What's the deal, why all but worthless?!

[willong]

So, why, tell me why they're all but worthless.

BottleDragon answered your question quite well when stating a basic economical principal: Supply and Demand!

Ten bucks a pop (pun was originally unintentional, but I like it now that I read it) for what was thrown away by the thousands seems pretty generous. You also answered your own question when reflecting upon the high shipping costs--why would someone purchase a bottle for $10 from an eBay seller and add another ten-spot for shipping when they can likely dig examples to suit their interests or buy them in the local swap meets, "junk" stores, bottle shows and flee markets, which several forum members mentioned?

 

[willong]

Wow! At the beginning of 2018, even as of early fall, I was not collecting vintage sodas. Had plans to make a bottle tree and this dragonfly, but collecting was not in mind. But look at me now! They're infatuating.

That dragonfly is pretty creative!

 

[cokemanracer]

Hi All

I've been busy with tax season but had a few minutes today to respond to the recent posts about 7up Bicentennial commemorative bottles. Attaching a few pictures, There's four six bottle sets of the Non returnable bottles, a 16 oz. "short": bottle set with pop tops, a "tall" 16 oz. set and also a 16 oz. "tall" set with screw tops. The fourth set are Diet 7up "short" bottles with pop tops. From an old bottle book I have, over 2.4 million sets of bottles from Los Angeles were produced and they were also available in other locations across the country.

There were two 16 oz. returnable 7up bottles with 1776-1976 on one side and the Liberty Bell on the other. One is from Ohio and the other from Utah but it has a slightly smaller Liberty Bell. The Utah bottle seems a bit tougher to obtain but still available in decent quantity to make it a common bottle. From the bottle book I have, over 1.2 million of these bottles were produced for distribution in Ohio.

Kerr Glass in Dunkirk, Indiana made commemorative bottles for both 7up and Royal Crown Cola in the 1970s and there's a few "bootleg" 7up Bicentennial bottles. One has no white paint in green glass and I also have clear glass bottles with the Liberty Bell. These are not errors, end of production line wrong glass color etc, but rather the product of glass company line workers inserting clear bottles into the line. Don't be fooled into paying a lot for these bottles.

A word of caution on "bootleg", "third shift", off color etc . bottles. They aren't errors, short production test runs, end of line runs, etc. They are merely the product of employees messing around and there's no end to it. I've talked to glass workers and they all tell the same story. Sometimes a run of as few as six bottles might be made for an employee celebrating an anniversary, etc. No one will ever know how many variations there are, and Coca-Cola bottles exist in probably hundreds of bootlegs.

Kerr also used 7up green blanks to produce their own Bicentennial bottles. I have them pictured below.

Staying on subject with 7up, but Royal Crown Cola, Dr Pepper, Pepsi, and other companies made Bicentennial bottles. In all, I have over 100 different Bicentennial bottles in the collection.

A quick story: I went to Cincinnati in the late 1970s to see a collector friend and he knew a person downtown who had bottles. This person had many bootlegs of commemorative bottles of all brands and several were Bicentennial from RC, Dr Pepper, etc. I only saw these one time and didn't have a camera with me but I did see them.

 

[cokemanracer]

7up also produced a 50 can set for the Bicentennial, I don't collect cans any more but when you stacked them up it made a picture of Uncle Sam. Attached is a large poster advertising the set. It's huge, 5' wide.

 

[iggyworf]

Cokemanracer, Nice collection. I would like to find those Kerr clear bottles. I do have the entire can set. Thanx for posting. What book is that you have?

 

[Bad3555]

Hi All

I've been busy with tax season but had a few minutes today to respond to the recent posts about 7up Bicentennial commemorative bottles. Attaching a few pictures, There's four six bottle sets of the Non returnable bottles, a 16 oz. "short": bottle set with pop tops, a "tall" 16 oz. set and also a 16 oz. "tall" set with screw tops. The fourth set are Diet 7up "short" bottles with pop tops. From an old bottle book I have, over 2.4 million sets of bottles from Los Angeles were produced and they were also available in other locations across the country.

There were two 16 oz. returnable 7up bottles with 1776-1976 on one side and the Liberty Bell on the other. One is from Ohio and the other from Utah but it has a slightly smaller Liberty Bell. The Utah bottle seems a bit tougher to obtain but still available in decent quantity to make it a common bottle. From the bottle book I have, over 1.2 million of these bottles were produced for distribution in Ohio.

Kerr Glass in Dunkirk, Indiana made commemorative bottles for both 7up and Royal Crown Cola in the 1970s and there's a few "bootleg" 7up Bicentennial bottles. One has no white paint in green glass and I also have clear glass bottles with the Liberty Bell. These are not errors, end of production line wrong glass color etc, but rather the product of glass company line workers inserting clear bottles into the line. Don't be fooled into paying a lot for these bottles.

A word of caution on "bootleg", "third shift", off color etc . bottles. They aren't errors, short production test runs, end of line runs, etc. They are merely the product of employees messing around and there's no end to it. I've talked to glass workers and they all tell the same story. Sometimes a run of as few as six bottles might be made for an employee celebrating an anniversary, etc. No one will ever know how many variations there are, and Coca-Cola bottles exist in probably hundreds of bootlegs.

Kerr also used 7up green blanks to produce their own Bicentennial bottles. I have them pictured below.

Staying on subject with 7up, but Royal Crown Cola, Dr Pepper, Pepsi, and other companies made Bicentennial bottles. In all, I have over 100 different Bicentennial bottles in the collection.

A quick story: I went to Cincinnati in the late 1970s to see a collector friend and he knew a person downtown who had bottles. This person had many bootlegs of commemorative bottles of all brands and several were Bicentennial from RC, Dr Pepper, etc. I only saw these one time and didn't have a camera with me but I did see them.

Thank you sir for all the great info! I'd be interested in what that book is your making reference to as well. Looks pretty dang handy!

 

[cokemanracer]

Hi everyone

Had a few minutes today and took pictures of the two commemorative soft drink bottle books I referenced with my post from March 12. They were published by Florene Pitcock of Ohio in the 1970s, a lot of effort was put into making these books. The various soda companies were contacted and it looks like she got a lot of responses, the listings have pictures of the bottle along with production amounts and other information. They're a great resource.

Today, I think it would be impossible to put together something like this, the book on the right is the first edition and the one on the left has several more listings but nothing newer than the late 1970s.

I found these many years ago at a Coca-Cola collectors convention, and once in a while a copy may show up on eBay. I would imagine a very limited production run of these.

 

[iggyworf]

Hi everyone

Had a few minutes today and took pictures of the two commemorative soft drink bottle books I referenced with my post from March 12. They were published by Florene Pitcock of Ohio in the 1970s, a lot of effort was put into making these books. The various soda companies were contacted and it looks like she got a lot of responses, the listings have pictures of the bottle along with production amounts and other information. They're a great resource.

Today, I think it would be impossible to put together something like this, the book on the right is the first edition and the one on the left has several more listings but nothing newer than the late 1970s.

I found these many years ago at a Coca-Cola collectors convention, and once in a while a copy may show up on eBay. I would imagine a very limited production run of these.

Thanx for posting those. Have to keep a lookout for those two.