3 comments about Tomart's Price Guide to Character & Promotional Glasses Including Pepsi, Coke, Fast-Food, Peanut Butter and Jelly Glasses; Plus Dairy Glasses & Milk.

1. We have waited paitently for the release of this book as it has been 2 years since we were told it was going to be released. Time and effort are clearly visible as it gives reference of over 800 new glasses that the previous editions lacked. Many of the small mistakes about certain glasses have also been corrected.

   This is clearly at the top of its class for promotional glasses and is more extensive in categories then all the other so called glass books available on the market. As with any collector book this one has prices in it and not all of them are reliable as the common items appear to be overpriced and the high end glasses appear to be underpriced. The only dissapointment I had overall with the book was its combining black and white photos on same pages as color shots, since part of the page is in color it would be nice to have the whole page in color.

   In any event Tom Hoder did an excellent job overall and this book will still stand above others as the one people will use as a guide.




2. I bought two other books at the same time as this one.. Chase and Kelly's "Collectible Drinking Glasses" and John Hervey's "Collector's Guide to Cartoon and Promotional Drinking Glasses". All three are good, but this one is the one I keep coming back to, while on the hunt at flea markets etc.

   I am new to collectible glasses so I can't speak to issues of accuracy or pricing.

   Hope this helps!




3. I confess that I am a little disappointed in the revised 3rd edition of this book which I purchased after seeing an earlier edition in the reference section of our local library. I am a collector of Big Top peanut butter song glasses, and this book seems to be one of the few that has information about these glasses. When I looked up the Big Top glasses in this latest edition, there was actually less text and fewer photographs of these glasses than there had been in the earlier edition!! For this reason, I have a hard time considering the third edition "revised and expanded." There are also a number of Big Top glasses with children's songs that are not listed (London Bridge, Farmer in the Dell, Little Bo Peep, Billy Boy, etc.)

1 comments about Jim Beam Figural Bottles: An Unauthorized Collector's Guide (Schiffer Book for Collectors).

1. We have purchased previous editions of this book , and Molly Higgins is the best when it comes to the most complete Jim Beam Library. This book has really helped my husband and I to enjoy our favorite hobby of beam bottle collecting. Thanks to Molly Higgins we know exactly what we should be paying for a bottle. We also know when someone is trying to pull a fast one. Thanks again for a great book!

1 comments about Kovels' Bottles Price List: 13th Edition.

1. This did not help to identify the bottles that I have. You have know what you have to look up the possible prices in this book.

1 comments about Antique Trader Perfume Bottles Price Guide.

1. This book contains a wealth of information about perfume bottles of all types ... much, much more than just a price guide. Whatever question you might have regarding a bottle, the answer will be here. Beautifully illustrated with many, many color photographs. Well worth the price.

3 comments about Clevelands Bottle Pricing Guide.

1. I was impressed with the almost 4,000 bottles listed in this book. I was disappointed, however, in the limited number of pictures the author used. Several were very difficult to see and the descriptions were rather vague. The book is small enough in size to be taken along when shopping for old bottles and I find this to be very helpful. In the front of the book there are very brief tips on identifying, buying and selling bottles. I found these tips to be short but informative. I am only a novice to bottle collecting but I think this book would be good for a beginner or a veteran collector. My favorite feature of this book is its compact size. I like the fact that I can easily take it with me when I go shopping for bottles.



2. I just bought 4 different books on collecting bottles and the one thing this book has that the others do not, is lots of pictures. This REALLY helps especially when you are a beginning collector like myself. The descriptions are a bit short (for example, in other books they tell you size and color of the specific bottle) while this one usually does not go into that amount of detail. But for [price], this book really surprised me. I have to say that even though it does have its downfalls in lack of detail, it makes up for it by its pictures. And trust me, I have 3 other books and they probably contain an average of 20 pictures per book. This one has about 3-4 pictures every other page. I do not recommend this book if you are looking for just ONE reference to go by but if you are buying it as a companion reference, I highly recommmend it.



3. I love all kinds of Glass! I have found a lot a glass bottles and this book has helped me to see if they are worth anything. Some of my finds are in this book but most are not. However I have gotten several more bottle books on Amazon.com. I am sure I will find what I need in time :)

5 comments about Antique Trader Bottles Identification and Price Guide.

