# need serious help with pricing magnesias



## Catcat16 (May 5, 2020)

Hey guys, so I was under the impression milk of magnesias went for a pretty penny if it was one that had the date.. but looking at pricing a year later it either went significantly lower or I didn’t do my search right the first time. Either way, I have at least 25-30 m.o.m bottles 3 big ones with dates and the rest are the smaller version but my problem is,.. every single bottle is different. No two are the same. Does that effect the pricing? How would I go about pricing these? Some have dates some don’t all of them say pretty much the same thing but every one says it in a different variation. I realllllly need help on this one so if you have any info any at all that may help please respond! Here’s just some of them.


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## CanadianBottles (May 5, 2020)

As far as I know all the milk of magnesias are worth very little, date or no date.  I'd personally price them all at a dollar or two each.  Never seen that one in the first picture without the Phillips name on it but I doubt it's particularly collectible either unfortunately.


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## PlaneDiggerCam (May 5, 2020)

Sometimes antique store owners near me will buy them from me since cobalt is a good seller around me. Usually these are worth around $3 a pop here, but in other places seem to be worth less than half as much.


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (May 5, 2020)

You can try to get $3 for screw top ones and maybe $5-10 for corker. Plus S&H.  Not worth much even though they are a pretty blue.


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## Catcat16 (May 5, 2020)

CanadianBottles said:


> As far as I know all the milk of magnesias are worth very little, date or no date.  I'd personally price them all at a dollar or two each.  Never seen that one in the first picture without the Phillips name on it but I doubt it's particularly collectible either unfortunately.



I keep hearing that but I can’t find any and I mean any online for that price. None. Are you guys talking yard sales? I believe you as I’m sure you’ve been doing this for much longer then me but this is what I see over and over online


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## Catcat16 (May 5, 2020)

ROBBYBOBBY64 said:


> You can try to get $3 for screw top ones and maybe $5-10 for corker. Plus S&H.  Not worth much even though they are a pretty blue.



I keep hearing that but I can’t find any and I mean any online for that price. None. Are you guys talking yard sales? I believe you as I’m sure you’ve been doing this for much longer then me but this is what I see over and over online


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## Catcat16 (May 5, 2020)

PlaneDiggerCam said:


> Sometimes antique store owners near me will buy them from me since cobalt is a good seller around me. Usually these are worth around $3 a pop here, but in other places seem to be worth less than half as much.



I don’t get it because online I can’t find any for less then 7 and that’s rare. Usually around 7-20 and much higher as you can see if the screen shots I posted in two other peoples reply’s on here. No disrespect I just can’t find it :/


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## PlaneDiggerCam (May 5, 2020)

Catcat16 said:


> I don’t get it because online I can’t find any for less then 7 and that’s rare. Usually around 7-20 and much higher as you can see if the screen shots I posted in two other peoples reply’s on here. No disrespect I just can’t find it :/


Online isn't the way to go for me. It's better to sell local in lots.


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (May 5, 2020)

Catcat16 said:


> I don’t get it because online I can’t find any for less then 7 and that’s rare. Usually around 7-20 and much higher as you can see if the screen shots I posted in two other peoples reply’s on here. No disrespect I just can’t find it :/


Go on Ebay and search milk of magnesia. See for yourself cat. I wish i could tell you different. ROBBYBOBBY64


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## Catcat16 (May 5, 2020)

ROBBYBOBBY64 said:


> Go on Ebay and search milk of magnesia. See for yourself cat. I wish i could tell you different. ROBBYBOBBY64



ebay? Alright I’ll check it out. It’s ok. I just want to know what I can get for them because I used to get really excited every time I found  one and it blows hearing they go for a dollar let alone less then 20. I wonder why everyone else sells them for so much.


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (May 5, 2020)

PlaneDiggerCam said:


> Online isn't the way to go for me. It's better to sell local in lots.


Shipping and handling is more than the cost of the bottle itself. Local sale i agree is an easier sale. Maybe she can find a collector of milk of magnesa.


