Glasses fetching the highest prices on eBay
Using a purely arbitrary and subjective figure of $75 to represent an expensive glass, I found that 158 sold at auction for that price and above. California had the most at 23, followed by Pennsylvania - 18, Ohio - 12 and, surprisingly, Colorado with 10. So western shot glasses continue to fetch the highest prices both on eBay and at bottle shows.  That pretty much wraps it up for eBay shot glass trivia. At least as far as my database takes me.

Can I take a look at this database?
To an extent, yes. I'm sharing a modified version of the database on the web. Just type in  http://24.8.216.79.  When it's open on my desktop, you'll be able to browse through the records. If you're finding it difficult coordinating times, email me at hecurrier@comcast.net and we'll work out a time to get it on my server. Some fields, like the prices the glasses have sold for and the frequency of listings, are not shared.  That's my payoff for doing this. However, there are close to 3,000 entries and about 80% of them have photos. It could be just the tool you might need to locate a whiskey brand that's got you puzzled. The particular version I'm sharing is a work in progress but eventually all of the new fields will be filled in. Please be patient.

And while you're on the web, you'll have to visit the new site on pre-pro shot glasses that Robin Preston, a Philadelphia collector, has put together. It can be accessed at http://www.pre-pro.com.  This is a fascinating site and could easily serve as a template for anyone interested in setting up a page for other collectibles.  It is a breeze to navigate, has great eye appeal and a lot of valuable information on the history of shot glasses. It contains insights into various types of theme collections: bitters, souvenir, novelty and masonic and other fraternal glasses.  It has a great bibliography and other pages cover different types of glass and types of labels. One of the more fascinating features is a slide show presentation - a gallery of shot glasses that will make your mouth water.

This site just opened in early November (2002) and seems to get updated pretty much on a daily basis.  Most importantly, it has a discussion room. The world of shot glasses is far-flung and up to now, there's been no common ground or "meeting place". This should do the trick nicely.  Also, Robin is looking for people to contribute data and photos from their collection toward a database he's assembling that will be available to all collectors.  By the time you read this, I will have uploaded the information from my personal collection and I hope that a lot of you will log on and do the same.  At any rate, take a good look at the site and let him know what you think about it.

        If it seems that this first column was very heavy into web pages, databases and the like, I do apologize. This one was intended as an overview of what's going on in the shot glass collecting field and quite a bit of it seems to be happening on the internet.  Future columns will involve individual collections and collectors from around the country.  I certainly would appreciate any suggestions on topics and specialty collections you'd like to see covered.

The photos used in this article are a joint contribution and I would like to thank Roger and Barbara Roy for the use of the mouth-watering "array" photo - a small part of their fine collection - shown in the title block (clicking on the title photo will take you to a full-sized version).  Thanks to Ralph Van Brocklin for photos of the Varwig glasses and the San Francisco trio of the Teacup, Gold Dust and Mendle's Gamecock. The tri-city trio are from my own collection. 

Howard Currier is an avid collector of shot glasses and breweriana from Boston, Denver and San Francisco.  Visit him at the websites mentioned or email him at hecurrier@comcast.net

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