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, 160 pre-pro glass auctions closed, 22 closed with no bidder, average price of the glasses that sold was $24.93.  Six glasses sold for >$100. 

January blew in with a few notable bidding flurries, but they focused mainly on common glasses and there was nothing that could equate with the kind if irrational exuberance that gets the Poo-Bah frothing at the mouth. 

At the top of the Most-Expensive list came a common Casper's Mild-and-Mellow glass, in dare-we-say "crappy" condition.  Amazingly enough, it fetched $213.49 after attracting a total of 21 bids.  The take-home is that if you don't yet have one of the cult-collector glasses (Casper, Jack Daniel etc) in your collection, it may soon be too late to go after them because they continue to enjoy exponential growth in values.  Yikes.  The bidder who won that glass at right (jfitts40) binned an identical glass in identical condition from a different seller on the same day for $100 less.  So maybe he wants to put them together in the hopes that they'll mate and produce a string of minty baby Casper shots, tinkle-tinkle???

Saddest glass of the week was the Old Rip shown at right.  This is a rare one - last time I saw this one being felled, it was by stilz about four years ago.  A stunning glass in mint condition, wear destroys its value in a way that is almost irrational.  None of the regulars were tempted to make a grand stand, but it ended up costing a very determined gothbat2 (huh?) a hefty $85.65.  Yikes again.  Maybe he's planning on having it retreaded.

The Steal of the Week award goes to Arky Joe for grabbing the Sunny Brook at right for a cool $39.50.  "Say NO", you all cry "- it's a freakin' Sunny Brook for crying out loud, value $20 tops, the Dude gets an MMTS for this doggie!!!".    Yes, good, except that this is the Brassy & Co., San Jose variant and in minty mint condition.  Value - more like $80. 

The Poo-Bah is humbled, especially since he had this one on the snipe list and forgot to set it before the auction closed. 
Bugger. 
Nice going Joe...

This week's/month's SOTW has to be the Mountain King Rye shown below.  It was billed as a two-color etched glass, although the Poo-Bah would point out that black is an absence of color and white is a mix of zillions of colors, but who's to quibble with Debbie pinetreepalce.  The label is reminiscent of the Black Cat back-on-white circle glass, but this one is from Milwaukee rather than Cleveland.  The black is a little worn, sad to say, but a rare glass nonetheless.  I used to view Wisconsin glasses as being common, but that was when I lived in WI and all I ever found for sale at antique malls and flea markets were worn Milwaukee glasses.  Now I know better.

sandkey latched on to this one early but put down a pitiful $30, soon to be out-bid by former nemesis mrkmitch.  Ultimately there were three serious bids, but William Tomz dropped in out of the rafters after a lengthy absence and took it home for $191.38. 

Congratulations to the winner!  That's all folks.  See you on eBay....