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## GlassKitTin (May 5, 2020)

Common or not, they are beautiful. I have no idea of value, but I’d for sure pay at least $5 for one if I found it at a yard sale, lol!


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (May 5, 2020)

Catcat16 said:


> ebay? Alright I’ll check it out. It’s ok. I just want to know what I can get for them because I used to get really excited every time I found  one and it blows hearing they go for a dollar let alone less then 20. I wonder why everyone else sells them for so much.


I never saw such high prices Cat. Just because they are blue some charge for the color. they want to rip-off someone who does not know what they are worth. That $99 is insane. ROBBYBOBBY64


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## Catcat16 (May 5, 2020)

ROBBYBOBBY64 said:


> I never saw such high prices Cat. Just because they are blue some charge for the color. they want to rip-off someone who does not know what they are worth. That $99 is insane. ROBBYBOBBY64


Yea, I hear ya. But understand I DONT want to rip anyone off which is why I’m trying to get to the bottom of it. All I know (since I don’t have experience yet) is what I see online and if everyone is selling high like that, I assume that’s what it goes for. That’s actually why I joined this site so I could speak with people like you who could shed some light on the real value of things. But after being here for awhile now I just enjoy sharing lol


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## hemihampton (May 5, 2020)

They might be asking high prices but are they actually selling? I throw them back in the hole I've dug so many. LEON.


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## Catcat16 (May 5, 2020)

ROBBYBOBBY64 said:


> I never saw such high prices Cat. Just because they are blue some charge for the color. they want to rip-off someone who does not know what they are worth. That $99 is insane. ROBBYBOBBY64


Here’s what I found on eBay. Non for less then 4 bucks but I do see a lot for around 5 plus 6 for s&h


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## Catcat16 (May 5, 2020)

hemihampton said:


> They might be asking high prices but are they actually selling? I throw them back in the hole I've dug so many. LEON.


Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjhhhhjjjjh DONT DO THAT!!!
Send them to me I’ll pay for the shipping ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Dead


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## Catcat16 (May 5, 2020)

CanadianBottles said:


> As far as I know all the milk of magnesias are worth very little, date or no date.  I'd personally price them all at a dollar or two each.  Never seen that one in the first picture without the Phillips name on it but I doubt it's particularly collectible either unfortunately.



You know, I’ve asked a lot about that bottle and not one person has ever seen one. I wonder if it was some rip off brand. I recently found one that says TABLETS on it. It’s the only one I’ve ever found of that one too but I see it online so I know it’s nothing special.


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## hemihampton (May 5, 2020)

Here's what you gotta due. go to ebay & then click on the SOLD items. Only sold items will come up. Not high priced ones that run on ebay for years but never sell. I provided a link below. This should really help you get a idea on prices. I'm actually surprised to see many get more then $5.00  I might have to start keeping the ones I've been throwing back. LEON.










						MILK OF MAGNESIA COBALT BLUE for sale | eBay
					

Get the best deals for MILK OF MAGNESIA COBALT BLUE at eBay.com. We have a great online selection at the lowest prices with Fast & Free shipping on many items!



					www.ebay.com


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## Catcat16 (May 5, 2020)

GlassKitTin said:


> Common or not, they are beautiful. I have no idea of value, but I’d for sure pay at least $5 for one if I found it at a yard sale, lol!



yea that’s how I feel. They may not be super valuable but they are pretty. I’d at least try and sell them at a yard sale worst comes to worse. I have a lot of them but that’s over a year and not nearly as many duplicates as I have of other bottles. Plus there are so many people that ask me for them that live around me. Mostly older woman and I’ve had offers as high as 15 but obviously they don’t know it’s value and I have told them I’ll sell after I find out the real value.


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (May 5, 2020)

Catcat16 said:


> You know, I’ve asked a lot about that bottle and not one person has ever seen one. I wonder if it was some rip off brand. I recently found one that says TABLETS on it. It’s the only one I’ve ever found of that one too but I see it online so I know it’s nothing special.
> 
> Phillips was a popular brand and like Coca-Cola had copy cats.  I have seen the tablet MOMs before.


