# General chat type questions for the more educated.



## Oldtimer (May 27, 2007)

I wonder what catagory of bottle is the "sleeper" catagory? The one that holds the most promise value wise for the new collector?
 Sample bottles? Food? Old reproductions? Avon?

 I value all opinions here. Please post a thought!


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## GuntherHess (May 27, 2007)

I dont know if i qualify as more educated but i've been around a while.
 Just look for the things that make other catagories of bottles collectible... visual apeal, rarity, and enough variation to be interesting.
 I think art deco and acl sodas may be winners, you can still get them very cheap. 
 Sometimes all it takes is a good price guide to spur the collectors in that direction.
 Its more interesting collecting when you can see what is out there and what others have.


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## Oldtimer (May 27, 2007)

I find space is the restricting factor right after price...So I tended towards the smaller stuff like inks and samples and pill bottles early on.  I also think amber bottles now considered un-remarkable will some day be as sought after as cobalt and green and yellow..simply because the vibrant colored ones will gain such value..


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## bottlenutboy (May 27, 2007)

i would think it would be samples because the market seems to lean that way already, ACLs would be a good choice but they seem to have taken off already  some of the prices are outrageous anyone tried to buy an amber "spiffy cola"? i seen one at the show in rome back in january for $190 and frankly i think that was a steal


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## BRIAN S. (May 27, 2007)

> ORIGINAL: lobeycat
> 
> Another point, especially for you young dogs. It's better to buy one or two expensive bottles a year (more if you can swing it) than to fill your house with $5 or under bottles. Believe me in twenty years you'll look around, they'll be covered with dust and still be worth a buck or two.[/align] [/align]Lobes.[/align]


 
 I agree with lobey on this one !


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## Oldtimer (May 27, 2007)

I love the cone inks myself. I have only the one and it's a honey amber 1898 made in USA, dug it. I'd certainly love to add some greens and blues and yellows to the shelf.


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## zanes_antiques (May 27, 2007)

I'd have to say "Druggust" bottles are the "Sleepers". You can still pick up fairly scarce one for next to nothing. I did notice some of the Grapentine Druggist Bottles from the Southwest brought pretty nice prices in his auction


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## whiskeyman (May 27, 2007)

I've been collecting repRo flasks and cabins for some time now and the trend is swinging upward on them....especially the Booz cabins and the Clevenger Bros. flasks. 

 Also have to wonder what variety of ACL beers may be available for collecting ? As far as color , most are amber glass...with the Rolling Rock being green. Any others colors known?  May be a good category to pursue now while there's little or no interest....JMHO.


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## Oldtimer (May 28, 2007)

How about "name" bottles? Like a collction of Larkins, or Nathan Wood's...Melvin&Badger..Metcalf's..etc.
 Think such "specialized" collections have more inherant value? I know some of these names have a huge variety of bottles to offer.. 

 On 20th century ACLs, the trouble with them is the acl will wash clean off a dug bottle...so pristine acl sodas are really hard to find..and therefore the value could be way higher..so the 30 or so of them I have were worth saving I guess..

 I started looking for brand new glass bottles with wacky names a few years ago...I have several "micro-made" soda bottles from producers who quickly went out of business...I'm hoping no one else thought about it..and if you look...they are everywhere..in this new age of recycling...now is the time to save them..


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## druggistnut (May 28, 2007)

