I know I'm running behind on my posts here, but I felt compelled to add this rather important article to my blog. One could say this is a blog about rare RI bottles, because these bottles are not listed on the Little Rhody Bottle Club's website of known RI bottles. And they would be correct. Many of these bottles are currently "unique", or one of a kind bottles, but some are actually quite common.
As an experienced collector, one of my biggest pet peeves is when someone who doesn't collect bottles correlates the word "rare" with "valuable". I shouldn't be one to judge, as I'm guilty of this myself. However, it certainly deserves some attention.
A simple summary of what I would like to explain is that there are many rare bottles that do not have much value.
Why? Well, as with anything collectible, there are people looking for these items, and paying money for them. With some collectibles, such as coins for instance, rarity is they key factor in determining a coin's value. Bottles, however, are more like books. There are many rare books, but if an unique book containing tax laws from the 1800s was found, book collectors wouldn't be diving for their wallets.
In the case of RI bottles, there are only a handful of collectors that look for RI bottles exclusively. There are many collectors that look for certain types of RI bottles. Beer bottles are certainly a good example. Bottles with collectible key words like "Indian", "cure", or "Quaker" are also being sought after. Milk bottles and ACL (painted label) soda bottles are also gaining interest as well.
If one was to bring up a category like "crown top soda bottles from Providence", the demand drops sharply. They are so abundant anyone can acquire them. When one gets into the different versions of common bottles on the LRBC website, you can have 10-20 versions from one company! I have purchased dozens of Providence soda and medicine bottles for $1-5, and sold them for similar amounts. In fact, the vast majority of the bottles on this blog I have paid no more than $10 each for. Yes, there are a lot of exceptions, but the going rate of unlisted RI bottles isn't much more than listed examples.
The main reason I have for acquiring unlisted bottles (aside from enjoyment) is documentation. One can lean a lot of Rhode Island history from the thousands of bottles produced for companies that might have lasted for a week, or are still going strong after 100 years. Even if I meet someone who doesn't want to sell an unlisted bottle, I am almost just as happy to document it.
My final request would be that if you have an unlisted RI bottle that I have said (or someone else said) is rare, please don't offer it to me for a sky-high price. I would be much more comfortable if you listed it on a site like Ebay, where I can make a competitive bid for the bottle.
Thank you for taking the time to go through my rant, I hope it makes sense!