1. I've been an Antique Bottle Collector for approximately 10 years and have bought all of the previous editions of Bottles: Identification and Price Guide. While the other 3 editions have been excellent and a great help, the 4th Edition is by far the best of the group. The front part of the book with respect to how to understand bottle collecting,the history of bottles and glass, and digging for bottles (which I do) is an excellent update. In addition, the updated pricing sections along with the photographs, both black & white and color, are also extremely helpful. I find that the other area that provided a great deal of help is the back section of the book. The Trademark Section, Glossary, Clubs and Dealer Guide, and Bibliography. Overall, Mr. Polak has done a great job providing a super updated 4th Edition. The book makes mention that it has been called the "Bottle Bible" and I can understand why. It's been extremely helpful to myself and many of my fellow bottle colletors.



2. A lot of good info for the beginning collector and a fair reference for all.



3. Excellent resource with good photos in color! Antique Trader is always a good purchase decision.



4. I bought this book for my husband and if you have a generic looking bottle and want to find out information this is not the book for you. If you have visible writing on it, this would be a great find. I'm not the bottle collector in the family and although this was listed as the "bottle bible" I expected more out of it. My husband is pleased with the book. In other words, he gets to do more collecting and I get to run out of cabinet space!



5. I know bottles...I dig them and I sell them at all the bottle shows in NY,NJ,PA,CT area. I am a professional and am very knowlegable on bottle collecting and appraisals of all kinds. DON'T be fooled by the fancy pictures and the fact it is endorced by Antique Trader. They trusted that he knew what he was talking about when they printed 15,000 copies. They were wrong!
   THERE ARE SO MANY MISTAKEs IN THIS BOOK ON IDENTIFICATION AND PRICING THAT ANYONE IN THE BOTTLE COLLECTING SELLING BUSINESS WILL NOT BUY THE BOOK. I spoke with the author at a recent bottle show where he was selling his book and he refused to acknowlege his own blatent and foolist mistakes through the ENTIRE BOOK which is down right embarassing if you ask me. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!

5 comments about 1000 Fruit Jars.

1. Great little book for identifying all those jars you buy at auctions for a buck a box. Alphabetized, clear images exactly as they appear on the jars, even comparative values for many choices per brand by color.
   It's not a coffee table book, it's a throw it in your bag and take to the sale book. Perfect!



2. This book, One Thousand Fruit Jars, was just what I needed to sort out a horde of old fruit jars from my aunt's estate. Wonderful drawings and values. Helped me 100%.



3. This book is just what I needed on my many excursions to garage/estate sales. I have been able to determine better purchases for my collection by referencing my book on my outings. The images are in alphabetical order and are drawn precicely as they are seen on the jars. Info on jar colors for each embossed design is available too. A MUST HAVE for the avid jar collector!!



4. I have used this book many times to identify the canning jars I have purchased or were given to me. I love to can foods and give as gifts. Until this book I didn't realize the value of the jars. Hubby & I canned peaches this past summer and were giving as Christmas gifts. I looked up the value of one jar and found it to be worth over $20.00! We gave away a jar of peaches with much lesser value, LOL!
   
   Small book with LOTS of great details. VERY EASY TO USE! Highly recommended if you are wanting to sell/purchase jars...or give away gifts in jars so you know the true value of the gift.



5. I expected a larger book when I ordered it but this tiny little publication is a boon to collectors with hand written logos. I was thrilled with my purchase....This book is a must for any jar collector. Identify jars is a breeze.. John D Crusius

5 comments about Warman's Bottles Field Guide: Values and Identification.

1. Good general info about bottle basics & collecting. Lots of pics of bottles you will never see at fleas or garage sales & probably very rarely at antique shows or stores. Could do with more pricing examples and fewer full page pics.



2. I know bottles...I dig them and I sell them at all the bottle shows in NY,NJ,PA,CT area. I am a professional and am very knowlegable on bottle collecting and appraisals of all kinds. DON'T be fooled by the fancy pictures and the fact it is endorced by Antique Trader. They trusted that he knew what he was talking about when they printed 15,000 copies. They were wrong!
   THERE ARE SO MANY MISTAKEs IN THIS BOOK ON IDENTIFICATION AND PRICING THAT ANYONE IN THE BOTTLE COLLECTING SELLING BUSINESS WILL NOT BUY THE BOOK. I spoke with the author at a recent bottle show where he was selling his book and he refused to acknowlege his own blatent and foolist mistakes through the ENTIRE BOOK which is down right embarassing if you ask me. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!



3. The book came within a certain time period as stated and was in great shape . I would recommend by from this individual again in the future .



4. When all the Christmas paper cleared it was this book he seemed most interested in and soon hit the road for the neighborhood with his trusty folding camp shovel and a gleam in his eye!



5. I have found some old bottles and this is an excellent source for idetifying them.

5 comments about The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine.

