Wail Day: The 5 Most Haunted Collectibles of 2025

It’s not the most obvious holiday for collectors, but Halloween does offer some cool things to buy, enjoy, give out, and simply… look at. Here’s the Official J.R. Fickle List for 2025… (and apologies for the subject line… it’s hard to make headlines spooky…).

1. Score-A-Treat ($19.99)

We’ve mentioned this product here before — Panini’s Score-A-Treat box is not only a very good deal as a “treat” to hand out on Halloween (and you can get one delivered on Door Dash in about 90 minutes in most cities if you’re scrambling), but it is a completely bizarre set of players, seemingly chosen at random, with cool Halloween-style designs…and even an occasional insert. 

If you really want to have some fun, put the word “reddit” in your search and enjoy threads of collectors complaining they got nothing good, only to be reminded by other posters that these are for little kids on Halloween. 

2. Pokemon Trick or Trade BOO-ster Bundle ($No Idea)

There is something appropriately weird happening with the Pokemon Trick or Trade series, which is essentially Score-a-Treat…but with Pokemon. For the last three years I have bought them at the local Walgreens for $20 to give out on Halloween. I went to find some this year online and prices were ALL OVER THE PLACE. 

I don’t know what’s happening here. I think some people are trying to create an elevated market for it (which is cool because the cards — which are like regular Pokemon ones but with Halloween elements like pumpkins and ghosts added — deserve it) and some other market forces are keeping it down at $20…for now — thank you Lidl! 

The hack here is that you don’t really need the 2025 version, which seems to be the one acting weirdly with prices. You can still grab the 2024 or even 2023 versions cheap and the kids at your door will never know the difference — they’re probably just happy to get a pack of cool cards. 

3. Disney’s Halloween Treat on VHS (Buy on eBay $150-$200)

Little known fact: depending on your age, if you had a VCR, and how generous your family was with cable TV subscriptions in the 80s, you may know this as "Disney's Halloween Treat” or “A Disney Halloween” — one version was narrated by the Magic Mirror, the other by a Muppet-esque pumpkin. But both had essentially the same clips — it’s a collection of old Disney cartoon shorts and the nostalgia factor is through the roof. 

You can actually watch it on YouTube — its 1M views should give you some idea of its popularity — and every once in a while a VHS copy shows up on eBay. I have the bootleg DVD (obviously containing both versions), but there’s something a little more special about having a sealed copy to display on your Mantel (see what I did there?). 

4. A Box of Gremlins 2 cards (Buy on eBay $60-80)

I am surprised every day at how few people understand the Gremlins 2 references I make in my everyday life. Sure, the movie wasn’t a CLASSIC classic, but it was bonkers fun and had some of the more creative characters of the 80s. Don’t take it too seriously and you will enjoy it tremendously. 

You can get a box of the 1990 set for about $70 and re-live some of the scenes and characters. It’s one of the cheaper “90s movies card boxes” out there — remember when these things had the black line painted across it at card shows and they were $5? Even $10? — so bringing a box to a party and spreading out packs to open with friends is about the same as bringing a very nice bottle of whiskey. 

If you want the reminiscing AND the bottle? The Trading Card Database has the full set in digital form for your perusing.

And if you just want the movie? It’s streaming on HBO MAX (or just buy the DVD for $5). 

5. 1949 Edgar Allan Poe sheet of stamps (Buy on eBay $15)

I don’t understand the stamps market at all — I just assumed a sheet of stamps from 1949 would be more like $200 than $15. So this isn’t one of those “get it before anyone catches on!” – this is more like:

1. Buy the stamps

2. Find a Michael’s coupon

3. Buy a frame at Michael’s

4. Frame the stamps

5. Hang it up

6. Pour yourself a glass of Gremlins 2 cards and admire it while you read one of Poe’s short stories by your fireplace

7. Pass out and have weird dreams

8. Wake up at 3:14 a.m. with your eyes burning because you forgot to take your contacts out

9. Brush your teeth and go to bed

10. Wake up at 6:30 a.m. and go to work

11. Tell everyone about your Poe stamps

12. Get home to admire the framed stamps and it’s not there 

13. Neither is your fireplace

14. You never actually bought stamps OR went to Michael’s

15. The woman supposedly at the Michael’s checkout shows up at your door and…

16. Delivers your mail

17. You open up an envelope to realize the Poe stamps are in there

18. Happy Halloween from Mantel!!!

I would expose myself as out of touch if I didn’t throw this out there:

Topps Holiday cards are out and it’s the best $30 you can spend on a box. We always need to be looking forward!! We’re less than two months away from Christmas!! Forget about Halloween, it’s over!!

And also in my notes for this week’s Mail Day? Topps’ Labubu boxes dropped last week at $50…for five cards. Did I get a box? Yes. Did I order it quickly so I could buy it before it sold out, without looking at any details? Yes. Do I have any idea what to do with this box? No. 

I think I’ll just put it in the “Tub of Stuff I Don’t Know What to Do With” and check its price every year. There aren’t enough cards to enjoy opening it and I will not be gifting a box of 5 cards to anyone young enough to want Labubus… so it’s in a very odd middle ground at the moment. It will likely only get odder… 

Until next week… Happy Halloween.