Posted by Mark (leave feedback to contact me) on August 27, 2003 at 08:11:45:
In Reply to: duplicate shot glasses posted by heath on August 18, 2003 at 14:33:07:
Taking hints from other collectibles, there are "natural" variations that come from the manufacturing process, such as the image being higher or lower on the glass. The most extreme of these variations being errors, where the colors are offset, but these are still the same glass.
Then there are true varieties, or different versions of a glass. Two glasses with different designs should be two separate glasses. Two glasses with the same design, but with different colors should be two different glasses -- but be aware that sometimes colors fade or change, so what looks like two different colors might really be on that is faded, and one that is not.
There are differences that are much less obvious, and that you might need to look at the two glasses side by side to tell the difference. Sometimes the design changes slightly in size. One Coca-Cola glass has a square around the words. There are varieties of this glass where the square isn't square -- the top line is longer than the bottom line. This isn't an error in manufacturing, this is an attempt at copying an earlier design and getting it wrong -- and also a second, but similar glass.
One of the most overlooked varieties is where the trademark ™ or registered trademark ® or copyright © message changes. Planet Hollywood has glasses that have © PHI 1990 while others just have the ® Many Sport Team glasses appear with no trademark, and with a trademark.
Another variety that is often overlooked is the mark on the bottom of the glass. Two glasses with the same design but on glasses from different manufacturers should be treated as different glasses, and can usually be traced to different times of manufacture. One example of this is the 1991 Kentucky Derby shotglass. The version with the "Korea" mark on the base is worth about 1/3 less than the non-Korean version. Some Hard Rock glasses originally came with a flat base, and the newer ones have an indented base with the word taiwan in the indentation. These should be treated as separate glasses -- they were made at different times, and many collectors would want the "original" or "first edition" with the flat base, just like "first edition" books are more valuable.
Mark
: I was wanting to know how closely related a shot glass has to be in order to be considered a duplicate. I have two state shot glasses of Oregon, but they have different designs. I also have two Stanford University shot glasses that are really close. If you are knowledgable about this email me and i will send you a picture.