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, 159 pre-pro glass auctions closed, 25 closed with no bidder, average price of the glasses that sold was $29.12.   Six glasses sold for >$100, none sold for >$1,000. 

The holidays are finally behind us and the traditional February/March silly-selling-season has already begun in earnest on eBay.  There's been much to look at and log these past few weeks, although most of the glasses on offer have been reasonably common.  Still, the Poo-Bah can't complain when the proverbial river of pre-pro glass is running fast, so here's a round-up of the "Best of the Bay" in the past few weeks.

We have a new and clearly devoted collector $cooping gla$$ up wherever and whenever he/she can find it.   The eBay history truncates the bidder as a***l, but the full id is loco8ball.  flubberdoo is still with us and just as enthu$ia$tic: hopefully both will stick around long enough to become old timers because our ranks seem to be thinning (see below).

Here's an amusing little one-two, not quite a knock-out round featuring a pair of Dreyfus-Jones glasses.  It's a run-of-the-mill, text only glass from Kansas City.  Not common, but not special enough to make it worth more than $25 in good condition.

The first example (right) was listed by Joe Walsh (walsh632), who's apparently calling it collecting-quits and has been cashing in his holdings these past few weeks.  No doubt you've seen the clutch of glasses he's been listing each week.  Two KC enthusiasts got into a bidding war over this particular glass and it ended up selling on January 16 to rseckmo for a stunning $84.40!

One day later (January 17), bottlewizard listed an identical glass.  This is not an altogether uncommon scenario - a ho-hum glass sells big one day and then anyone who's been watching and has an identical  glass to sell figures they can make out like bandit with their own version.  Except it RARELY works that way, because with the winner of glass #1 out of the running, the runner-up gets to steal #2.  And, indeed, #2 sold for $60 less than #1.  Awwww, so saaaad... poor bw.

Here's one destined for the Hee-Hee-Hee page.  Melky Miller was featured in two of Jack Sullivan's articles (see the MM listing page) so this was a distiller of note, but is a faded barrel from Accident, Maryland really worth $300????  NO!!  NEVER!! Well, maybe in 2090. In 2010, it might be worth $30 to a Melky Miller enthusiast with a hole in their collection, but $300? yardsalezip-dot-com has yet to relist this puppy..... maybe someone had the good sense to take it to the vet and have it put down.  Woof!  Arf...

Here's the priciest glass to sell in the past month.  It's a label-under-glass and the rare red version of the most common of all lugs, the black Foust.  For some bizarre reason, shots from small towns in PA seem to have demented followers who bid anything and everything sky-high (think Benton, Lancaster, Boyertown). Glen Rock, PA is no exception.  The red lug typically fetches 2.5x the black and even though chipped,  $535 does not seem that excessive.  The small-town PA glass now rests comfortably in small-town Arkyville, AR.

The Poo-Bah kicked himself for forgetting to set snipes on several intended victims this past month.   The ruby-flashed Eye Opener at right was one of them.  These gaudy fair glasses are something of an acquired taste and I collect them mainly for curiosity value with a possible article for Bottles & Extras in mind.  The Eye was another from Joe Walsh's collection and would have been a great addition to the curio cabinet had I been paying attention. It went for $30.92 to a ruby maven.  Tsk tsk.

So what about a pick for SOTW?

Here's the official SOTW selection, from S S Goldstrom, Distiller & Importer, South Omaha, NEB, U.S.A. :

Up for sale is this very nice pre prohibition shot glass that says GOLDSTROMS/THE TASTE TELLS/PURE RYE/TRADE MARK/WHISKEY/S.S.GOLDSTROM/DISTILLER & EMPORTER/SOUTH OMAHA,NEB.U.S.A. Just near mint-very nice.