Why are embossed Coca Cola Ideal 55 Sliders so rare?

[Aron]

Any idea why there were seemingly so few embossed Ideal 55 Coca Cola sliders produced?  Just seems like a real oddity to me -- there seems to be quite a large number of embossed Pepsi and 7-Up sliders out there -- it just seems weird to me that Coca-Cola would be the one that had less produced.  Brands like Squirt, RC, and Hires I could understand, but why would the most prominent advertising soda brand out there be the one that was limited in this machine?  I know there are plenty of Glasco's with the fishtail and many generics with Coca-Cola on them, but why the small numbers of embossed Ideal machines?   

[loman4ec]

I think the biggest reason is that Coke went with Glassco and the GBV50 and just silkscreened them. Coke also had several other small machines while the other soda companies didn;t have other small machines for things like in barber shops and offices. This is just a guess.

[SIGNGUY]

Like Josh said, I think I heard at one point, that Coke had a large contract with Glasco and the Ideal machines may have been either a trial run with Coke either before or after the Glasco contract... hence why so many Glascos, and not many Ideals.

[loman4ec]

Coke is known to be ruthless so I am sure the contract went to the lowest bidder. It probably costs less to silk screen a machine than to emboss.

[mygoose101]

I would love to own one. Very sharp machine. I think I have seen a grand total of 2 in person. 

[a4man]

id sell one of my extra idea 55 have 2 left-it would be for the right offer--i did pay a bit for them years ago

or trade iam into gas pump clock faces--

[Chedki]

There was one on eBay last week. Don't know it it was sold or not.

http://cgi.ebay.com/EMBOSSED-IDEAL-55-COCA-COLA-MACHINE-/260678262893?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cb1a2a06d