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Finds and Interests
Our WorthPoint Price Guide updates daily, with thousands of new items streaming in from our Industry Partners. I like to try to single out a few of my favorites to share with our followers. There’s usually a good story behind so many of these pieces, and sharing my passion for antique and vintage items is the best part of my job. This item was sold in 2019, but our data is sometimes updated with past sales, and this one caught my eye.
Coca-Cola items are highly sought after by collectors, but it’s a challenging genre to determine whether something is truly valuable or just a piece of mass-produced brand merchandise. An item that was included in a recent data dump may have been sold in 2019, but it’s still worth discussing.
This Coca-Cola tray is the only one of its kind in our WorthPoint Price Guide. It dates back to 1897 and was one of the first trays produced by the soft-drink company. Our Price Guide contains over 800 million items. We have thousands of Coca-Cola items, but this particular tray is the very first one that the company produced in 1897. At that time, advertising companies and printmakers were able to print slogans and pictures on school bags, store aprons, and other items. The company initially provided the first trays to soda fountains and restaurants that served Coca-Cola. Servers and soda jerks would use the trays to deliver drinks to the table.
As the popularity of the soft drink increased, the trays were distributed directly to customers through store promotions, contests, and door-to-door sales. Printing companies used lithography to create the designs, with limestone plates, grease pencils, and ink. Producing them cost the company about $0.12 to $0.14 each. The design initially featured round trays, and in 1905, they introduced oval trays. By 1910, rectangular trays had become the standard. They contained whatever slogan was current and usually featured images of the bottles, as well as well-dressed men and women enjoying the beverage.
To come across a tray that dates back to the literal beginnings of specialty advertising is quite something. The fact that it sold for more than $60,000 indicates that it was not only rare but also extremely valuable to at least one collector.