The one that got away

[fighting_blue_jay]

Hey all, sorry if this is a re-post, i didnt see one like it when i searched.

What was that one bottle you passed on and regret not getting? Whether it be at a yard sale, flea market, auction, etc.
Mine was when I had started getting interested in the hobby and i came across a light green, unembossed torpedo bottle.
It was $25 ( a lot for a boy of 15 with no income haha). I passed on it at first and eventually made up my mind to buy it, but it was already
snagged up by someone else. Even though my collection has grown over the years, for some reason i still think of that one.

 

[botlguy]

When I started collecting seriously again, in 1988, I again decided to specialize in BITTERS. I started by re-acquiring ones similar to the ones I had sold about 15 years earlier. In 2 years I was successful at that and decided to expand. I had an opportunity to buy a GREEN DRAKE'S for $1,000 which seemed ridiculous to me. When I decided to go ahead and spend $1,000 for one the prices were $1,500. No way, I'd find one for less. By the time I finally got one in 2008 it cost me $3,000. 2 months after spending $3,000 I bought one for a bargain $850.

 

[mtfdfire22]

an unknown blob beer from frankenmuth michigan.got away for $35.00. i think about it every single day

 

[NyDigger1]

in my four years I never let one slip, always bought what I though was reasonable / really wanted, but there is a list of about 20 blobs Id like, and I wont stop collecting until the day I have them, then I could know peacefully that I have every relevant blob from the 5 boroughs (I know there are about 30,000 blobs from new york city but ive gathered almost evey one that was a ground breaking company, there were about 60 of them that stood out from the rest)

 

[saratogadriver]

I could have bought several Stoddard Green Mountain Renovators back in the late 80's for anywhere from $550 to $700. Way too much money for a kid in grad school eating ramen noodles. Now, the dang things are going for anywhere from $3500 up. Really wish I'd stretched the budget then, maybe gone without beer for a year to make it work...

GOOD glass has so gone through the roof in 20 years...!

Jim G

 

[Plumbata]

No real bad instances for me, but at one bottle show this experienced digger came and was selling bottles and antiques from his trunk for crazy low prices. Bought a bunch of local hutches for a buck a piece, other great items for a few bucks each, great rarities for 10-20 each. And the guy knew he was practically giving the stuff away. Sadly I didn't have the cash with me to buy all the rare 20.00-100.00 local/regional bottles. Lemme tell ya; they were worth every penny he was asking!

 

[RIBottleguy]

I've let two rare RI bottles slip through my fingers. One was an amber squat Chas. F. Young Providence, RI with the original rare stopper. It had a lip nick and was priced pretty low, but I was young and just starting to dip my feet into the world of higher-end bottles. I decided to buy it at the next show but alas, it had been sold.
The other was a CPC (Cross Pen Company) master ink bottle. It's the only master ink from RI, and I balked at the asking price for one with a notable lip chip. By the time I made my next round it was gone.
Oh well, I'm sure I'll come across them again, but probably not for a number of years!

 

[ktbi]

There was a perfect Sparks Kidney and Liver cure for $400 at the Anderson. CA bottle show about six years ago. Haven't seen one since and it will be twice the price when I finally do find another one...Ron

 

[tigue710]

I was in the process of acquiring a collection from a woman who had 8 or 9 boxes of bottles she found in a building she had bought. I meet her at a yard sale. We talked for a few weeks and then I lost touch with her. From her description I really didnt think she had much, but she had no clue either. Two months later she calls, and had lost my number but just found it again. I hadn't called her in the meantime. She tells me on the phone that another woman gave her 1000 bucks for the bottles, but she still had one box left she had over looked if I was interested. I told her yes, and we met up that afternoon. When I opened the box it had pontil meds, a few different bitters including a yellow drakes, a Langley's, a mishlers, and quite an assortment of other early bottles including some nice seam side flasks. She told me the other boxes had the same types of bottles, some whiskey bottles and more of the flask type ones but they had writing and eagles and stuff on them! Not long after that I heard of a local antique dealer who had acquired a collection with Willington flasks and a few Willington whiskey 5ths, along with many bitters and early meds. It was the other boxes I had missed...

 

[botlguy]

OUCH ! ! !