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More close up images of my Coca-Cola Paper Collection | Coca Cola1169 of 2199 |  |  |
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Posted 1 year ago
TGBWC
(185 items)
Postcards, score pads, school tablets, advertising manuals, sales booklets...some common items and some early and rare items.
My goal is to amass the world's largest privately-owned collection of vintage Coca-Cola paper items. So far, I own close to 500 different Coca-Cola paper items.
I got a long ways to go....
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Coca ColaFrom its invention by John S. Pemberton in 1886 to today, Coca-Cola has bec…
Very inspiring Ray. In 30 years of looking in antique shops, I have never seen such a collection of Coca-Cola paper items!
How many Festoons do you own?
Very Nice!!!! I like the cooler booklets, I need to find the paper on my machines. I ordered a service manual for one of em but it turned out to be a xerox copy of the original, dang nab it ,lol.
Just one (1950s) festoon. Never got too excited about festoons as there are difficult to display.
Here's my take on finding Coca-Cola paper items: While eBay has thousands of fake, fantasy and made-for-the-market Coca-Cola collectibles, it also has given us the opportunity to buy rarely seen paper items. Now anyone who ever worked for The Coca-Cola Company as an employee or former executive, is posting rare, unique, unusual, never seen before vintage Coca-Cola paper items and items mainly used by Coca-Cola employees and salesmen.
eBay is a better selling market for these items, which has a viewing audience of millions, as opposed to placing the item in a local antique mall, with a viewing audience of maybe a thousand if lucky.
Things that we would never find in antique malls or garage sales are now being discovered on eBay. It's rare to find employee uniforms, service pins/awards and employee newsletters in your local antique mall...but fairly common to find these items on eBay now.
Last year, a woman in London England was selling a 1930's pop-up Coke glass advertising brochure on eBay. I bought it for $10.00. And before paying for it, she emailed me asking if I was interested in more of them as well as other early 1930s London Coca-Cola paper items. She said she bought a box of paper items from a Coca-Cola executive's estate sale...with many duplicate items. She sold me everything for about $50. Then I contacted Phil Mooney, Archives Director with The Coca-Cola Company, about my recent purchase and he said: "these are very rare, very early Coca-Cola advertising items, introducing Coca-Cola to the London England market. Even we (the Archives) don't own these items!" Since I had duplicates of everything, I donated a set to Phil Mooney/The Coca-Cola Company.
So you see, there's a lot of rare and unusual advertising pieces/materials still waiting to be discovered out there.
Great story Ray-- nice of you to dontate a set.
I agree about ebay. It has given light to a lot of rare items. It has caused some items previously thought to be "rare" to be now seen as more available and lowered prices and values.
If you know your collecting arenas, you can find some great bargains on ebay and other online sites. Conversely, you can throw your money away on garbage and reproductions, if you don't know what you are doing.
Scott
Exactly Scott. Slap a new Coca-Cola decal on an old gum ball machine or cash register and describe it as a "rare, vintage one-of-a-kind" gum ball machine or cash register. The items are old but the decals are new and added to "enhance" or deceive or scam the novice collector into thinking they've got a rare item. Too many times I see the 1990s Coca-Cola cast iron/wooden park bench or the back Coca-Cola cast iron section of it, being described as a rare, 1930s cast iron sign...and then selling for $300. I always contact the seller but usually get a "if you're not interested in buying it then go f yourself" response.
I wish eBay could/would monitor this fake stuff...but I guess they'd have to hire someone (me!) to research this and remove that fake crap. Hmmm...maybe I'll contact eBay about hiring me....