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## Catcat16 (May 5, 2020)

hemihampton said:


> Here's what you gotta due. go to ebay & then click on the SOLD items. Only sold items will come up. Not high priced ones that run on ebay for years but never sell. I provided a link below. This should really help you get a idea on prices. I'm actually surprised to see many get more then $5.00  I might have to start keeping the ones I've been throwing back. LEON.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



damn good idea! Thank you. Why didn’t I think of that. Oh because I didn’t know you could see the sold items lol. Yea .. throw them...tsk tsk AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A DIGGER! Your a thrower!!
JUST KIDDING LOL  had to say it!
I’d at very least give them away as gifts before letting them get broken in a ditch. That made my ears bleed a little LOL!


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## hemihampton (May 5, 2020)

Maybe put them on ebay in one big group for one price. Looks like other people are having luck doing that. Good Luck. LEON.


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (May 5, 2020)

Everyday is a learning experience. I am often disappointed when ever i search a bottle i have never seen. Every now and then i get a good one. That is just my luck. I am not really in it for the money so i don't care either way. You want to sell and i understand that. You have to dig them, they pay for your time and the bottle. You obviously have the gift of gab. Just keep smiling. You'll do just fine.  ROBBYBOBBY64


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## RoyalRuby (May 6, 2020)

Citrate of Magnesia is also a common brand of laxative, I found one of this seldom seen Packie style at a dump close by me that I've been digging as of late, the bottle is made by O/I and dated 1947, unfortunately it had a smaller hole in the back left side of the bottle but still diplays well, I've found the same bottle (only one) on line but haven't bought it yet, it would be my luck if I bought it I'd find another at the same dump, hoping I do lol, as I collect Packie bottles and would like a nice one of these.


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## RoyalRuby (May 6, 2020)

Interesting to note in this article about the NDNR bottles, this section I'm posting an image of is in the section that explains the evolution of the Packie style, I have yet to see an image of a Royal Ruby in this style bottle, and the Citrate bottle I found made by O/I is dated dated 1947 and not from the early 60's, though I think there were the same style bottle made with different embossing than mine that could be from that time period. I'm guessing they are referring to a different Royal Ruby style NDNR bottle all together, as at the beginning of the Packie section it clearly shows a date range of 1939 to 1949 for the Packie.


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## DFW Digger (May 6, 2020)

Not to start a fuss, but I leave the citrates and moms including corkers laying on to the surface for others to find and develop interest in the hobby. Seems they come up every time I dig . Pretty common here.  Ya can only keep and give away so many.  Sam


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (May 6, 2020)

DFW Digger said:


> Not to start a fuss, but I leave the citrates and moms including corkers laying on to the surface for others to find and develop interest in the hobby. Seems they come up every time I dig . Pretty common here.  Ya can only keep and give away so many.  Sam


Everything i don't want i leave for others also. It is not worth bringing home one i have a hundred of.  It is good to leave for others so as to fuel our hobby i totally agree. ROBBYBOBBY64


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## CurbdiggerCarl (May 6, 2020)

You also need to see what they have sold for in the past, not just what the are selling at currently.


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## nhpharm (May 6, 2020)

I'm with Leon...I throw them back in the hole if they are screwtop and if they are corkers I put them in the dollar box at the shows.  I used to bring the screwtop ones to the shows as well but no one was buying, even at $1 each.  Just ended up not being worth the time to wash them just to tote them around and have them not sell.  They are for sure pretty in a window.  Unfortunately digging on city lots you can't just leave them out for someone else to take as the kids will come around and there will be smashed glass all over the place.


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## American (May 13, 2020)

Keep in mind that the vast majority of "buy it now" bottles on ebay do not sell


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## Timelypicken (May 13, 2020)

Things sell for double to triple the actual worth on eBay because the rich city bottle collectors who don’t dig and just buy are willing to pay that price.


