A bit more education please - bottles

[davethebirdman]

Right,

Here I am sitting 4,000 miles away in England going green with envy at how you are all helping one another out and getting 1950's roundtops at silly prices.

I have now admitted defeat and put the idea of getting hold of another soda machine to the back of my mind. Shipping, even on the slow boat via China makes it far too expensive.

So, I've decided that I might start up a collection of original Coke bottles (not the same I know, please don't feel sorry for me. I hate pitty)

This is my newbie question. I have a vendo 39 with an original drum fitted. I beleive they vended 6oz bottles. Could someone plse confirm that one for me. The second dumb question is, what are 6.5 oz bottles?? Will they fit my machine??

Looking on Ebay its clear to see that each State had its own bottling set up, so, if I wanted to start a collection, of USABLE  bottles. (I intend to fill them) What sort of prices should I be paying for decent original 50's bottles?? I take it some are more collectable than others. What should I be looking out for?? What sort of questions should I be asking condition wise.

I told you they were silly questions but plse cut me a bit of slack. I do come from the other side of the planet where things are done differently.

Cheers

Dave

[MoonDawg]

Dave.  The embossed bottles were identified by the city that the bottling plant was located, not by different states.  Buy as many different bottles as you can for a buck a piece. Then pay what you must as you complete your collection.
      Condition is rated by chips and casewear. That is they went through a lot of wear as they were constantly being cleaned and refilled. The embossed letters usually take a beating. A seldom refilled bottle will display nice letters, when filled
      
      That is only a fraction of info. Pre 1923 are valuable and post 1960 painted labels are not. I'm sure someone has published a book or website about this.

[Eric]

Yeah.... I have about 50 bottles.... Pitty?..... Heck collecting them is just as cool! All mine are from
different bottling plants from through out the U.S.A. and a couple from Alaska... Could have gotten one
from Hawaii but it was too rough.... You'll get hooked.....

And also watch for ones on eBay dated Dec 25 1923....
they brought those out in the late 1980s for a
promotion tons of those on eBay.... (these “repros” don't
have the large cities embossed on the bottom and
the glass is thinner)


These old bottles are works of art.... like a rare vase.... (But then I'm an artist so I really get into the design and form thing)

Yeah chips and recycled wear is a biggy....
(Don't know why bottle collectors call it case wear....the cases were wood and they should know that, that wouldn't hurt them.... Moondawgs right they litterally took a beating when ran through the cleaning and refilling process.
The wear is from them banging against each other down the conveyor.
I have 4 nos yellow cases 3 filled and one almost with mint to near mint bottle.... they look killer next to a machine.

Watch for crates and good bottles and maybe a picnic cooler.
 It's all good!
Do you ever get over here for a trip?......
Sound funny but if you do plan it around a swap meet or
convention.....

Good Luck!

Eric

[DanV]

6.5 oz bottles will fit your vendo 39. Now they are 8 oz bottles. Same size, thinner glass (better glass technology). I remember as a kid seeing the little cokes as 6.5 ouncers with white lettering, while you would see an occasional 6 ouncer with embossed lettering (clear, not white). i would always buy the 6.5 ouncer--that 1/2 ounce made a big difference!!

[davethebirdman]

Thanks for my lesson. I now have a better idea of what to look out for. Eric, where did you get your NOS crate from?? I've been looking at them too and most are bashed up. One chap in England has one on Ebay UK at the moment for £30.00 ($60.00) which has seen better days.

There is also an Ebay auction for 35 6oz bottles. I have asked the seller to get me a price for shipping. If its reasonable I'll try and snap them up to start the collection going. At the moment I jst want to fill them and use them but like everything I start collecting it will no doubt beocme and obsession and cost me an arm & a leg.

Cheers

Dave

[Eric]

The crates I find in auctions and flee markets..... The next super nice one I come across... I'll let you know
they've been around $25-30 bucks... You'll want one with deviders to keep the bottles nice.
I'll watch for you.....

Quote (DanV @ May 07 2005,10:13)

6.5 oz bottles will fit your vendo 39. Now they are 8 oz bottles. Same size, thinner glass (better glass technology).

Is it true that it's better glass technology or they just decided that they didn't need as much glass?

i ask because while most of you probably use 8 oz. bottles for V-39s and slant shelf machines, both of which you pull them out and they don't DROP down, I'm considering putting some in my V-216MD, which does drop down bottles.

I just wondered if the 8 oz. are as break resistant in a drop down machine as the 6.5 oz.

Long story short: Are the 8 oz. bottles more fragile than the 6.5 oz.?

My guess has always been "yes", because modern (8 oz.) glass bottles no longer go in drop-down machines. But if there really has been a technological advance, then they should be fine right?

I clearly have no clue, so I' just looking for some confident information.

Thanks in advance.

[Eric]

I would say they are more fragile!..... Be careful.....

Yeah, I will probably just use them in my Cavalier CS-64 slant shelf machine and forget about putting them in the drop-down machine.

[glassbottlesrule]

Kito,  I used to use them in a vendo 44 I had with no problem.