Need help for tv spot

[GuntherHess]

Unfortuately when you start talking money around the greedy general public it can F-up any good thing.

 

[mrbottles]

Well,

That was what I thought early on. I was one of the only people who knew about antique bottles, then I met a guy who lived a hundred miles away who now is a great friend at an small town boat launch. He was a rude awakening that I was one of many.

Keep it a secret and take advantage of people who don’t know or get thousands more people into hunting and collecting bottles. I don’t have to do this. Looking at it I think it is a killer way to promote the hobby. I promote antique bottle collecting all the time at every chance I get.

In the end, how much influence does any TV piece have? No one will care two weeks after it is on air. For me, I am all about promoting bottle hunting and collecting. I literally give bottles away and answer questions every day to spark interest.
Maybe it will never air anyway.

Thanks,

Steven

 

[JOETHECROW]

"The road to H*ll is paved with good intentions" [] (one of my Grandmothers sayings) and she was quite wise...I think similar things have surfaced here, and been batted around quite a bit, to be generally shot down. I'm all for promoting the hobby, but not showcasing value, (the evil money thing).. nor drawing attention to the fact that I have a houseful of valuable (to me mostly) bottles...The animal known as the general public is quite a beast. Folks for the most part already think every clorox bottle is valuable....Sorry to rain on your parade.

 

[cyberdigger]

I hear ya, Steven!
It probably won't amount to much, but if you get on TV, that will be cool!
I just don't like the idea of someone dropping and breaking a bottle on the show.. there must be a better way to cinch it up..

 

[mrbottles]

HA, my parade can handle rain. Look at the website I built to the tune of tens of thousands in payroll to promote the hobby. I don’t lie or mislead people who contact the site. I just got the only whole pontiled Madison Wisconsin bitters bottle because I am loudly and proudly promoting bottle collecting. I paid a fair price but I could have screwed the guy. If I never got out there and built the web based resource I would never have met that guy or got that bottle.

I will count on it being the same thing and will try to make the piece something that gets people excited to find antique glass. If anyone gets denied access on a privy dig I apologize now.

There will always be people who don’t know to take advantage of. More people in the know means a greater likelihood of something good turning up…. At least that is the way I see it.

I hear ya cyber. I know that is painful. I have a week to figure out how to make it funny. I have nice looking horribly cracked bottles to do the trick. The thought is to make an impression people will pause at. I am thinking... It should be great. Again, i want to promote huntig and collecting or i would not do it.

Peace,

Steven

 

[cyberdigger]

You want to leave a 3rd degree burn in the retinas of your viewing constituency? Give me a couple days, I will think of something..

 

[surfaceone]

Look at the website I built to the tune of tens of thousands in payroll to promote the hobby. I don’t lie or mislead people who contact the site. I just got the only whole pontiled Madison Wisconsin bitters bottle because I am loudly and proudly promoting bottle collecting. I paid a fair price but I could have screwed the guy. If I never got out there and built the web based resource I would never have met that guy or got that bottle.

I will count on it being the same thing and will try to make the piece something that gets people excited to find antique glass.

Hello Steven,

If I was gonna do this, I'd emphasize the history side and not the dollar side of bottle hunting/collecting. Fine to give a nod to monetary value, but you did not, I believe, do your great website with dollars in mind. You've preserved wonderful, unique pieces of history, researched it, and learned from the process. I believe the people you wish to attract to the "hobby" would be those interested from the historical side rather than opportunistic

folks. I'd be trying to show a history of a bottler or brewer shown through the containers, go withs, photographs, research you've employed. Maybe, a short bit about how you got bitten by the mrbottles bug... Good luck with the program, and please keep us posted.

Meanwhile, making a donation to this site, cannot help but benefit the hobby, and help insure that this great resource of A-BN continues, and flourishes...

 

[JOETHECROW]

ORIGINAL: mrbottles

HA, my parade can handle rain. Look at the website I built to the tune of tens of thousands in payroll to promote the hobby. I don’t lie or mislead people who contact the site. I just got the only whole pontiled Madison Wisconsin bitters bottle because I am loudly and proudly promoting bottle collecting. I paid a fair price but I could have screwed the guy. If I never got out there and built the web based resource I would never have met that guy or got that bottle.

I will count on it being the same thing and will try to make the piece something that gets people excited to find antique glass. If anyone gets denied access on a privy dig I apologize now.

There will always be people who don’t know to take advantage of. More people in the know means a greater likelihood of something good turning up…. At least that is the way I see it.

I hear ya cyber. I know that is painful. I have a week to figure out how to make it funny. I have nice looking horribly cracked bottles to do the trick. The thought is to make an impression people will pause at. I am thinking... It should be great. Again, i want to promote huntig and collecting or i would not do it.

