Technically the first day of Christmas is still a week away, but I thought there’s be a better chance of making it through 12 postings on time if I started early.
It’s been an interesting year, pre-pro wise. Relatively few glasses of note have been offered for sale on eBay and even fewer of those have been selling. There’s been a flurry of activity in the past couple of weeks, but most of the glasses that have sold have been run-of-the-mill, low-end glasses (O! So Goods and Hayners) that have been circling the eBay drain for months before finally finding a home. I suspect that most of these are going to end up being gift wrapped and stuffed into stockings.
In the past 4 weeks, 163 glasses listed for sale, 60 auctions closed without a buyer, and the average price of glasses that did sell was $35.13, which is down by a couple of $$ from the typical average sales price for pre-pro glasses. Again, this reflects a lot of low-end sales ahead of the holiday. Average sales price for the year is $38.73.
On to the floozy. This is one of my favorite glasses, one I’ve seen only once before, and that was back in 2002. Back then I got into a bidding war with Bill Armstrong (junkmoney for those of you who were active when bidder id’s were visible) and the glass ended up costing me $150. This latest one looks to be a tad beaten up or maybe it just needs a good wash, but the etching is obviously clean. It sold for $215.50.
So what is a “Grass Widow”. The term dates back to the 1500’s. Although the original meaning remains speculative, a grass widow is said to to be a woman who is separated, divorced, or lives apart from her spouse, or whose spouse is away from home frequently or for a long time, or even a discarded mistress.