Is a bottle a COMMON if...

[vintage57]

...one doesn't have any in their collection?
I see "common" used by seasoned collectors. I haven't really found bottles for under 5 bux for many years. Then, again, I have been out of bottle collecting for just as long.
To me, a Chocolate Soldier is not common because I haven't seen any for sale in my tiny neck of the woods. Yet I saw mention that someone had so many they called them commons. I would love to have a six-pack full of what is considered common. I guess its because I have never had so many that I need to take them to the recycling bin.
DISCLAIMER!! PLEASE, I do not wish to come off as an a** to experienced collectors. I used to have an ACL collection but sold many because of space limitations. I look foreward to collecting ACLs again, I just know they will cost more.

 

[flasherr]

Commons can be a word used alot. What might be common on east coast might be tough in Texas. ALot depends on your region and how many are found at a time. i know a guy who cleans out old soda factories. When he pulls 200 cases of same soda out it can be come a common in his neck of the woods but if i buy 5 cases of them a distribute them around Texas at a slow pace they might not be considered common here. The only bottle i have taken to recycle are usually white lettered cokes that i bought at auction or in groups just to get the cases. there are still plenty of bottles to be had at $1 if you look long and hard. for the most part i dont pay more than $5 for a bottle unless i know it is really good. i am just patient and put the word out im looking and i do find them.

Good luck on your hunt and share pictures. Remember if it is considered common and you get at a good price and you like it who cares. It is for your collection and you are the one who has to like it.

 

[fishnuts]

Check out the recent thread about BANG FOR THE BUCK picture bottles...that all usually sell for $10 or less!

Most from the final listing are common no matter what part of the country you're in. This hobby is fairly global,,,that is, the find you make in PA affects the marketplace in TX too. Even those commons would all be absorbed into collections one day...you'd think. But it never seems to happen. There will always be Arctic polar bears, Black Kow ambers and Orchard fruit pickers to delight and amuse. And for a very common price.

For overuse of a word relating to acls, try out the word: RARE.
IT seems nearly every bottle listed is...rotfl

 

[OsiaBoyce]

Where have you been looking?
a] Antique store........hardly ever any bottles there.
b] Goodwill.........never any bottles there.
c] junkstore...........well that's the best place to look.
d] estate sale..........that's only good if person was a bottle collector/hoarder.
e] Craigs list..........see above or someone stumbled on a load.
f] old barns and out buildings..........most have already been checked.
g] digging........... finding a good acl is slim to none.
h] eBay...........you want bottles this is the place to go. Open 24/7/365
example #1 http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=chocolate+soldier&_sacat=13915&_odkw=&_sop=10&_osacat=13915&_sticky=1&_trkparms=65%253A7%257C66%253A2%257C39%253A1&_catref=1&_sc=1%7C1

example #2 http://www.ebay.com/csc/Sodas-/13915/i.html?_sop=10&_sticky=1&_trkparms=65%253A7%257C66%253A2%257C39%253A1&_nkw=chocolate+soldier&_catref=1&_sc=1%7C1&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc

Addendum: If you are looking for $5.00 and under bottles this is not the place to go.

i] bottle shows........if you want bottles this is the place to go.........it's all they do.

..........and remember "Just because you don't see, that does not mean it's rare."

 

[vintage57]

WOW! So my best bet is ebay?? Ugh. More fun to see in person before buying. I know, that is where all the bottles are. Sure miss the old days when i'd find a half case at a yard sale!! Hoping to maybe find some next time I go to flea market.
BTW, to change the subject, but keep it similar....
what's the story on why so many Black Cow ambers?
surprised they weren't gobbled up as *orphan* bottles for bottlers who still do glass bottling today.

 

[cowseatmaize]

I think flasher said it well.
Since you used to collect I won't bore you with the holders to make a sixer so lets get complicated.
I see commons at yard sales, fleas, bottle shows etc. all the time for 50¢ ±. The shipping kills the price on eBay etc. so that's out because the are said to be common, don't even try. I had a full six with holder I wouldn't have even recouped my fees and time after shipping (quink, squint squirt or something[][]), I don't remember what happened to that.
I asked about one here (not ACL but a soda) and no one heard of it. After awhile I listed it on eBay. I ended up keeping it (didn't sell for $10) until I get a book or other info to figure what it is. Is it rare, I don't know? It may just be that in Niagara Falls NY (where I've narrowed it down to) no one wants it cause it's common but no one from anywhere else want's it because it's not local.
Your question is very hard to answer.