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## saratogadriver (May 13, 2020)

For sale online vs Actual price realized for a sold item online are often quite a ways apart.  If you can search Ebay sold listings you'll get  a sense of what a bottle will really bring, or at least what it would bring that day.

Jim G


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## treeguyfred (May 13, 2020)

so many years ago I would keep everything I found while digging and after some time discovered I had a monstrous quantity of commons.... Bromos and MOM's. When I joined a north jersey bottle club I used to set up a table at our show and sale... It took literally YEEEEars to weed out my chunkers at 50 cents to a dollar each. Mind you, I never brought home ANY screw tops or snap tops, only tooled stuff. At one time I had almost a hundred tooled lip MOM's and Bromos of the most amazing shade runs from cornflower blue to saffire with cobalt and teal in between and my friendly club members would lovingly joke with me about having one of the prettiest worthless collection of leave behinds they had ever seen! Some where I still have prolly a dozen mixed left overs. 
 But! hey, these time's they are a changing... and the bottles we old fecks were tossing are prolly going to continue to gain some limited popularity... And its been said before too, if you like 'em thats what counts.
~Fred


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## treeguyfred (May 13, 2020)

And as Leon and Robby and prolly a few others have said... what ppl are asking for is usually not what they finally end up selling for...it's usually a whole lot less.... One more thing about eBay.. a lot of sellers don't know or care to know what they are trying to sell... and put fantasy prices on their item... hoping. I have in the way back days have tried both friendly and informative messages to "educate" them as to realistic values and on a few occasions got nice responses and even follow up messages but most often have been told "mind your own f ing business"
~Fred


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## RIBottleguy (May 14, 2020)

I've been selling bottles out of a rented space in an antique shop for a number of years now.  People here (Rhode Island) absolutely love anything blue like Phillips and Bromos.  I usually sell the smaller ones for around $3 and larger ones for $5.  And funny story, I dug a dump years ago that had so many Bromos I started to leave them.  Once I sold all the ones I kept I realized my mistake and now I take home pretty much every blue bottle!


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## yacorie (May 14, 2020)

I’ve been unloading bottles on eBay and the problem is shipping and fees.  For those of us without a store, we pay 10% to eBay and an additional 3% to PayPal plus 30 cents per transaction.  

eBay charges their fees on the total price, including shipping because people were trying to best them system.

For me, that means that unless a bottle sells for 20 bucks - it’s really not worth the effort.  Assume 10 bucks for priority shipping on average and 13% fees - I’m essentially making 8 dollars on a 20 dollar sale.  Less if I have to ship further.  

It’s easy to tell you to sell locally but that’s not the easiest thing to do either.  If you have a source to sell or want to pay To have a space then it might be an option.

I’ve started throwing away bottles that are worth 5-15 bucks each because it’s not worth the effort.  Some of them I sell on FB - 5 bucks a bottle plus actual shipping (blobs and hutches) rather than toss them.


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## Timelypicken (May 14, 2020)

yacorie said:


> I’ve been unloading bottles on eBay and the problem is shipping and fees.  For those of us without a store, we pay 10% to eBay and an additional 3% to PayPal plus 30 cents per transaction.
> 
> eBay charges their fees on the total price, including shipping because people were trying to best them system.
> 
> ...


Do you ship free shipping or they pay shipping. If you find and sell it for ten dollars eBay takes  A little more than a $1 And PayPal takes 50 cents so if you have them pay shipping which will be around $8 dollars You are still making money


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## yacorie (May 14, 2020)

Timelypicken said:


> Do you ship free shipping or they pay shipping. If you find and sell it for ten dollars eBay takes  A little more than a $1 And PayPal takes 50 cents so if you have them pay shipping which will be around $8 dollars You are still making money



Any way you cut it - it needs to sell for 20 bucks for me.  If I pay shipping or if they pay shipping, I do both.  

People factor the shipping costs, and now taxes, into what they’re willing to pay.  You aren’t going to get someone to pay 10 bucks for a $10 bottle and then add tax and shipping on top.