1. This is a worthwhile read. I borrowed a friends on a plane ride back from Vegas. Then I bought it on kindle. I like wine, but am in no way a snob. I am still trying to figure out how to get a bottle of Lafite. It keeps you reading. Go for it.



2. Throughout this well-written and thoroughly researched book is the timeless truism known by every con artist in history...people are taken in because they WANT to be taken in! Hardy Rodenstock...an alias, and a moniker Charles Dickens would have loved...knew he could count on the greediness and the inflated egos of super rich wine snobs who wanted only to have the BEST, the MOST EXPENSIVE, the RAREST wines in existence. Rodenstock got away with his blatant sleight of hand because no one wanted his cover blown, not the rare wine expert at Christies, not the billionaires slapping down mind-boggling sums for those dusty bottles inscribed with "Th.J" not even the representatives of the prestigious wineries in question. It was all good for business, and so long as none of the marks ever questioned Rodenstock's provenance or expertise, they could count on inclusion on the guest list for the biggest wine orgies on Earth (Ahem...men only, don't you know. Women were "...a distraction" sniffed one participant). It brings to mind the more recent Madoff scandal, and how common sense and due diligence are so often sacrificed on the altar of greed. In "Billionaire's Vinegar," it took an American oil tycoon, Bill Koch, with determination of steel to finally reveal the German emperor's shoddy wardrobe...maybe. As previous reviewers have noted, the book ended before the elusive Rodenstock could be brought to justice.
   
   The book is peppered with great characters, true eccentrics, and some of the best drawing room cat fights I've read in a long time. The evil glee that Michael Broadbent from Christies felt over the upbraiding his Sothebys rival received from Philippine de Rothschild for her "pretentious" use of French was a visceral delight! And the gung-ho investigators hired by Bill Koch to nail Rodenstock once and for all were right out of a "Sopranos" episode.
   
   For us mere wine mortals who get a thrill from pouring a simple glass of good Oregon pinot or a fine Leonetti, this was a happy vicarious ride through a whole other world. But in the end, one I would prefer to read about rather than know first hand!



3. "At the tasting, (wine collector Bipin) Desai remarked that the older wines smelled like an old Hindu temple. 'Because there are a lot of droppings from bats in those temples,' Desai recalled." - from THE BILLIONAIRE'S VINEGAR
   
   "In a Stanford/Caltech study by neuroeconomists, published in January 2008, subjects were given several glasses of the exact same wine, each with a different price tag. Believing that they were drinking different wines, the subjects described the `more expensive' ones more favorably. Moreover, brain scans showed the subjects to actually experience more pleasure from the nominally pricier stuff." - from THE BILLIONAIRE'S VINEGAR
   
   On December 5, 1985, Michael Broadbent, the founding director of the wine department of Christie's auction house, auctioned off Lot 337, a bottle of Chateau Lafite red vino, vintage 1787, inscribed with the initials "Th.J." which had ostensibly been discovered, along with 25-30 others so marked - the exact count always remained vague - behind a false wall in the basement of a house being demolished in Paris. The bottle had been consigned to Christie's by the German wine collector/seller, Hardy Rodenstock, who had acquired the entire cache and claimed that the initials on the bottles were those of Thomas Jefferson, a wine connoisseur in his own right, a President of the United States, and a resident of the City of Light during his time as minister to France.
   
   Lot 337 - a SINGLE bottle, mind you - sold to the American Kip Forbes for $156,000 (or the rough equivalent of 78,000 bottles of 2-buck chuck from your local Trader).
   
   The auction of Lot 337 serves as an introduction to THE BILLIONAIRE'S VINEGAR by Benjamin Wallace, a book that explores the larger topic of old, rare wines - the purchase, collection, and tasting of which absorbs the time and millions of dollars of those with perhaps too much of both on their hands. Oh, and, of course, that which naturally follows - the forgery of such wines.
   
   The collectible wine market evolved when the growers began bottling and labeling their product (as opposed to distributing it in barrels from which the rich man's butler would tap-off into bottles), when vintages became officially stratified according to their perceived quality, when the consumers began cellaring selected vintages in their original bottling, and, decades later, when such stockpiles previously "lost" were discovered. The fraud perpetuated by a counterfeit bottle can reach ludicrous proportions.
   
   "Tim Littler, from Whitwams, bought a Jéroboam of 1869 Mouton at Christie's London. When he got home to Manchester, he left the bottle upright on a table. Later, when he turned to look at it, he could see right through. Alarmed, he held the bottle up to the light. The fluid inside seemed far too translucent for a red Bordeaux, and, strangely, no sediment was swirling around ... Littler opened the bottle and, sure enough, it contained colored water."
   
