The Coke posters were a hit. They were tucked between a glass case and some other tall auction items, almost obstructed from easy viewing.
My auction buddy Janet had already seen them (I was too busy going through grimy box lots to check them out yet) and told me about them because she was interested in bidding on them.
She was not the only one. Many other bidders also spotted the posters, slipped them out of their resting place, laid them out on the table and examined them. We both knew that the bidding would be heated. We were curious about how much they would go for.
There were four of them, two the same. The inscription at the bottom left dated them to 1949 by the Coca Cola Company. The lithographs were unmarred, still brilliant in color with nary a scratch on them. They advertised menu-item sandwiches and a Coke (or Co-Cola, as we called it in the South).
Grilled cheese sandwich & a Coke – 30 cents
Ham and cheese sandwich & a Coke – 45 cents
Bacon and tomato sandwich & a Coke – 40 cents
We were scrounging around a new auction house in South Jersey that Janet had found. After viewing the merchandise on the web and seeing some different items, I joined her on a Saturday-morning excursion – an early-morning trip.
It was a small auction: In one room were boxes of stuff on table tops and floors. I came across a 1917 edition of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” on which I was outbidded, along with a couple of box lots that I was ready to buy because they had some interesting items that I wanted to dig through – for $5, not $20.
In the other room were items placed separately on tables, to be auctioned individually. There were lots of Lionel trains and accessories, and some furniture.
When time came for the Coke products, the auctioneer said they were from a diner (someone else mentioned restaurant), and I can only assume that these were some of their specials. On the table near them was an old table-top jukebox that likely came from the same place.
As I stood looking at the posters, a bidder stopped next to me. Said he used to have a collection of Coke items but got rid of them. He’s apparently not alone. Coca-Cola memorabilia is very collectible, and there’s even a collectors club that holds auctions at its annual conventions. The Coca Cola company itself has columns and a blog on collecting by archivist Phil Mooney.
Coke items come up for sale pretty often at the auction houses I visit – some old, a lot of them new. I’ve ended up with a few vintage Coke items in box lots before, including a bottle opener, button and lighter in the shape of a Coke bottle. At the recent auction, I picked up a 1973 reproduction Coke tray in a box lot.
As for the posters, some hefty bidding pushed the price of the four to $85. I wasn’t around when the jukebox sold.
