Hundreds of Ball Jars!!! I have no clue what they are!

[zacdl]

My grandmother used to collect Ball Jars. I am pretty sure that is the majority of what they are. There are boxes and boxes and boxes of them in the garage, and I don't know where to start.
All different kinds and such.

I was wondering how I would find someone interested in them? I suppose I can get a book to Identify them, but from what I hear if you are not a collector it can be very hard to ID them. So what I would like to do is sell them as bulk lots if at all possible.

There are all different kinds, sizes, varieties, colors.
Let me know where to start!
Thanks.

 

[Tony14]

The first thing you should look at to date them is this chart. Another big thing to add value to jars is colors. As for books you could try to get a hold of one of the red books. And if you want quick prices try ebay.

 

[bobclay]

Hi zacdl and welcome!

Boy are you ever right....correctly identifying Ball jars can be a real task, simply because there are SO many different ones and variations. And there is only one real rule of thumb, color is king. Anything other than the norm of clear, aqua or blue is always worth more, such as deep greens and ambers. the intensity of the color determines the value.

In almost every separate genre of Ball jars, there are a few worth more than all the rest. But it would take several pages to try to list or describe them all. Just a few you might look for are the Ball PERFECTION jars, the Ball PAT APLD FOR jars, shoulder seal type Balll (3-L) SPECIAL jars, or blue 1/2 pints of all types within the Ball line.

You must remember though that Ball made hundreds of millions of jars in their over 110 year history. Consequently there are many that survive today and bcause of that probably 98% of all Ball jars are worth only a dollar or two. Finding that needle in a haystack without really knowing what the needle looks like may be next to impossible.

One thing I can guarantee though, if a good Ball jar is listed on ebay, it WILL sell and for usually above book price. There are many, many Ball collectors that browse ebay daily looking to add to their collection. The flip side to that though is that the ebay listing fees will eat you alive if the jars are common examples. Because of the high cost of shipping, people will not pay $5 for a jar worth $5 and then have to spend an additional $5 or $6 to have it shipped unless they need that particular size to complete a set.

It depends on where you live, but your best bet is to hopefully find a jar collector in your area (maybe advertise in your local paper) that will try to help you ID your jars and one that will not try to take advantage of you. Most collectors wouldn't, but there are a few that do take advantage of what people do not know.

Bob Clay

 

[zacdl]

Thanks for the picture Tony... I might need to go out there and open a box and see what kind of variety is out there. Of course, they could have packed all the good ones up together, I dont know.
He did mention something about a red book, I dont know what age has to do with it, but I imagine its old.

I will try going out there tomorrow and taking a look at a few and letting you know what I find.

Do you think there will be any person interested in just a huge bulk lot of all of them?

 

[bobclay]

Hi zacdl,

Good advice from Tony, but also remember that when it comes to many jars and bottles, age does not always equate to value. For example, there are many Ball jars 100+ years old only worth a couple dollars. By contrast, there are some much newer jars worth quite a lot. Supply and demand dictates value.

Another way of determining value is ebay...sometimes. If you type in the ebay search engine box exactly how the jar is embossed you can see how many similar jars are on ebay right now. Then you can check the completed auctions and see what similarly embossed jars sold for in the past. Doesn't always work out that way though as many non jar folks incorrectly title or describe their jars on ebay. You see many Ball jars described as just Ball MASON when it is actually a Ball Perfect Mason or Ball Ideal or some other type of Ball jar. To many people, a MASON jar is any jar, when actually only jars with screw threads for a lid are really Mason jars.

You may find one person that will come and take them all off your hands. Again though, you'd most likely find this person local to your location that would come and pick them up and not have to pay the shipping cost involved. That would save you a tremendous amount of work as well...packing a lot of jars for SAFE shipment is not easy and very time consuming.

Bob Clay

 

[jarsnstuff]

you might want to tell us your location just to see if you happen to be close enough for one of us to volunteer to help. -Tammy

 

[zacdl]

Yea, its Enid, OK.
Northwest Part of Oklahoma.

 

[bobclay]

Hi zacdl,

Well whaddya know! I live about 40 miles south of Tulsa! ) Still a bit too far a drive for me though.

Contact Ron Ashby in Blackwell. He used to live in Enid but may come up and see what you've got.

Bob Clay