How has privy/dump digging impacted the market for antique bottles?

Hello Folks,

I've been thinking about this topic for the last few months. It appears that there are a lot of avid bottle diggers out there as evidenced by YouTube, Facebook, and a couple of specialized web forums that are constantly adding content. How has the popularity of this hobby affected prices and the market for antique bottles with new hoards constantly being uncovered and brought to market. I'd think a comparable market would be ancient coins, where prices are significantly suppressed by new large hoards being found frequently.

Your thoughts?

Thanks,
Joe

 

Are the people avid enough to go out digging also avid collectors themselves, people who would also be buyers? I can see hunting for ancient coins, even if you really have no personal interest in them. Is the profit potential of bottle hunting equally alluring?

 

I am a bottle junkie. I am a little old for privy digging but I belong to several sites where that is popular.

I do not think it has a negative effect on the market. There aren't enough coming up to really do that. Ultra rare bottles don't turn up much more often in a privy pit then they do already on top of the ground. Also a lot of stuff coming out is hazy with glass sickness and can't compete with attic find bottles unless they are tumbled.

One site I belong to a guy was poking around by a shed on Christmas day at his brothers Victorian home and 2 ft down there were 10 or so eagle flasks for no apparent reason. Nice ones but a bit of glass sickness. Still, what a dig!!!

If you want to join an active Facebook page with a lot of drool worthy bottles constantly being shown let me know and I will give you a link. Super bunch of people but hanging out there has convinced me I need to expand my horizons out of cure and poison bottles and I am close to pulling the trigger on my first serious flask!

 

You finally got one and now you’re going to shoot it off a post???

 

No! That baby will go in a glass fronted cabinet!

 

I really need to get out of that Facebook group, those guys are getting to me!

 

That picture came out of that group and is currently my wallpaper on my PC.

 

Think a vitrine is called for.

 

You have taught me a new word Bronwen!

 

Just the place for a glass collection, no? Words make such nice gifts: you can give them & still keep them.

 

Hi,
I have not bottle dug for years. I remember being in a club back in the 1960s for bottle hunters that is where I meet Skeeix for the first time. I often wondered if it was still as popular as it was.
greg

 

How has privy/dump digging impacted the market for antique bottles?

I’d expect prices to go into the toilet.