 

[ratbastard]

ORIGINAL: OsiaBoyce

Where have you been looking?
a] Antique store........hardly ever any bottles there.
b] Goodwill.........never any bottles there.
c] junkstore...........well that's the best place to look.
d] estate sale..........that's only good if person was a bottle collector/hoarder.
e] Craigs list..........see above or someone stumbled on a load.
f] old barns and out buildings..........most have already been checked.
g] digging........... finding a good acl is slim to none.
h] eBay...........you want bottles this is the place to go. Open 24/7/365
   example #1  http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=chocolate+soldier&_sacat=13915&_odkw=&_sop=10&_osacat=13915&_sticky=1&_trkparms=65%253A7%257C66%253A2%257C39%253A1&_catref=1&_sc=1%7C1

example #2  http://www.ebay.com/csc/Sodas-/13915/i.html?_sop=10&_sticky=1&_trkparms=65%253A7%257C66%253A2%257C39%253A1&_nkw=chocolate+soldier&_catref=1&_sc=1%7C1&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc

Addendum: If you are looking for $5.00 and under bottles this is not the place to go.

i] bottle shows........if you want bottles this is the place to go.........it's all they do.

..........and remember "Just because you don't see, that does not mean it's rare."

don't know how you came up with this. where im from lots of bottles in antique stores. just because there isn't too many in your location doesn't hold true for other locations. also i have some real nice acl bottles that were found by diggers.

 

[flasherr]

Black Kow ambers. there were thousands and thousands of them recovered from a basement. the bottles had never been used. If i remember right the story i got from the guy who discovered them is something about sugar rationing during war time and the company never followed through after sugar was no longer rationed. The guy by the name of Larry that found them said he had to pay by the bottle to recover them he spent months i believe he said getting them out, the bottles had been down there so long the boxes had fallen apart and they were all over the place. if it had a chip on it he smashed them against the wall. that is why mostly all you see is mint ones. the building was being demolished so when he ran out of time i guess the rest got covered up. the same company has a clear embossed bottle with their name on it. you will see it in purple because they have been nuked and turned that royal purple.

Flea markets are probably your best bet as to finding them. I run ads on craigs list looking for dumps and bottles. sometimes i get response other times i get nothing but it doesn't cost me anything either.

Ebay has good deals but if you pay $3 for a $8 bottle and have to pay $7 shipping you have not accomplished anything really. We don't have a lot of bottle shows in my area. I set up at the Tulsa bottle show a couple years ago and couldn't even pay my $35 table rent because the collectors that came were advanced and didnt want $3-10 bottles. But i bought some nice bottles cheap there. With a table having this many bottles on it you would think i would have done better. The general public didn't seem to have much interest in the bottles.

Where are you from vintage57?

 

[fishnuts]

...AND.
Don't get trapped into making the mistake that all common bottles are cheap. Nor are all cheap bottles, common.

Last goes first for an example...this weekend past I found an extremely rare single colored red Dub-L-Valu, 1944 from Prescott, AR. Rare as in never heard mentioned, listed, or seen by me...umteen years lookin'. Three bucks! Cheap. Not common. Worth less than three to most collectors as it appears common... besides, who want's this ugly-ish all red acl from Po Dunk, AR?

And too. There are bottles that traffic in just about any price range...that you see at every show, that you see constantly on ebay. That you see in every antique mall across the grerat midwest. Common bottles. Aspinock @ $30 - 35 for example. Cleo Cola queen in green is another (whatever its sellling for) and now so isFrontier @ over $100. Understand these bottle are not high because of their commonality but because of their picture label. So don't be in a hurry to purchase one of them as their prices should stay flat for, oh...a long time. I believe there are lots and lots of these bottles who's value is much higher than either their commonality or their local interest should support.

 

[T D]

I may or not be answering the original question, but it is the nature of the beast- EBay does make more bottles common. My answer would be to collect what you like and what you can afford. I display about 300 bottles and many are what I consider common. They are there because I like them. As I add rarer bottles, I will replace some common ones.

One other note- around these parts ACLs that have been dug look good when you dig them- but you better never clean the label or touch the label because it will disappear