So here we are in 2014 already.  I first this put website together 12 years ago when dial-up modems were the norm, monitors typically had a 3 x 4 proportion, and phones still had buttons rather than touchscreens. The site moved hosting companies shortly after it went online and was moved from server to server at regular intervals thereafter. Many pages "broke" along the way.  I recently started to repair some of the damage to done links and to update pages with images that take advantage of a high-speed internet.  Rebuilding is very time-consuming so progress will be slow, but if anyone has any ideas about what new features they might like to see, please drop me a line. 

I'm also working through a backlog of images and information that people have sent me in the past couple of years.  I think I have all the shot glasses I've been sent added to the dabase now; the number of listings now stands at 4,483, which is about 1,000 more than appear in HSG and OASG combined.  I'm still trying to figure out how best or, indeed, if to incorporate BE's two books, but perhaps a stand-alone database organized by city and state such as we have now is sufficient and appropriate.    

As a part of this general rebuild, I hope to shift SOTW to a blogging platform, mainly to make these updates less arduous to compile.  It will also allow me to use SOTW as a way of communicating timely information about events occurring outside of eBay, such as when someone has a collection for sale and is looking for potential buyers, or when a collector found something special "in the wild".   Stay tuned for further developments.

The comments above give me the perfect way to segue into the fact that Rich L. recently came across two rare highball-sized glasses in mint condition identically engraved with a bear and  "The California" which are believed to hail from a Portland, OR. saloon.  You can see the glass in the database.   Rich is keeping one and selling the other - he wants $950 for it.  

In a similar vein, Ken C. has a collection of 33 Texas shots that he wishes to sell; he's asking $2,475.00 for the goup.  He has images incorporated into a Word file that you can download here.

If anyone is interested in either offers, drop a line to glassmaster@pre-pro.com and I'll pass it along.

The big story on eBay this past few weeks has been about Fort Nelson, or to be more precise, four Old Fort Nelson Whiskey shot glasses, from Stein Block & Co. of Kansas City, MO.  I first became aware of this glass back in 2006, when Roger Roy send me an e-mail relating having found an example "in the wild" at an antique show.  It's a classic pre-pro image made even more classic by the fact that it's a George Truog design and one of the few liquor advertising glasses signed by the master himself.   

Six years later, a second such example lists on eBay, offered by a seller fom West Virginia (sbselect). The seller listed in a subsection of eBay dedicated to Jack Daniel relics, which is a little out of the way for mainstream shot collectors.  It also listed without a mention of city or state of orgin, otherwise the Kansas City collectors would have been crawling all over it from day 1. The Hamster embarrassingly failed to find it until within a few hours of the listing's close, at which point mkmitch was the only one sitting on it at $37.  A snipe was placed without delay and oldwhiskey eventually won it for $156.30, with rwbeem in runner-up position.   A happy day for the Hamster indeed.

This, however, was not the end of the story, because sbselect had another example in equally nice condition up her sleeve.  It listed a week later with a $25 opening price and a $150 bin.  Can we say "duh"?  rwbeem rightly snatched it before anyone else had a look-in (maybe it was a second-chance offer, but the Hamster would probably have missed this one too even if it had run a full week).

Still not the end of the story because sbselect obviously has an orginal Truog template and is cranking out repros in her basement.  She listed a third example at the end of the year, probably with a bin also but unknown bidder placed a lowball bid and the bin disappeared.  The third Old Fort had some rim damage, but that did not disocurage bluroc from taking a poke at it.  It eventually sold for $153.50 to xxxtruk.  

The seller noted in this final listing that this was the last of the three glasses they had, which probably means they need to find some more thin-wall blanks before they can put the template back to work.*

*For the more paranoid of you out there, I'M JUST KIDDING.  Maybe.

End of story?  

Nope nope nope.

As many if you will be aware, there is an Indiana-based seller (edge586) who came by an interesting collection of one hundred or so pre-pro and other shotglasses at an estate sale.  The orginal collector must have had something of an eye because the group included some stunningly mint examples of rare glasses.  The new owner, uncertain of what he had, listed 13 in a perfect execution of Stupid Seller Trick #1 -- listing all with buy-it-nows and most for a paltry $9.99.  He coincidentally executed Stupid Seller Trick #7 - listing in an obscure corner of eBay normally reserved for beer steins decorated with "Hello Kitty" transfers. The unlucky-13 included a rare Mack & Birmingham Don't Drown the Hog from Boston ($9.99), a pretty Halle & Abel Whiskey from Cleveland ($9.99), a pristine Peoria Club from Zahringer, Peoria IL ($9.99), and surprise, surprise, a Truog Old Fort Nelson Whiskey ($19.99).
The fact that the glasses listed under Beer Steins meant that the Hamster totally missed seeing the group until a day or so after the fact.  Others were more vigilant and nuffbarn happily binned the hog, while azsaloon nabbed the Old Fort, The Abel, the Peoria Club, and an Old Capitol. The seller must have been quite surprised to see five sell so quickly, and perhaps took the time to research what pre-pro's are actually worth.  Once he'd been clued in, he weaseled out of both deals (nuffbarn says he refunded his Paypal payment), claiming that the glasses were no  longer available. It will be interesting to see how long the seller waits to relist the glasses, although I suspect a collector with questionable ethics may well try to work a back-door deal to secure all five.  Regardless, edge586 has ultimately paid the price of treachery because a several collectors who had clued in to the missing bins held off bidding on any the remaining glasses, meaning that most of them sold for well below true worth.