Shot of the Week

Each edition of SOTW will begin with some stats on sales in the past 28 days to give us all a sense of where the hobby is going. In the past four weeks, 141 pre-pro glass auctions closed, 33 closed with no bidder, average price of the glasses that sold was $18.87. 6 glasses sold for >$100, none sold for >$1,000.

The Poo-Bah has been on the move again and hence time to comment on the endless soap opera that we call eBay has been limited. Here's a summary of what you may (or may not) have missed in the past 8 weeks.

You'll all be seeing green over this one (arf, arf, arf): a rare colored-label glass from Richmond that was felled by a bottle-and-jug-from-VA collector (rpomfrey) for a whopping $282.66. xxxtruk tried to take it with a snipe in the final seconds, but VA collectors do not take prisoners and hence the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Nice glass - don't see many green/blue etched glasses and it would have added a nice splash of cooool to the display case.

Talking of xxxtruk (and how can we ever resist), Kurt bagged two of the more interesting glasses to list in the past couple of months. Both were from Buffalo, NY: a Tenor Whiskey from Ellicott Importation Co., and a Michigan Club tonic glass from William Schanker.
The Michigan Club was a relative steal at $26.51 given the intricacy of the label, but both would have been welcome additions to any pre-pro collection - very nice Kurt. (the Poo-Bah is feeling faint and must rest a little before continuing - pass the salts someone).

The silly season of buying on eBay traditionally ends with Memorial day, and the run-up to last week's holiday witnessed an out pouring of e-cash as collectors tried to grab collection-fillers before heading outside for the summer. With a tank of gas now costing an arm, a leg, and about 3/10 ths of a liver, maybe shelling out $29.95 for a crappy relisted Hayner doesn't seem too inappropriate (er right, not quite a Golden Hayner, but close), but how about $50.76 for an Olco whiskey from Detroit? rochgpp5zqu was high bidder on this one - maybe he/she knows something we don't.

Then there was the slew of glasses that gretchenstiques had listed, including the Our Success, King of the Valley, and Cornhill Rye glasses shown below. gretchenstiques couldn't give these glasses away earlier in the year: he'd already listed the King four times and had failed to attract bidders even at $9.99. Last month was golden, however, and ztrayn grabbed it for $35.01. gretchen's other glasses sold for similar amounts, which shows that perseverance does pay eventually.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record - or maybe a cracked record - we finish up with a couple of Steals of the Week and a SOTW that again feature nuffbarn and bluroc.

I know, I know, I know, HUSH already -- the Poo-Bah is praying for these two to do something really stupid so that he can pillory them appropriately, but for now we just have to swallow hard to suppress the bile, or maybe just spit at the cat.

The first "Steal" was by nuffbarn, who binned an A S Winstead "Silk Velvet" glass for a pitiful $2.00. It came with a plain junker, listing under category "Shot Glasses" with the generic title "2 Shot Glasses". I figure I'm lucky any time I can nab a pre-pro glass for under $10, even if it's a common one, so $2 is a nice steal indeed. However, while this looks like a plain ol' text glass, Mr Winstead has a very loyal following who routinely push these glasses into the $40+ range. Plus, this is the first time I've seen this glass, which makes it a particularly sweet steal. Nice going nuffie!
Steal #2 featured 5 glasses, four of which were throwaways. It also listed under category "Shot Glasses" . The auction photo (at left) gave little clue as to identity of the hidden gem, but the listing description included the tell-tale line: "COMPLIMENTS OF M. WOLLSTEIN WHISKIES KANSAS CITY, MO".
KC collector Paul Gronquist (kcwhiskey) put in an early bid of $7.99 but inexplicably failed to shore up the opening gambit, allowing bluroc to walk off with it (plus the bull) for 50 cents more at $8.49. Kevin was kind enough to send me a better pic of the glass in question and is shown at right. As you can see, it's unmistakably from George Truog's glass house and is signed by the master himself. A $200+ glass for $8 and change! A sweet deal for sure.

So how about a SOTW?

My money is on the "Hard to Beat" Brandy glass shown below. Sure, it's a brandy glass rather than a whiskey, and that alone reduces desirability, and sure, it's from Brooklyn which is a part of a large and nebulous city that is hard to come to collecting grips with, but who can argue with the stark red/white appeal of this one?

Up for auction is an unusual thin walled Pre Prohibition Shot Glass. Glass reads:

HARD TO BEAT
"EST" "BB" "1888"
EST. 1888 on a banner, with over lapping BB on a RED DOT in between the EST and 1888.
CALIFORNIA
BRANDY
B. BERNSTEIN
74 GRAHAM AVE.
BROOKLYN.

Glass is in great shape with no dings, scratches or flea bites, etching is strong & rim is smooth. The last two 8's in 1888 are smudged but strong, from what looks like too much etching. The background DOT with the BB in it is a reddish - orange. Glass measures 2 1/2" tall, 2" in diameter at the top & 1 3/8" at the base.

Difficult to believe that a splotch of red on an otherwise common white-etched glass can add $150 to value, but it's also difficult to resist bidding on a glass like this. Arky Joe sensibly put in bid to hold it as soon as it appeared, then reinforced it a day later when imapicchic temporarily laid claim. After bluroc found the listing, however, all hope for an inexpensive win were lost, even though junkmoney made a guest appearance especially for the occasion and atakeda forlornly tried chipping away at bluroc's lead. Ultimately bluroc's bid proved -- shall we say "Hard to Beat"?! -- and the glass now has a home in WA. It ultimately cost him $201.50.

Congratulations Kevin!

That's all folks. See you on eBay -- and if not, have a great Summer!!


		Shot of the Week	Item number: 320244642086