Wooden Coca-Cola Carrying Cases

nym9nyj7 · Jul 13, 2012

Learning a lot about the history of Coke bottles through the internet, but having a much more difficult time locating information on the wooden carrying crates. When did Coke stop using the wooden crates? Is there any particular way to date them? Anyone know much about them or have an links to good resources?

THANKS! [

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OsiaBoyce · Jul 13, 2012

They were used up into the 80s I know.

Dating them........there is usually a mfg. date on the inside of them.

Eric · Jul 13, 2012

most of your 24 bottle crates will be dated on the inside... wooden crates where used up into the 80s for sure... Petretti has the coke price guides showing dates or eras of certain crates... Yellow crates where used into the 60s then went to the red with the Coke Swish into the 80s...

nym9nyj7 · Jul 13, 2012

Thanks guys!

Eric - do you consider the Petretti guide to be useful and/or worth the cost? The 2008 version is pretty expensive. I found a copy of the 2001 version on half.com for considerably less than the newer one, would it be imprudent to go cheap and purchase that copy instead?

Also, are you familiar with Warman's guide? Is it comparable to Petretti's?

I'm still new to all of this, so any and all advice or suggestions are welcome! [

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LC · Jul 13, 2012

When I had my auction some years back now , I had quite a collection of the wood Coke open crates . I stock piled them . Used them to make Wagons out of . Sold them for thirty bucks a pop for a while . Then the fad went south . They sold them in piles , seems like they did not bring much at all .

Eric · Jul 14, 2012

Ha.. OisaBoyce and I where type'n at the same time... and came up with the same answer so I feel pretty smart as I think he's been
collecting a lot longer than I....
I have an older Petretti book... nice for image referance on an item to see if it's real, fake or reproduction then you can get an idea of value
but anymore I would use eBay as a price guide... Some of Petretti's prices are right some are high and some lower... since the internet... more
items have become available/easier to find so the prices have dropped .. then there's our great economy right now...soooo.... anyway
find a older copy of his book (ebay) then use ebay for price... crates are all over the place price wise... condition and whether they are a 24
indivdual case or set up to hold 6 pack cases... then of course brand (soda).
I have several crates in different brands... I stick with the 50s 60s era since that's the era I collect.. they look great loaded up with bottles.

Good Luck!

nym9nyj7 · Jul 14, 2012

I think then that I'll go for the older Petretti guide. You're right, Eric, using the internet is the best way to stay current with values, and honestly, I really want the book just so I can learn more about the bottles and such - you know, learn what characteristics denote certain time periods, etc.

So - going back to the crates - I was browsing some guy's collection of coke bottles/crates today and nothing really interested me except this: a 24-slot yellow coke crate with red writing. Seemed pretty typical until he pointed out that on the sides of the crate (the edges with the handle cutouts) instead of also saying Coca-Cola it said "Rex Root Beer." We both agreed that it was probably the case that the distributor had the license to sell both, but that it was interesting that they chose to assemble their crates that way.

Does anyone know anything about Rex Root Beer? I looked online and saw a post on some website that said Rex Root Beer was a New Orleans company and was bottled by Coca-Cola. It makes sense that they were located out of N.O. as the guy had purchased the crates in Louisiana, but still being new to this, what does that mean exactly when a product is "bottled" by another company?

Further more, does a crate like that bring any extra value? Or was it a fairly common practice for distributors to have crates that were "mixed and matched" (for lack of a better term)?

Wooden Coca-Cola Carrying Cases

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