Father-Husband-Marketer-Geek

With a week left, I thought it would be cool to compile some quick access links to Ebay auctions for halloween merchandise. You can find some decent deals if you have a few minutes to browse. I've included Department 56-specific items as well as specialized searches for general halloween merchandise. Halloween aside, check out the Grinch mention below! * All halloween merchandise auctions ending soon - A really strange mix of costumes, props, decorations and more. * General Department 56 halloween merchandise auctions ending soon - If I was going to pick something from page one, it would probably be the "Haunted Funhouse", which would go well with our halloween amusement park display. Bidding on that piece is at $ 26.98. * Department 56 Sleepy Hollow merchandise auctions ending soon - There are 22 listings here, and a few of them are lots. If I were going to start collecting this subset, I would want a complete lot of items for sale. Bidding on the lot starts at $ 49. * D...

If you live anywhere near the G&L Christmas Barn in Willimantic, CT, and you collect Original Snow Village Halloween, you should take a drive over there and see what Dave's got for sale. I received a postcard about a September-long Halloween sale. I can't remember exactly what % off he's giving, but I'll confirm the details and update this post. The G and L Christmas Barn website doesn't seem to contain any details on the Halloween sale. My wife and I will be taking classes there on building village landscapes. Should be interesting!

The web has delivered many new ways to shop. There are literally hundreds of shopping engines, which are basically search engines that have indexed thousands of stores and can compare pricing easily. I've researched quite a few, searched for Department 56 products, and found some interesting results: Kaboodle.com - claims that "shopping is more fun with friends" and encourages users to discover new things from people with similar taste and style, recommend and discuss your favorite products and stores, and that you can simplify your life with wish lists and shopping lists. The above link finds multiple Department 56 matches. ShopWiki - here I found the "Mill Creek Crossing" from New England Village. In a great example of why these sites work so well, you can see at one shopping destination, it's about half the price as on the other store. Compare, compare, compare! Crowdstorm.com - Many of these newer shopping engines use reviews and recommendations from ...