New Bottle Collector Checklist
Following are some suggested guidelines for those that
are new to the Internet and/or new to the hobby of Antique Bottle Collecting:
- Subscribe to the popular bottle magazines:
"Antique Bottle & Glass Collector" and
"Bottles & Extras".
The latter gives you membership in the
Federation of Historic Bottle Collectors.
- Visit the FOHBC page
and add yourself to their
Collectors List.
- Register with eBay AuctionWeb.
Their Collectibles:Bottles section is a great place to buy & sale antique bottles.
- Buy some good Books on antique bottles.
Kovels' 1996 Bottle Price Guide is a good
general price and information guide.
Look for other books to help with the bottle areas you want to
specialize in.
- Join a Bottle Club in your area.
Or if there isn't one in your area, pick the nearest one since you
will still get newsletters and have people that you can call about
bottle questions.
- Attend a few Bottle Shows in your area.
Ask the dealers questions. Take bottles you have questions
about and ask them. Most bottle dealers are more than
happy to look at your bottles and answer questions.
- Follow the news items (e.g. questions, answers, ads, ...) on the
Antique Bottle related newsgroups.
- Talk to experienced collectors - clubs and shows are good places to
meet them.
- Subscribe to free Email lists
for antique bottle collectors.
- When dealing with bottles, please remember
to follow the unspoken rules of
bottle etiquette.
-
Bottle & Glass Primer
- Visit
Pacific Glass Auctions
site for good info
on Bottle Collecting and History of Western Glass.
-
Understand How Bottles are Valued.
-
Bottle Basics
by Digger Odell has good info on bottle molds, bases, tops, etc.
Also see
Buying Tips
by Digger.
- Bottles Thru the Ages
is a PowerPoint slide presentation given Nov 6, 2001 by David
Tingen during a Raleigh Bottle Club meeting.
- The best way to make wise buying decisions is to educated yourself
as much as possible about the bottles you want to collect.
There is good info within these web pages,
so familiarize yourself with as many of them as possible.