Bottle Caps

Here is my collection of Root Beer bottle caps. Some do not say Root Beer on the cap, but since I took them off a Root Beer bottle I know that is what they are.  Most of them either say Root Beer or have a brand name that is associated with Root Beer.

This is a cheap collection and fun to look for when traveling around.

New Best Friend

I want to give a shout out to Dave Becker. He is one of my new best friends.  I have a booth in the Front Range Mercantile Fleamarket in Longmont  FRM One of the things I sell in that booth are marbles.  Well Dave collects marbles.  In fact he more than collects them, he also makes them.  Check out his web site. Big Chief Marbles

Well Dave used to collect soda stuff. Dave contacted me through the fleamarket and once we knew about each others collections, we decided to do some trading. I had  marbles he wanted and he had some items I wanted.

Check out the treasures I got.

This is the group of Items I got

These are two rare glasses.  The Dad's glass is worth about $30 and the Hires glass about $20.

The small Hires Extract box includes the bottle plus the instructions.  It fits perfectly in the old mailer I found earlier.  This is from 1929.

The coolest item is the right hand Syrup Tester bottle.  I do not know for a fact it is a Root Beer tester.  I found several sort of like it on the internet, but they are all clear and were called Coke-a-cola testers.  If you are aware of other Root Beer Testers, please let me know.

The Ramblin mug is cool because I have never seen one before in all my travels. I had seen the RICHardson glass before but could not buy it, Getting this one was a treat.

Now that Dave and I know what each other collects, we will have an extra pair of eyes looking for treasures.

Root Beer Labels

I recently found several root beer bottle labels.  They are not very expensive and look nice mounted in a frame on the wall.  Here is what I have found so far.

Some of these brands I have never heard of and do not know if they can even be found anywhere.  I will need to do a little research.

Grandpa's Root Beer

Several months ago I found a bottle in a Loveland Fleamarket with the label,

Grandpa's Own Special Formula Root Beer

It has a paper label with a cork in the top and I assumed it was someone's home brew.  Then last Saturday we decided to drive up to Ault Colorado and check out the antique stores there.  There are 4 of them in this small town.  I was both surprised and very pleased to find a crock jug with the same brand on it.

I did a bit of research and found that there really is a company in St. Joseph, MO that bottles and sells Root Beer and Cream Soda. I have now added them to my list of places I want to go and visit.  I love this little crock. It probably only holds about 24 ozs.

I paid about $4.00 for the bottle and $15.00 for the crock.

Hires. My Favorite thing to Collect

This blog post is dedicated to Hires Root Beer.  I wish someone would bring it back into production.

I have a lot of Hires items, because there are a lot out there to find. Since they were really the first national brand, and have been around for a long time, you can generally find some Hires items in most locations.  Here is what I have,  Enjoy the collection.  This will be a long one so settle in for a few minutes.

1948 Six Pack

The 2nd and 3rd from left are Hires mailing containers

Notice the 3cent stamp

10 oz bottles

12oz bottles

10oz bottles

12oz bottles

Large 24oz and 16oz bottles

Very old bottles

Hires in raised glass

Extract Bottle

Syrup Can

Marketing book with a sales plan

This bag contained over 100 unused bottle caps

HO scale train car

Tall crate

Short crate

1948 six pack carrier

Metal Advertising signs are very hard to find. They are getting expensive as well.

This one is cardboard

This is a card that fit into a 6 pack

Metal sign

Metal pin

Mirror

Ruler

Food Bag

Clock. Has a neon light in it that is always on when it is plugged in.

Repro Marble.  Not an original Hires item.

These are the only 3 trays I have ever seen.