New Collector

[ontariopoison]

Hello Everyone. After an extensive stint in Telegraph Insulator collecting(mostly cd 102's if ya know what those are) I have decided to start collecting something smaller and less heavey. [] I have thought about it thoroughly and decided Poison bottles is what it is. I have hundreds of antique bottles but am not too interested in them, just the poisons. I know absolutely nothing of my bottles except that most are made by the same company that makes most of my insulators. Dominion Glass. or "diamond D's as i call them.
so what am i looking for..as I stare at this Amber skull poison Liq. Iodine bottle? are the ambers better than cobalt or wha?
I hope to contribute good stuff to this forum and am lucky enough to live on 100 acres and have found quite a few dump sites that served me no purpose while collecting insulators but just may help me out now. I found many bottles in there so far but not many poisons. I'll keep a digging.

Jeremy

 

[whiskeyman]

Welcome to here, JEREMY.
Generally speaking: cobalt blues are more desirable as poisons. But some other colors fetch more money ,as scarcity , type, shape, and other factors all contribute to influence desirability.
Good luck in your new pursuit.

 

[ontariopoison]

So what do you guys and gals generally type in when visiting ebay to find poison bottles?

 

[dirtyknees]

well to go along with his ? about the amber or cobalt being more desirable my question is about three weeks ago i was digging and i found a 3-1/2 ince coffin shaped cobalt blue poisin bottle with the word poisin down the front of it in mint condition what do you think the worth is of a bottle like this

 

[Toxic_Waste]

I am new to poison bottle collecting but I keep learning things. A bottle seems to be worth whatever a collector is willing to pay for it. For example, some Wheaton coffin-shaped bottles, about 3" tall and manufactured as recently as 1971, sell on e-bay for anywhere from $9.99 to just under $100.

There are almost always small cobalt blue poison bottles listed on any given day, usually ones from the UK, and usually with the word "poison" embossed, or "Not to be taken" and some sort of either vertical ribbing or other texturing, such as "quilting," or raised bumps to indicate by touch it is a poison container.

Most sellers (on e-bay) of such bottles are listing them with no reserve at low starting bid prices of around or less than ten US dollars or the GBP equivalent. I have seen the winning bids average out into the $30 to $60 range, sometimes higher depending on if there is a cork or a label or unique bottle shape, etc. On dealer Web sites, the prices seem to be much higher, like $80 or more. I was surprised that people can get so many antique poison bottles at such low prices on e-bay. I would put a reserve price on any bottle I tried to sell, so I wouldn't have to let it go for like .99!