a wide net across the country, successfully acquiring mature private collections of unusually high quality.

Collectors of monster material will think they've struck gold with the single-owner assortment in this sale. There is a near-complete run of Aurora's early 1960s monster model kits, most of them sealed and all of them mint in the box. Eighteen of the boxed monster kits are early 1960s productions, with many more from the latter 1960s and 1970s. Standouts include a 1962 Frankenstein in the so-called "thin" box, which was only manufactured for one year; and a boxed 1964 Gigantic Frankenstein, which is very hard to find. In addition, the category includes many other monster-related items, such as puzzles, games and costumes.

NEW YORK - All-digital Toy Collector Magazine will soon conclude its second year as the leader in Internet-based content created specifically for buyers and sellers of antique and vintage toys. In moving forward into its third year of operation, Toy Collector Magazine has relaunhed with an exciting new format that is exclusively Web-site based.

"Until now, Toy Collector Magazine has been a full-length monthly digital publication with all the quality inclusions of a high-end glossy magazine, including a page-turning function," said TCM's editor-in-chief, Catherine Saunders-Watson. "In recognizing the marked trend toward shorter content, increased visuals, and Web sites that are more aggregated in their features, we decided to bring everything together in one place and relaunch with a new look."

Saunders-Watson described ToyCollectorMagazine.com as "the most appealing, content-rich resource dealing with antique and collectible toys. With one mouse click, visitors arrive at a destination that is both informative and entertaining."

ToyCollectorMagazine.com features articles by the world's top toy writers, links to catalogs for upcoming toy auctions, video clips, news and postsale reports. The magazine's online archive includes more than 150 toy-related stories - an invaluable resource that may be accessed at any time.

A newly introduced, self-serve classified section provides an online destination where fixed-price toys and related articles can be bought and sold.

"There's no sifting through masses of other types of antiques," said Saunders-Watson. "The classifieds feature only toys, banks and closely related crossover items, such as antique and vintage advertising, petroliana, and entertainment memorabilia."

During the introductory period, there will be no charge to place classified ads, and there's no limit to the number of ads that can be uploaded, with images.

Additionally, ToyCollectorMagazine.com enjoys a close cooperative marketing association with LiveAuctioneers.com, the market leader in Internet live bidding, which provides online-bidding services to most of the world's major toy auction houses.