And this amazing challenge became my New Year's resolution. But then two things happened: one Lent. Being pregnant I have already given up plenty of things, so I thought I'd take up more blogging. Two: I was asked to be a social ambassador to the Clinton Center. Yes, I was as surprised by this as you all are. The woman that asked me said that the social ambassadors were chosen because we had influence amongst our peers; it was all I could do to keep a straight face at that one.
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I went to a really cool event at the Clinton Center. It was a Coca Cola Collectors' Convention. Basically, it was Antique's Roadshow for Coke memorabilia. Let me be the first to say that I was skeptical. How much Coca Cola memorabilia is out there? Would anything actually be worth anything? The answers to those questions are: yes, tons and yes, a lot.
First, we got a chance to look in at the Coca Cola exhibit that is currently in its last days. (Next up is an exhibit on the history of the Olympics that is going to be super cool.) Did you know of the 6 original Andy Warhol illustrations, Coca Cola only owns 3? One of them was bought by Coke in the 1970's after some guy realized it had been hanging above the mantle in his parent's house for years. Anyway, here are two of them:
Next: on to the main event! The very first item that was shown was this old, red "airline cooler." The lady that brought it in had had it in her garage forever. It was in great condition. And was estimated to be worth $300-500 at auction. Man, home run!
Next was a man that had a bunch of old bottles (apparently I didn't take a picture). Coke bottles got their now-classic curvy appearance in 1915. Bottles before that were just regular "straight-sided" bottles. Those bottles, the pre-1915 ones, can be worth $200-300 each. For a glass bottle. Crazy stuff.
The same guy pulled this bowl out last. It was a silver "pretzel bowl" (I'll let you figure out why). Anyway, this innocuous looking little bowl that stands on three silver coke bottles is worth, I'm so not kidding, $600-850 at auction. What!?
Last two items worth mentioning: this guy had something that not even the Coca Cola archives had in it. He had a painted wall bulletin and and advertising booklet. Painted walls were all the rage for advertising back in the day. The bulletin was given out so that all the walls were standardized, no matter who painted them. It had specifications for how big all the words were, what the text should look like, the specific colors to use, etc. The advertising booklet was pretty similar but for print ads. Coca Cola has some in their archives, but not the ones he owns. The Coke people couldn't even give him an estimate (but they did give him their cards so they might just end up in their archives).
Last, was a grocery/gas sign in pristine condition. These used to sit at the end of grocery store aisles or on top of gas pumps and served as advertisements. This one still spun and everything. It was estimated to get $600-1,000 at auction. Can you imagine having something like that laying around your garage?
There were many other things, but these I thought were the most interesting/unique. The Clinton Center has some surprisingly cool things going on. It's easy to forget that it's over there, being a the edge and almost separate from downtown, but kids under 5 are free and it's a great rainy/cold day destination. The Olympic exhibit will be there all summer, and I'm super pumped to check it out. The summer Olympics are seriously my favorite thing ever.
Coke archive on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CokeArchives/?fref=ts
Coke archive on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/5367132/
Clinton Center on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clintoncenter/
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