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## nhpharm (May 14, 2020)

Note that eBay charges final value fees on the shipping cost as well.  A lot of people that just buy on eBay don't realize that, but eBay had to start doing that because people were listing and selling stuff for $0.01 with $20 shipping to get out of paying final value fees to eBay.


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (May 14, 2020)

RIBottleguy said:


> I've been selling bottles out of a rented space in an antique shop for a number of years now.  People here (Rhode Island) absolutely love anything blue like Phillips and Bromos.  I usually sell the smaller ones for around $3 and larger ones for $5.  And funny story, I dug a dump years ago that had so many Bromos I started to leave them.  Once I sold all the ones I kept I realized my mistake and now I take home pretty much every blue bottle!


RIBottleguy, I was just curious, how much you ask for the extra large 6.5" bromo. 10 dollars sound about right. I know of 4 different sizes. ROBBYBOBBY64


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## Timelypicken (May 14, 2020)

yacorie said:


> Any way you cut it - it needs to sell for 20 bucks for me.  If I pay shipping or if they pay shipping, I do both.
> 
> People factor the shipping costs, and now taxes, into what they’re willing to pay.  You aren’t going to get someone to pay 10 bucks for a $10 bottle and then add tax and shipping on top.


I see your point. The only way to get those prices are someone who doesn’t know there prices or they are rich


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## yacorie (May 14, 2020)

Timelypicken said:


> I see your point. The only way to get those prices are someone who doesn’t know there prices or they are rich



I wasn’t taking about these magnesias.  I have a bunch of blobs and Hutchinson’s I’ve been selling.  List them all for 20-30 BIN and if they sell great - if not they go.

I’ve also been selling them for 5 bucks each plus shipping, a good deal for someone looking to add some to the collection.


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## RIBottleguy (May 16, 2020)

ROBBYBOBBY64 said:


> RIBottleguy, I was just curious, how much you ask for the extra large 6.5" bromo. 10 dollars sound about right. I know of 4 different sizes. ROBBYBOBBY64



I usually ask around $8, so pretty close!  I price my bottles to move lol.


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## Dogo (May 16, 2020)

When you check Ebay be sure that the bottle actually sold, and try for more than one sale.  Sometimes a non-collector will pay more out of ignorance.


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## lamareagle2 (May 16, 2020)

The problem with online pricing is it is just an asking price.  You could just as easily put $40 to $50 per bottle and some fool might actually pay that price.

That does not mean they are selling for $40 to $50 each on line.


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## hemihampton (May 16, 2020)

Reminder:  If you read my post on page 2 post #19 it will tell you what these are actually selling for or how to find out what they are selling for.


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (May 17, 2020)

RIBottleguy said:


> I usually ask around $8, so pretty close!  I price my bottles to move lol.


Smart man. Got to make room for the new finds. Priced too high and you just sit on them. That is not profitable. Thanks RIBottleguy for your expertise.  
ROBBYBOBBY64


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## Teradacto58 (May 19, 2020)

They use to get more for the very small ones.....they sold for $5-7 years back....if they were cork. Average midsize were $3 for Cork...Larger Cork  $5 ....Screw tops were $1-3  ...This was in Southern BC Canada,,,,


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## nhpharm (May 19, 2020)

Sounds like you all need to swing by the Houston, Texas bottle show this year (hopefully happening in October)!  I'll have a heap of corker bromos for $1 each.


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## American (May 20, 2020)

yacorie said:


> Any way you cut it - it needs to sell for 20 bucks for me.  If I pay shipping or if they pay shipping, I do both.
> 
> People factor the shipping costs, and now taxes, into what they’re willing to pay.  You aren’t going to get someone to pay 10 bucks for a $10 bottle and then add tax and shipping on top.


I give away anything that won't sell for $20 or more on ebay.  People who don't know much about blown bottles are thrilled to get them for nothing.  Why give them away you ask.  Because you just can't hoard every blown bottle without making your collection look trashy.  Specialization is the key....less is more.


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