I have saved all the beers embossed with "throw-away." The Green Anchor Hockings I've sold have gone from 160.00, down to 40.00. I'll wait until the market comes around again.
 I hope there is a market for embossed milk glass cosmetic jars (not base embossed, I'm talking the face of the jar) some day. I've saved them for years and have also saved lids that come out whole (in farm dumps, mostly). The fancy  lids and jars look great and if they take off, I'm set.  LOL
 I try to get all the embossed early crowntops I can, too. You can normally get them for under a buck at bottle shows, and if you wait till the show is almost over, you can get a box of them for 5.00. Glass bottles are going bye-bye and in another 20 years, the early crowns will be items of great interest to the people who are maybe 5 years old now.
 I don't personally collect any of the above, they just take up space in storage.
 The tall cyndrical olive/chutney bottles that lay all over dumps? I sell those for 1.00 apeice to florists and hobbyists, esp if they are purpling. There is a guy who pays 2.00 each for purpling bottles. I need to track him down. He is somewhere down south.
 Any embossed/unembossed cork bottle (machine or otherwise) I sell for 25 cents apiece, and the postage is paid. I only do that in dumps/privies that are close to my truck. It's not worth the physical effort, otherwise. That money goes in my grandchilds college fund. There is now $11,000.00 in it, all from 25 cent bottles. We're talking stugg that most diggers leave.
 If I hit good bottles, they go out first, obviously. I can come back another day and grab the cheapies.
 All the bottles I store, I shrink wrap. If they sit for 10 years, they'll come out free of dust/dead bugs & mouse turds. <grin>
 What about you folks? Any little things you do to make the collecting easier? I'm interested in how some of you catalog things. I am trying to put everything on discs, etc..., but haven't come up with a logical way to do it, so it flows. I need to be able to find items easily and be able to add/subtract, etc... I know there are software programs that would make it easier- I'm all ears.
 Bill


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## Oldtimer (May 30, 2007)

I personally take only the stuff I really want to keep for my own collection and I leave the rest. I leave them top down to keep water out and I usually cover them back up so as to make the next digger feel as though he found something...lol..I have a friend who takes ALL of it, even the shards and broken tops. He's got a 45' box trailer filled with bottles and shards. FILLED with them. He even dragged out a 500 pound barbers chair...alone...


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## cobaltbot (May 30, 2007)

I take all the interesting shards/artifacts and like Richard leave the ones I dont want top slanting down so they won't fill and freeze and may be of interest to some digger a hundred years from now.  I was curious if you privy diggers throw all the bunk stuff into the bottom of the hole or into the fill just before the top?


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## capsoda (May 30, 2007)

Ndnrs have come up quickly but the embossed beers haven't seen their high point yet. Food bottles are another one I would call a sleeper. Everyone seems to have a couple but collections of the are few and far between.


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## LC (May 30, 2007)

> Ndnrs


 
 Time for me to have another rectilitis attack Warren. What is *Ndnrs ??*


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## madpaddla (May 30, 2007)

No Deposit No Returns


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## capsoda (May 30, 2007)

rectilitis attack  [sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif]


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## RICKJJ59W (May 30, 2007)

Lobeycat wins the prize! buy big and reap the rewards later  on down the line, I used to buy low end bottles, but now I buy high, I like my Flasks & Ip colored sodas and beers, I love digging more then buying but..., keep all the good finds, sell all the low end commons, and build up the mula to buy something of value, every one has there own  thing. that's  my 3 cent. Rick


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## LC (May 31, 2007)

No Deposit No Returns --- I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT !!


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## Oldtimer (May 31, 2007)

IMO, 10  $5.00 bottles = 1 $50.00 bottle...And I could never bear to part with any bottle worth more than a few bucks anyway...
 I used to collect up the common BIMALs and when I had a box full I'd go trade the whole thing for 1 little trinket at an antique store...but nowadays the antique stores are "consignment" stores and they have no right to do any trading..So I leave them for the next digger..


 How's about insuring a collection? How is it done? Would one place a fairly high value estimate on each? Or do the insurance companys insist on another method?


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## whosyerdaddy (May 31, 2007)

every one has made some goods points to ponder.  esp. guntherhess and his mention of price guides.  if u look back at the history of bottle collecting the reference/priceguides have always spurred a feeding frenzy in bottles.  for example watson's books on bitters and thomas's book on western whiskies just to name a couple. the numbers in those two are stilled used extensively.


 whosyer


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## CanadianBoy (May 31, 2007)

For the last couple of years its being amber bottles with me,I may have cornered the market.
 Also inks & flasks.And if its a great color,I keep it,as I said in another post...I put them in the window because they look...I think the term is  "cute & pretty".
 Course, when your old like me,it dosn't take much to amuse you.


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## zanes_antiques (May 31, 2007)

I've seen plenty of those keppler's in amber but that's the first I've seen in green.


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## CanadianBoy (Jun 4, 2007)

Hey Zane,

 I find lots of different sizes in amber,thats also the only green one I've found or seen.


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