Bottle Auctions

[Springfield]

Does anyone have suggestions where to sell valuable old bottles? Thanks.

 

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[coinshooter]

The obvious place is ebay. If you don't want to lose them for too cheap a price, you can put a reserve on them, but if they are truly valueable, the other bottle collectors on there will bid them up quickly when you put a low starting price on them. It's kind of a double edged sword. Put them on there for a low price and take a chance (this works 8 out of ten times I would say), or put a reserve on there and have ebay steal your $. At least with a low starting bid ebay won't be able to steal your money as easily. I am beginning to think with all of the fees that ebay charges (now they own Paypal too, so they can gouge you more) that the local swap meet might even be a better deal for the lower end stuff that just doesn't seem to move to easily. All in all though, ebay still holds the #1 spot and has the most viewers from all over the world. There is nothing that compares. It is like the "Microsoft" of the auction world. Good luck!

 

[Desertdigger]

I wish I knew the answer to your question! I tried E-Bay and got ripped off. I have about 4000 old bottles many of them poniled and lots of pre-civil war stuff, all dug from New Orleans, La when they were building the super dome arena, I am to old and sick to make the bottle shows and would like to turn them into cash but when i have let some bottle collectors look at them they want to pick out the best ones and offer a ridiculous price, I will donate them to a museum I guess before I will give them to some UN scrupulous dealer wanting to make a fast buck. I would break all of them first. They have been in storage in milk crates for 40 years while i pursued other interests. Some of them are one of a kind that has never been listed in any bottle book or Old Bottle Magazine which I have 30 years back issues of also and still get and I have not found a honest buyer yet!!

 

[Darren in NC]

Hey desertdigger,

Nawlins is my old stomping grounds - closer to Baton Rouge actually. Question - how do you know the value of a bottle that has no comparison? Perhaps they would be worth more to local collectors in southern LA since the bottles are likely to be indigenous there. Please don't break them Get one of the reporters/writers for the paper to do a local interest story on the memories of days gone by. You have a great story to be written about. Pre-Superdome history, rare bottles, 40 years ago...it would surely attract interest and cash offers for the whole collection!

All the best to you,
Darren

 

[Siegfried Schlagrule]

On a large accumulation of better anything you can't beat a featured auction with the prime auctioneer in any town. If those are mainly louisiana bottles sell them through a New Orleans auction house. You'll get your money quickly too. exanimo, ss

 

[Desertdigger]

Thanks Guys, I have checked with auctioneers, they don't want anything to do with dug bottles, only mint stuff and then they want too much commision and guarantee so you would end up getting very little. Bottle books and magazines are deceptive because the prices they list are for mostly mint bottles, very few mint bottles are dug, I for one could not afford an all mint collection but some people can and thats where those bottles circulate. I would only sell mine to a collector who could appreciate them and take all of them and I do not expect to get "Book" price but I am not going to sell a New Orleans pre-civil war emblossed soda for $2 either. I have sold a few emblosed corker medicines from other states one at a time, it makes you wonder how an "OWL DRUG STORE-Plattsburg NY- Phone 327" could get to New orleans but there were lots of out of town drug store corkers found in the upper layers of wells and privys there.