mctaggart67
Posts: 89
Joined: 4/18/2010
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It's a shame when this happens, though it appears the seller may not have done anything intentional. That said, it always seems that not long after a large cache of labels is found, some of the labels "magically" find their way onto bottles, in a move to increase value. Up here in Canada, you have to be suspicious when buying any bottle sporting a Lethbridge, Alberta drugstore label, since thousands and thousands of such labels were found in the 1970s. I mean, even forty years after the fact, unscrupulous types are still pasting them onto all manner of bottles - prescriptions, olive oils, shoe blackings, beverages, etc. - to get a few more bucks. This measure fools the general public and newbies to the hobby, but seasoned veterans are usually pretty wise to the scam. I remember when a tinful of Strathroy, Ontario beer labels was unearthed, and one dealer, who had got ahold of a small stack, was pasting them onto dug bottles. At the time, I collected early beers, and he drew my attention to his amazing "basement" finds. I feigned deep interest, which hooked him, then I ignored the labelled beers for a bit. This perplexed him and threw him off his game a little. When his attention became divided with another potential customer, I just popped in the question: "Hey X, where did you dig these beer bottles?" His reply: "In the dump, just outside Goderich." My response: "And with these sharp looking labels on them, to boot?" His final reply was just that resigned look that kids have when they get caught with their hand in the proverbial cookie jar.
General rule: If the label looks too sharp and clean on a bottle that's a century or more old, then pass on it, because paper also suffers where and tear over time. Most especially, old paper, even pre-1890 cotton fibre-based paper, discolours over the years.
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< Message edited by mctaggart67 -- 11/19/2011 12:18:39 PM >
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Collecting embossed and labelled drugstore bottles from all over Canada.
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