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, 213 pre-pro glass auctions closed, 35 closed with no bidder, average price of the glasses that sold was $31.43. Ten glasses sold for >$100, one glass sold for >$1,000.

February was a cruel month for most folks in pre-pro land, with ice and snow that never seemed to quit. In Hotlanta, where it's hot even when it's cold (I use the term loosely), your snow and ice was more of an irritation, mainly because the planes that were supposed to be winging the Poo-Bah to the Virgin Islands to get delayed in Boston, Chicago and New York. But the delays were temporary and the sun, warm breezes, crystal-clear waters and tall, frosty, adult beverages quickly eased the pain of not having to shovel two feet of snow out of the driveway, as we did this time last year in PA. Life is so cruel....

Problem: How to get someone to bid on a common, crappy, faded Myers & Co. Fulton glass (net value $4).

That was the dilemma faced by eBay seller rogerh1759 this past week

The solution was both remarkably ingenious and effective: list it along with a decanter and tray and sell as a matched set, as seen below. Nickel-plated Fulton trays are relatively easy to come by for $10 or so (two listed this past week) and etched decanters regularly sell for $20, although finding one with a stopper that not only matches but is authentic may take some patience.

As any devotee of Antiques Roadshow can tell you, the sum of the parts is greater than of the whole (that doesn't sound quite right, but you get my drift) and the auction ended at $124.72! Now had rogerh found an original flyer that shows a complete set, who knows where this one might have ended up! Hmmm...

Steal of the Week award for this week/month, -- maybe -- , goes to deppen76 for the McHenry glass at right. A couple of years ago, glasses like this were making well over $300, but deppen76 got change from a $10 bill on this one. But.... this was a scary auction, because condition was described as follows: "The shot glass is still really nice but time was not kind to the upper edge. It has several small nibs and one slash chip. It is called McHenrys Private Stock Pure Rye. Very nice old thin glass. Etching is good and clear on the front. Bottom is good and smooth." "Slash Chip" sounds a lot like "crack", which is probably why no-one else went near it. Deppen will have to let us know how this one works out, but a nice place-holder even if it turns out to be a junker.
Sneak of the Week award for this week/month goes to long-time pre-pro-supporter and our good friend xxxtruk for persuading chuckawalla, the owner of the Brunswick glass at left, to convert the listing from a regular 7-day auction to a $45 bin. The Poo-Bah was somewhat flummoxed by this one since it's just a text glass, but different strokes for different folks I suppose. Maybe it's just the challenge of weaseling glass ..... UPDATE! UPDATE! Well that explains it! It turns out that xxxtruk stumbled across and snuck off with a newly-minted bin! Full story and all the gory details in a new SPECIAL EDITION of SOTW in a few days!
The Did I Really See That???? award for this week/month goes to the piggie at left. This is a one-off souvenir glass from a fair, Expo, or other event, produced on site by an artist with a wheel engraver and a box of ruby-flashed blanks. We've seen this piggie glass several times, usually selling in the $30-$40 range. The glass shown here originally listed with a hefty reserve and closed with glasshopper8 in pole position but no clear winner. It relisted immediately but this time a classic grudge-fight broke out. The $75 reserve was soon hit and surpassed, with loroxcarly finally winning it for a cool $305.00!

This week's/month's SOTW goes to bluroc. Kevin picked up three notable glasses recently, the most interesting of which is shown at right. This looks like a Truog glass but I think that while the style is similar, it was produced by a Truog contemporary, or perhaps someone copying his style a decade or two later. I'll be interested to hear if the glass has a signature on it.

This is a political glass, most likely produced in response to a Presidential election campaign? The ditty on the glass reads:

MORE RAIN     MORE CORN
MORE CORN     MORE WHISKEY
MORE WHISKEY     MORE DEMOCRATS

There is a companion glass (not shown) that reads:

MORE SUN     MORE HOPS
MORE HOPS     MORE BEER
MORE BEER     MORE REPUBLICANS

Apparently both refrains date back to pre-Prohibition days, although their meaning is subject to speculation. bluroc won the former glass by smacking oldwhiskey on the head, who thought he would be the only one interested in a such a curiosity. Wrong again.

However the SOTW award goes to bluroc for the rarest of Hayners: a minty Harvest Home.

"Very nice shape.

Bottom edge is ground.

Very unusual and must have been well made for the extra finish on the bottom.

Advertising for Harvest Home Rye Distilled

by Hayner Distilling Dayton Ohio".

I've probably featured this glass before on SOTW and probably will again, because it's a neat old glass. This one probably IS a Truog original. It shows up for sale on a regular basis so there's probably enough to go around, but oldwhiskey was sitting in an airport in Puerto Rico when this glass listed and also when it sold, otherwise the closing price might have been higher: bluroc took it home for $257.50.

Congratulations to the winner!

Finally, I'm sure you're all thrilled to hear that eBay is hiding the identity of the runners-up on all auctions from now on, maintaining that it protects stupid people from falling prey to fraudulent second-chance offers. Personally, I see this as a prime example of Darwin in action, but so be it. To the rest of us, it means that the shills, the spoilers and the wanna-be's all have shadows to hide in when they bid: "oldwhiskey1" being a prime example. Wow, there's a bright spark of imagination and malice for you -- that's the bidder who's been bidding up the recent lugs.

Luckily there is still a loophole that allows these bidders to be exposed, but one questions the motive behind eBay's actions: protection or profit? I'll leave you to ponder that one.

That's all folks. See you on eBay....


		Shot of the Week	Item number: 110222823328