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(An expanded article on fake pre-Pro shot glasses appeared in "Bottles & Extras" magazine: you can read the online version here) Fortunately, the pre-pro shot-glass collecting field remains relatively small and hence the potential rewards for trying to fob off reproduction or fake glasses via eBay are minimal. Many of us have seen one-off "fantasy" glasses but typically they're very easy to recognize as such. The only attempt to create and sell off an entire line of fakes ended in 2006 after the enterprising etcher withdrew from or was thrown off eBay, but several of these glasses remain in the hands of collectors and hence could resurface to trick the unwary or inexperienced. The glasses were all listed by a seller based in Indianapolis. He or she changed id's on a regular basis to evade detection - these included mtn.girl16 (aka carolynfike), grannys47 (aka yesterdays1960), and mygrassisblue79 (aka peacechick420, aka angmataus2002). All kept their feedback secret, which should tell you they had something major to hide, plus they also kept bidder id's private so that the poor suckers who ended up winning one of these fakes couldn't be educated. Here's an example of one such listing that was cached back in 2005 - an "Imperial Whiskey". The first fake glass to show up and be recognized as such was a "Stony Ridge Kentucky Bourbon" glass and made several appearances. The second was an "Old Crow". A glass purported to be from Louis Taussig & Co. of San Francisco, CA listed with a matching ashtray, as shown below. None of these glasses are pre-pro. All three are heavy, modern shots with crudely-rendered labels which would never fool a seasoned collector, but many bidders were taken in by the listings, with one selling for as much as $73.
Initially the glasses were offered without any qualifiers, but then a listing paired a fake "Old Crow" with a common embossed Calvert under the title "Two Old Whiskey Shot Glasses". They opened at $20. Note that one should reasonably expect to be able to pick up a bushel of Calverts like this for under $3 a piece and the "Old Crow" has much the same value.
You can find a complete
listing of fake glasses on the NEXT
PAGE. One of the last fakes to list before the seller dropped off eBay (the Imperial Whiskey) appeared to be a case of a
new label applied to a genuinely old glass - a disturbing trend should the individual resurface. |
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