Just post something...

That's a crisp sweet and fresh SS Coke, nice pickup!

there were a few oldtimers missing which is a bit disheartening as we grow older.

I'm states away now but my bottle club is dying off too, it's pretty sad. :crybaby2:

It was hoppin' when I went as a kid in the late 90s, but seems like it'll go extinct before long at this rate. New young collectors are still created by fortuitous old bottle discoveries in creeks etc. so the hobby won't likely disappear anytime soon, but with the 1st gen oletimer diggers and collectors passing away the hobby is certainly losing valuable resources and suffering in general.
 

Wow, that is incredible! Incredible to me, because all of mine are dirty, lol! How much did it cost?

I got it for 30 bucks. One guy at the same table picked out about 15 Ga. Cokes and was counting out several hundred in cash, then wrote a check for a grand for the balance. Goshamightee, that's a heap o'bread. Must've been some rare towns in there, but I really don't care about the town as much as how the bottle hits me. There was one from Royston, Ga. on the table that I would've liked to have, but not for no $800!
 

I look at $30 and want to take an Aspirin! That's a lot for one bottle! I guess that's what happens - I buy common 1880s-1900s stuff, and get used to the prices.
 

I look at $30 and want to take an Aspirin! That's a lot for one bottle! I guess that's what happens - I buy common 1880s-1900s stuff, and get used to the prices.

After you've started your (hopefully lucrative) career, 30 bucks likely won't seem like such a large expense. For the longest time 5-10 was basically my price limit but with more money came more opportunities. One can still find great valuable sleepers for a buck or 2, but being able to spend say 40 on a bottle that the seller thinks is good and has priced accordingly, but in reality is very very good and much more valuable will be very helpful as you mature as a collector and wheeler 'n dealer. For now don't immediately turn around if you happen across those higher price tags. Take a look, do research if necessary, and borrow the cash if you discover that the 30.00 bottle you can't afford right then sells for an easy 300.00 on eBay. In my limited experience the best bottles I've bought to flip cost between 30-40 and yielded between 300-550 each. A number of dollar bottles sold for 40-100+ which is legit but being able to drop a few Jacksons will give you access to much more of the desirable material that we all like, and that collectors with deeper pockets than you or I are happy to spend good money on. It takes money to make money, and you won't make nearly as much if you instinctively ignore the more expensive stuff out there. Just some thoughts from a fella who was once a cash-strapped teenage digger/collector and eBay seller like you. :)
 

Ok! I'm finally posting what I have (I said I would do so a long while back). I mostly metal detect but when I start finding bottles I grab as many as I can and get back to detecting. I've also gotten very picky as I am only keeping unchipped, cork tops (I'm running out of room) The first pic is of some I just discovered but had to squirrel away in some leaves to pick up later. The rest, and although not many, are the ones I've kept. They aren't as old as some I've seen posted but they are cool to me. I do love bottles. Thanks for looking! 015.jpg029.jpg030.jpg031.jpg
 

Many strict detectorist have been lured into bottle sniffing diggers.......and that's ok:thumbsup:
 

Many strict detectorist have been lured into bottle sniffing diggers.......and that's ok:thumbsup:

Ya got that right!

I dug my first bottle when I was 5 while detecting, a semi-figural (looked like a Christmas tree to me then) unembossed 1930s screw-top ~1oz perfume-type bottle that was in the plug in my yard. I forgot about the coin signal after coming across the bottle and immediately took it inside to clean up and study. I thought it was an extraordinary discovery and held it and daydreamed about its possibilities for many hours over many days. It's something I wouldn't even look at twice now but as a 5 year old it was the fertile, tangible seed of knowledge that old bottles could be found or dug up! I was kind of an autist and already thought bottles in general both new and old were very interesting and almost magical because they preserved and maintained the integrity and purity of whatever was stored inside, but the older ones my dad had laying around (he found them in an attic and thought they were worth saving) with the Pure Food and Drugs Act "1906" date on the labels were extra interesting since I was already familiar with coins and was instinctively fascinated by anything old, especially if dated. Since those "1906" bottles were old, and I had dug up even older coins, and had just dug up an old bottle while hunting for old coins, it "clicked" that many interesting old bottles too must be buried and were out there waiting to be found.

Completely worthless, but I wouldn't sell it for 1,000 bucks:
1stbottle.jpg


Do any of you still have your very first bottles?
 

Back in the 1970s my dad dug this liquidozone in our backyard while burying his gasoline cans during the shortage.....he said he hit it over and over with his posthole diggers thinking it was a brick. Amazingly, it did not break and he gave it to me (who had just got his first detector) and was totally hooked at that moment. As i endeavored to find my first bottle in the weeks ahead, i dug this rumford patent 1868 bottle and couldn't get my mind off of it......anyways, here they both are, common little bottles that are priceless to me.
20190907_154955.jpg
 

Did you dig it in your yard like the liquozone? Was that Rumford the first bottle you dug, or the first keeper bottle you dug? It's an attractive and interesting bottle to get as one's first, I can certainly imagine how such a fine piece of glass got your gears turning. I'd be ecstatic if I found one of those teal beauties as a kid, thanks for sharing!
 

I never did find another bottle in my yard although I did dig a lot of metal. The rumford was one of three that I dug at an old house being demolished just a few houses away. The other two were a salters eye lotion and a thurbers Florida water. That same lot had been vacant until just this past year and I have returned scores of times over the last 40 years and was still digging good stuff there.
 

Oh.....and I still have those two other bottles honorably set in my collection.
 

Man this thread got revived in the last 24 hours Some great looking items posted during that time .Bodkin a nice little haul with some real good looking stuff. Plumbata when you are selling the price is always too low and too high if buying .My problem is I forget that today a $100.00 bill is about equal to what a $10.00 bill was when I was a kid .Vilagenut You are right the real value is not always measured in a way that it is the same to everyone. And NJKAGT How true Sensory overload
 

Been after this one for a while now...hard to find one that is not chipped. This one is in GREAT condition, almost looks brand new.

DSC_0401.jpg

E.J. Kenrick and sons Portsmouth O.
 

Now you're just rubbing it in!:laughing7: It really comes to life with a little backlighting.
 

That is one cool looking into bottle.
 

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