Did you know your bottle may be worthless?

[GuntherHess]

A good example of why you need to look closely at every bottle...
A junior collector brought in a seemingly common White House vinegar bottle he found beside the road to our bottle club meeting. Everyone looked at it and said OK nice...
Until one person noticed to didnt say Vinegar it said Venigar and thus was a pretty rare item. I would have probably picked it up and thrown it back in the woods if I dug it.

 

[RazorsEdge]

That is why i bring most of my finds home unless they are jars because half the time you think something is worthless at first but then you wash it and find embossing that you hadnt noticed before....I love it when that happens[]

 

[whiskeyman]

Over the years I have noted a lot of things once deemed worthless slowly come to have collectible value. The most recent is, the collecting of throw -away soda bottles from the 1960's...Some collectors feel they should remain thrown away . Others predict they will be re-thrown away. I feel that is a bit harsh, as all bottles have their niche in the Hobby...some may not have found it yet...but they will.

As for Reggie's site...it is a generalization list of common bottles. Reggie has done significant things for the hobby over the years...He built & maintains the website on his own...he publishes an email/snail mail newsletter...he has served in assorted capacities in the Hobby...and is a nice guy I'm glad to say is my friend....(I ain't slamming anyone, just making a statement)...[]

The problem lies not with his list but with the mentality of some of the "serious collectors" who specialize...ie...collect bitters, sarsaparillas, cures, historical flasks, poisons, etc , etc...a single specific category. ( Not maligning anyone here, but making a general observation).
Some look down upon any bottle that is machine made....some look down upon any bottle that isn't pontilled....I recall when ACL sodas were taking off...many predicted they wouldn't last.
Screw caps?...forget it....those too ,are worthless to many.
Label only bottles? At one time, those too were looked down upon...didn't matter if they were BIM or ABM...not worth collecting was the opinion of many...

Some years ago I met with a couple of guys in the hopes of beginning a bottle club. One brought a digging scrapbook...the other brought his soda & milk bottles. The first guy had dug with the John Ryan soda collectors and had some great pics of early blob top colored sodas they had dug...
His attitude towards the collector of milks and crown top sodas?
"We throw stuff like that back in the hole."

Needless to say after that day, the soda/milk collector wouldn't talk to me....took about 8 years to get him to "come out" again.

Anyway: my point is everything has worth - whether in your eyes or in the eyes of another...and we all need to respect those who collect, no matter what they collect. It's all about the Hobby and not about any one person or category of collecting interests.
Another thing, I think may have been said earlier:...Collect what you like and you'll never be disappointed.

 

[woody]

Well said, Charlie.[]

 

[whiskeyman]

Thanks WOODY...

 

[diggermeister]

Very well said, Whiskeyman!!!

 

[Trying not to break it]

hi everyone, i happen to go digging today after reading the post and checking out the site. i found my 1st bottle of sauer's extract, which is one of the bottle's listed. i brought it home. it's embossed and a nice shape. i have lots of mccormick spice bottles but this is the 1st sauer's. maybe it depends on where you live? happy digging and collecting, rhona ps. gary i found about 8 federal law bottles. it's going to be slow cleaning as some have remeans of paper or foil labels. so i'm trying to clean some dirt to see if i can tell what's on them. will post when i can.

 

[BRIAN S.]

Well said Charlie ! That's why they make Chocolate and Vanilla !

 

[madman]

ok everone does not have a 1860s dump!! i have a dump that dates to the early 1900s so thats what i collect, the bottles may be common, but to agree with the miester its like meditation!!! i love being out side, and i love finding bottles no matter what the age or value happy diggin yall mike

 

[TheDiggerBoy91]

Must agree...I collect stuff all the way up to the 50's and in some cases, even up until the 70's. I say, if times have changed since it was made, it's considered an artifact and should be collected!!