Belleville Show Report

[fishnuts]

The Belleville, IL Show was sponsored this past weekend by the Mississippi Valley Chapter of ABA and the Gateway Chapter of the BCCA and held at the Belleclair Fairgrounds. The facility is really nice...and large, there were over 270 tables split evenly with breweryiana and bottles & glass. And the building contains a nice diner with a bar! I have to say that it's the first show I've been to that sold beer...apparently a must for the beer can collectors.

Early set up began at noon Friday and they offered an early bird entry until seven pm. Saturday the festivities began bright and early at seven and the show opened to the public at nine, until three. Among the modern-era (emboss-paper-acl) soda bottle vendors in attendance were Milfred Anglin, Randee & Susan Kaiser, Bob Bunn, Dewayne Dillon, Mike Elling, and more.

While I got zero from my want list, I still came home with some decent low-to-mid-range acls including the four pictured here. Also ended up with a nice 12 oz. r/w Smile out of St. Louis. If I had been a MO. collector, I'd been in 'pig heaven' for there were many little seen and rares from that state. Found zero Arkansas bottles, including the stops to and from the show...sob, sob. I added six deco embossed to the growing display including a Sunshine (CA).
Lots of diggers and dug bottles were in attendance with really reasonable prices...the reason I got six!

Biggest find? My wonderful wife bought my Christmas early and gave me one of the Jar Doctor, Rich Lowry's tumblers! Oh my God! You could have knocked me over with a feather! Now I can buy those cloudy, dirty, off grade looking clears and end up with them being minty on the shelf. Lucky me! Thanks Jan...and Rich.

If you can make it to this show I think you

 

[fishnuts]

The cola display was the big gainer at the Belleville Show.

I added a 1947Atomic Cola from Detroit.
A nice red 1940 Sno Cola from Oakland.
And a Mor-Cola, 1946 from Detroit.

All in all, a really fun way to waste a couple days...

 

[cobaltbot]

Wow, that wifes a keeper[]. The Pep is has some similar varients listed in the Baltimore book. They list a couple red/whites and a yellow/red stippled like yours. I'll let Doc know there's a red/white stippled also.

 

[green dragon]

Great finds.

I really really need to get me to a bottle show... hope to get out to Bethlehem, PA next weekend. but finances are like nil

Anyone going to the PA show ?

Or has been and can give me info what to expect ? ( and how many banks to rob first )

~ AL

 

[fishnuts]

green dragon and anyone else that has not been to a decent bottle/acl show should really try hard and make one.
Think of all the postage you'll save just by putting new items in the trunk of your car for the trip home!

Don't think that going will cost you lots of $$$. It can...for sure! But it doesn't have to. For one thing, there are usually vendors that have dug bottles themselves, and at this show there were quite a few diggers. Some had really beautiful bottles, cleaned and minty looking. However, there were also vendors with boxes and boxes of bottles looking fresh from the dig. Often they don't value embossed sodas highly, which was my experience here, and I was able to purchase nice deco bottles cheaply. Three decos for $5, for example. An Hawaiian Territory deco for $2, as another.
If you dig, you automatically got trade stock and every vendor I talked to was also a collector, so there is always the possibility of getting something for only the cost of your 'sweat equity' in the digging.
Additionally, if the show is a bit outside your area, chances are your local bottles will be on the cheap. Here, Missouri and Illinois bottles were higher with most other states bottles being reasonable.

Heck! What you'd save in postage on ten bottles (otherwise ebay) will be enough to pay for gas and food on a one day trip

 

[green dragon]

Agree re: savings on postage. ( seems I hijacked your thread, sorry ) .... if the bottle prices are not inflated ( due to being a bottle show, vs, for example, an antique show or flea where bopttles are a small portion and get overlooked ) .

I collect ACL and Deco bottles - never bought anythign else, have dug others ( and saved them ), maybe should take some of the dug ones ? although not sure what was spectacular. lol.

Look forweard to the show, hope we do get to go, about a 2 hr drive all told, so could be worse ( I;ve driven further to fly rockets ) .

will certainly post my observations if I get to go ( and would love to meet any ABM'ers who are attending ) .

~ AL

 

[fishnuts]

green dragon
Umm, no you didn't hijack anything. At least, not to me.
Actually, your post led to my comments, which I hope gave both more information on shows in general and this one specifically.
It's so 'pan on the forehead' to grasp that things you dig but don't really want can be traded for things you do want.

I've collected lots of things over the past forty+ years and I don't believe there is any other collectible that allows a collector to... Dig a hole? Find bottles! Clean bottles! (sometimes) Sell bottles! You, and every other digger amaze me. So far, I'm a finder not a digger.