morbious_fod
Posts: 4020
Joined: 3/4/2007
From: The backwoods of the backwoods, Virginia
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That's the age old question, and has no answer due to it's vagueness and reliance upon the whims of both the seller and the buyer. The seller could decide that the price he's asking is "what it books for and thus what its worth" regardless the economic times, actual availability (someone could have just found twenty of the exact same bottle and has started selling them), perceived availability (the seller himself has only seen one themselves and thinks its uber rare thus worth a mint). Then there is presumed rarity which I deal with a lot mainly due to the fact that my area has very few outlets for bottles to show up in and when they do the sellers decide they are worth a bunch of money, and since the buyers usually haven't seen them that often as well and are willing to pay the premium. All the while one person could have a crate of them in their basement and have no idea how to offer them to the collecting world, or even realize that the bottles are worth anything.
Then there is the "It's a small town so naturally they are rare." perception that you noted. A couple of examples in my area may help with this one. The small town of Tazewell, VA had the Sun Rise Bottling Company located there, technically it is North Tazewell, VA but the towns combined three years after the company closed. People in this area automatically assume that any bottle from this town is Uber-Rare, and will charge higher prices for them, never mind that the bottling plant existed for well over fifty years and had a large distribution area which included a lot of the area where there are almost know outlets for these bottles save word of mouth, and maybe a small flea market. No antique malls, one junk shop, and very little else. There are collectors of the company in the area; however, even with my four years of research I've only scared up one, who I need to try to meet sometime. My point is that while there are high priced bottles from this company namely the Tazewell Orange, with is one of the highest desired ones and usually runs around $100 in mint shape, and the Rooster Sun Rise bottles, there are some that I once thought were rare only to find out that they are more common than some of the national brands, and these are the Rhythm Punch bottles. The company closed down in 1960 and had ordered several grosses of these bottles dated 1960. These ended up on the market and in the area where they don't show up as much they can sell for upwards of $15, but go to Sevierville or the local bottle shows and you can expect to pick one up for $5.
Another good example is the Nesbitt-Double Cola Bottling Company of Falls Mills, VA. Falls Mills, VA is the poster child of a "hole in the road town" there really isn't a town as such, but more a small community which grew up around a flour mill. The bottling company moved from nearby Pocahontas, Va to Falls Mills, VA in the late 1940's. If Falls Mills has a thousand people living there I'd be shocked. The company distributed throughout the Virginia and West Virginia coal fields which are the same area as Sun Rise did, and the same situation applies, no outlets for people to bring in bottles. The only real good outlet closed about two years ago in Bluefield, I got several interesting bottles from this source and miss it greatly. Yet again we have a company with several fairly tough bottles to find, namely the Pocahontas Beverages line which features a Native American on the bottle; however, this same bottle came in a 16oz size from 1965-1981, and these bottles are everywhere. I have picked up nine variations of this bottle for $1 each, and this source still has about thirty or forty of them sitting there.
So don't be fooled by the "only 4000 people live there so it must be rare" justification. The distribution areas for most of these small bottlers would surprise you, and not all of the bottles from that town are necessarily uber-rare.
A bottle, or anything really, is only worth as much as the buyer is willing to pay. The Seller can ask as much as he wants, but in the end it doesn't matter if you don't sell it. There are a lot of bottles sitting in antique shops right now that someone thinks is worth the price they have on them, but they still sit.
< Message edited by morbious_fod -- 9/12/2010 3:14:03 PM >
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My website chronicling the soda bottling companies of the Southwest Virginia or Northeast Tennessee area including Bluefield, Princeton, and Rock West Virginia www.tazewell-orange.com
NEW ARTICLES: Just say Mil-Kay the story of Mil-K-Botl
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