The Official Bottle Price List by Ralph Kovel, Terry Kovel (1973, Book, Illustrated)

Ralph and Terry Kovel have "cruised" for years, on the enourmous amount of work they did with these early bottle books, in the late 1960's. Most everything after that has just been the same book with some alphabetical sections of types missing from one book, and back in the next. The descriptions are way too vague and way too easy to misinterpret. You can also find the same errors repeated over and over, book to book. The "criminal" part of my mind believes some of the ridiculous prices, coupled with a vague description of what could be a common bottle, are intentional. These books are not made to further the bottle market, they are made to sell books. Now anyone with a little marketing skill, knows that bottle dilettantes, standing in Mr. Paperback, and looking up some common bottle they just got at a flea market, are going to buy the book which shows that bottle at the highest price. If they think that the 2 dollar bottle they just picked up is worth 100 or more, won't hesitate to plop down 20 bucks on a book. I hate to feel like I'm coming down hard here, but the truth is the truth, despite my love for all things "bottle". Rob