Peace,

Steven

Steven....
In no way, shape form, nor manner was I suggesting to take advantage of unknowing souls...That's not my style, nor ethic... You won't meet a more honest nor die hard enthusiast for this bottle passion. I've been doing this for about 40 years, and have never tired of it. My opinion was only stated because T.V. does not discriminate on who it reaches... greedy, wealthy, poor, delinquent, educated, cultured, wholesome, or criminal..........I'd much rather be able to promote the hobby to a known participant or audience...It's just that human nature won't be denied, and most (not all) of the masses are predictable in their behavior. I'm not sure where the idea came from about 'screwing' anybody? I was objecting on far different grounds. I can see that you are an enthusiast, and I'm glad for that...I'm sure you'll do a great job with the project. I just don't want unknown people with bad intentions coveting my hard dug collection, in these crippled economic times... Crime is much more prevalent right now.I don't have bottle insurance. Do you? Thanks for hearing me out. Joe

 

[cowseatmaize]

I highly doubt there is anyone on this site who hasn't asked or thought of or sold a bottle for personal gain. Heck, many make a good living at it or at least a decent suppliment to the income.

I'm curious as to how many new members registered to this site after "Cash and Treasures" aired about the bottle show they did. I wonder if there was an influx of people asking "how much is my Sawyers bluing worth" or what have you.

Steve, whatever you decide, your fist draft needs some work.
I have no idea what the thin bead at the top and 1885 mean.
The red mark I'm guessing your talking about IP. I've heard of a red or even white in Cecil Munsey's old book but never seen one, just black. You may want to leave that out.
I think rarity trumps color in most cases. A rare aqua will beat even a teal bromo anyday. Don't let them get confused over color and irradiated. Be it purplish or that charcoal and brownish color.

Actually, maybe be as basic as possible.
You'll never teach everything in 1 1/2 minutes.

 

[mrbottles]

Hey Joe, since I go to people’s houses and take pictures for my website I have asked a lot of people to see their collection. Some are so worried someone will break in for their bottles that they won’t show them. I have always believed bottles would be the worst thing to steal for a thief because each is unique and eventually if you sell them it will get back to the crook. I think just about every burglar does it for money. Plus the people who appreciate bottles tend to be honest people. I have considered getting bottle insurance because I have a two year old and a four year old boy. So far I have not pulled the trigger on that one though. Just teaching them to behave for now. Great kids, so far it is working out. We have bottle appreciation time just about every day where we pick a bottle and try to find certain letters on them or to sound out the words. Fun for kids and dad. I didn’t mean it like you or anyone wants to keep the lid on collecting so we can take advantage of unknowing people on bottles. I was I think the more the general public knows the better it is for us all.

Yes the draft is just that. It is getting the ideas to the producer for agreement and then I will refine. My goal was to give basic clues someone with a box of bottles can use to determine what might be valuable and a guide wire someone at a flea market or garage sale can use to determine if they want to buy a bottle for speculative value. The pontil is important and yes that red mark is a pontil. I will make that more clear. Applied bottle tops is what I am getting at with the bead of glass. You are right it needs to be more basic and clear. I will show examples and describe the rough base as much as anything. The producer said 1.5 minutes. The reason I gave the extended version back to her is because if they make it two or three minutes the piece will have a lot more information. I write radio ads all the time and TV ads fairly often. The first draft is always loose what can go will go in draft two then it gets to what is most important stays in draft three. Unlike the Antique R S this show is willing to help promote our hobby by featuring bottles and hunting for them. With the economy sucking wind some people who would not otherwise, might start to hunt for bottles AND collect them. More collectors is good for all collectors.

I think you are right on the money Eric. When I started bottle collecting, before I understood really anything about them, I was most excited by the ones I found that were worth more money. For a collector the money doesn’t matter because they aren’t for sale anyway. The value in dollars brings equivalent value to the hobby. Knowing a bottle was bought for $3 and sold for $42,000 gets people to pay attention to the whole TV piece because they can’t believe something so simple could be so rewarding. We all know how tough it is to find a $2000 bottle. I a mean, most hunters don’t ever find a multi thousand dollar bottle. For all the hunting I have done I have found many in the $500 range a few that break over $1000 and one worth more than $2000. I have bought a number of them worth more but that to me is not the same as finding them. If people get out and scour Wisconsin looking for old bottles the more I might get AND they may find something I don’t even know exists right now. I just bought an extremely rare, iron pontiled bitters from Madison this past Friday. Like, unlisted nationally rare. The guy found it in 1975! And had it on a shelf for 35 years… (You can see it on my home page) If this TV piece gets a couple dozen people like that across America to contact people like us or the TV show those bottles will be moving out to where they are most likely to survive forever… The hands of collectors who appreciate them. (Provided my kids don’t start throwing balls in the house)
Thanks Eric and everyone. Your feedback especially Eric will help make the spot the best it can be. If more people have ideas please let me know.