Sound good?
Then you need to enroll or re-enroll today! Just send an e-mail
to circle@pre-pro.com
with the word "include" in the subject line and you'll be in!
A New Distilleries Database!
Ever wondered about where the shot-glass folks got
their liquor from? Ever wondered whether there was a list
of distilleries identified by their RD numbers? Ever
wondered which states had distilleries in pre-Pro days?
A new
distilleries database hopes to answer these questions.
The database was made possible by Bob Snyder who had several
tattered old photocopies or IRS records among the many boxes of
paper that I purchased from him a couple of years ago. The
database as it stands now is basic scaffolding - full listing
pages will be created for each of the 2,500 or so distilleries
that we have a record for.
Check it out and help the cause by sending me info if you
have it!
Google is Everywhere...
You'll notice that
Google ad bars are appearing on the database pages in an attempt
to generate support from the genealogists and information
hunters that routinely cruise the site. The database
gateway pages are also being updated to give them a more modern
and professional feel.
Meet Jack Sullivan!
Jack
Sullivan should be a familiar name to readers of any of the
bottle mags because he's a regular contributor to many of them,
including the FOHBC's Bottles and Extras, Potomac
Pontil, and Ohio Swirl. Jack has a knack
for telling stories about the old distillers and dealers, often
using a jug, bottle, or piece of advertising as a kicking-off
point for an interesting tale. He's published
several hundred articles over the years and self-published three
books, including his latest offering "Mostly Whiskey:
Bottles, Jugs & Whathaveyou" (order
here: only $23 shipped!).
Jack has graciously agreed to let
us make his articles available here at
www.pre-pro.com in
searchable electronic format. At present, only a handful
of his articles are available, but in time all 200+ will be
incorporated and linked into relevant dealer listing pages.
You can browse and search Jack's
work within his mini-web: "Whiskey
Men, by Jack Sullivan".
"Found in the Wild": see what your colleagues have brought
home from the hunt!
If you've found something
worth writing home about, drop me a line and I'll list it for
you in the "Found in the Wild" section: latest
neat find comes from
Brad Allin (nuffbarn): check it out!
Happy New Year!
Welcome to 2008!
With the new year comes a new sales area -- a shot-glass
mini-mall that will provide anyone with glasses to sell with
their own sales booth. Up until now, collectors with dups
or traders have had to send me their glasses or pics of glasses
and then have me list them for sale. The new area will
make collectors autonomous and will allow them to list their own
glasses much as one does on eBay. The advantage is that
glasses can stay online until they sell rather than appearing
and disappearing in a week. The mini-mall is still in the
beta-testing phase, but if you're interested in setting up a
seller's account, drop me a line at
glassmaster@pre-pro.com.
Paul Gronquist adds 130 glasses to the database!
Paul
Gronquist collects Kansas City. He kindly wrapped 150 or
so of his shots, boxed them and took them
on the road
with him to Collinsville for me to photograph. About
130 glasses from his collection of around 200 were added to the
main shot
database, bringing it up to 3,221 total. I'm now
working through two huge binders of paper and a box of KC
corkscrews, penknives and other memorabilia to add to the city
directory pages (see the
Kellerstrass page, for an example of how the material is
used). Many thanks to Paul for helping out and entrusting
his collection to me for documenting!
City Directories Database:
Latest addition is Louisville.
Check it out.
My box of directory copies
(the generous donation of Jack Sullivan) is now down to New
Orleans and I'm missing
information on several important areas of the country. If
you have access to directories or are willing to make a trip to
your local library, I'd very much appreciate any information on
any of the New England cities and towns: Boston, Hartford, New
Haven etc., and Washington DC.
If you don't see it listed on the city
directory entry page, then I could use information. I'm
happy to cover costs, so please consider helping out.
Contact me at
glassmaster@pre-pro.com.
Sales Database is Up and
Running
The pre-pro shot sales database is now open for access. You can
find more details about membership levels and instructions for
registration using the links from the
login page.
As of writing (January, '08), the database contains records of
12,853 individual sales spanning 7 years. It includes
approximately 4,400 unique glasses, the majority of which are
not recorded in the free-access databases. Approximately 250 new
records are being added each month so the scope and accuracy of
the data are improving constantly.
The database is made available to help the community determine
the true value of glasses and collections, and to provide a
sense of how the pre-pro market is moving over time. It's also a
powerful tool for determining appropriate snipe levels. Indeed,
I'm hoping no-one applies for membership because it will
significantly impact the glassmaster's competitive advantage on
eBay!
In coming weeks, we're going to start adding in sales data from
fixed price sales and incorporating images that come without
sales data. This will add to the research potential of the
database and help determine the true rarity of glasses that have
been seen only once in the life of the database. Stay tuned for
more information!
A
pre-pro Reference Library
The latest addition to pre-pro is an online
library. This
area was created to help visitors find reviews of recent
books,
find out what books are available on various subjects, and to
read books and articles online (Bob Snyder's articles from Old
Bottle Magazine, for example). As with many areas of the site, this is a
work in progress so please forgive the dust and debris!
Take a look
and see what you think. If you have a pile of old bottle
mags or books you'd like to get rid of, please consider donating
them to help the library grow! Thanks!
A
Final Word:
This site is changing continually and is getting so large that
it's becoming a real challenge to stay on top of every page and
link. If you run across typos, errors or broken links,
please help me out by dropping an e-mail to
glassmaster@pre-pro.com. Thank you!!