   The mental image of what must have been the look on Littler's face made me giggle. (Well, maybe it was the effect of the 2-buck chuck swilled down with my mac 'n' cheese.)
   
   As a reading experience, THE BILLIONAIRE'S VINEGAR, while perhaps not allowing you a whiff and taste of Domaine de la Romanee Conti Montrachet 2005, will give you a glimpse into the exclusive - we daren't say "snooty" - world of rare wine collectors. And, more to the point considering the introduction, the book is a reasonably fascinating narrative of the means by which the genuineness of the Parisian "Jefferson" bottles was determined, although, on this latter topic, it may drag on a bit. And the book does provide enough information by the conclusion for the reader to arrive at a satisfactory mental verdict regarding the authenticity of the bottles in question.
   
   As an aside not recorded in the volume, it should be noted that in 2009 Michael Broadbent initiated a suit against Random House, the publisher of THE BILLIONAIRE'S VINEGAR, claiming defamation of character. The issue was settled out of court, Broadbent apparently receiving an apology and monetary damages, though the text of the work wasn't subsequently altered. My personal conclusion from this legal detour is that author, who wasn't named in the action, administered fair blows to old sore points.
   
   Ah, I see the pizza delivery guy has arrived. Let me go to my wine cellar, the cabinet under the kitchen sink, where my gallon of screw-topped Italian red has been gently aging. Honey, break out the paper plates, plastic wine glasses, and napkins!



4. I'm enough of an oenophile to have Broadbent, Parker and Robinson (among others, but they're in the book) on my bookshelf and to have had at least one vintage of most wines mentioned in this book. Therefore, I read with great interest... and finished the book with crawling skin. If you have some history with wine and have had it up to here with ostentatious opulence and want to feel some schadenfreude, this book will do it. The story itself should interest most people regardless but if you have come to regard wine people warily, do read Billionaire's Vinegar. You'll laugh your arse off.



5. I am a little surprised this book hasn't received better reviews here. First, it is exceptionally well written. Second, I am admittedly a wine-geek, hopefully a wine connoisseur (but not a snob). I am also in the financial services industry and therefore always interested in tactics of self deluded and deluding salespeople, as well as that now ubiquitous concept of behavioral finance (really just human nature and money). Now I stayed up all night to finish this book, and read it not too long after struggling with, but still enjoying, George Taber's equally important Judgement of Paris, about the comparative tasting of 1976 that put California wines on the map. The difference between the two books? This is a more compelling read because Wallace is a more fluent writer than Taber. The essence of the story in a nutshell: the emperor's new clothes. People will believe not just what they want to believe, but will do so with a vengeance when money, reputation, glamor and fame are on the line. P.S. Robert Parker still thinks the mammoth tasting extravaganzas thrown by Hardy Rodenstock (or whatever his name is) were genuine. Maybe they were. Wanna bet.

5 comments about Bud Hastin's Avon Collector's Encyclopedia: Avon and California Perfume Company Products-1886 to Present.

1. I BOUGHT THIS BOOK HOPING TO IDENTIFY ALOT OF OLDER AVON I HAD FOUND..THE BOOK IS GREAT..GOOD DESCRIPTION OF OLDER AVON PRODUCTS AND EASY TO USE ..THANKS



2. Both specialty collector libraries catering to neo-pro collectors and general-interest public libraries will find AVON COLLECTOR'S ENCYCLOPEDIA: AVON AND CALIFORNIA PERFUME COMPANY PRODUCTS 1886 TO PRESENT an invaluable acquisition, appearing in its 18th updated edition to provide the latest prices and details. Here are thousands of products, paired with the latest prices, black and white and color photos throughout, making for an invaluable at-a-glance reference.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



3. I am an Avon rep and have always used this book. I ordered the current edition for myself and another person who collects Avon items



4. I bought this book with the idea that it would be a valuable resource for me when I sell some of my collectibles. While I did find most of my items and the current market value is there for me to sell or get insurance, the one thing I needed most was the issue price. I have no clue as to what I paid 25 years ago. No one thought to keep receipts back then. Since these items are considered collectible, IRS regulations require that it be reported on Schedule D and you pay tax on the gain. If you have no idea as to the cost, you end up paying tax on 100% of the sale price! Who wants to do that!!! If this book contained the issue price, that could be used as a cost basis.



5. I found this book to be helpful in determining the values of most of the pieces in an Avon collection that was inherited. Unfortunately some were not but they were minor items. All in all a very informative book for the serious collector.