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The old days

Back in 2011 John Sullivan wrote a blog about his experiences 40 years ago. As most of
you will not have read this I am reproducing it in full here – it is well worth a read.

The Biggest Collection I Ever Bought

This collection was one of the greatest collections in the history of mini bottle collecting. It
started in 1978 when I received a letter from a woman telling me about her collection. Her
letter was in response to a magazine article she saw that contained an article about my
collection. She stated that she was getting older and was thinking about selling her
collection. I had never heard of her as a mini bottle collector so I asked her for the names
of some of her favourite bottles. When she replied with names like Old Camel and
Buccaneer I got excited. I asked her how many bottles she had
and she replied about 8,000 or 9,000. I told her I would like to
come and visit her and she said that would be fine. She lived in
Rockport, IL and I lived in Los Angeles. My Dad lived in
Milwaukee. So shortly after that conversation, I flew back to
Milwaukee and picked up my Dad and off we went to Rockport.
When we got there, she took me upstairs to her bottle room and
the first thing I saw were whiskies I never heard of. Then I saw
rums I never heard of, and gins and beers and figurals I had
never seen. I was so excited I couldn't stand it. When we finally
went back downstairs, she served us
coffee and cookies and we began
discussing her collection. When I finally
told her that I wanted to buy it, she said
"Oh, I don’t think I want to sell it. I would
really miss my little babies." I was
shocked. That was the whole reason I
made the trip. I was really disappointed
when we left her home.

Four months later, she called me and told me she was ready to sell
her collection and she was asking $25,000. I countered with an
offer of $20,000 and she declined. Four months later she called
and said she was willing to accept the $20,000 offer. I declined her
offer and came back with a $15,000 counter offer. She declined.
About a year later I received a phone call from an attorney who
handling her estate and had been advised that before her death,
the woman had told the attorney that she had received a $20,000
offer on her collection from me. The attorney was calling to tell me that the estate was
willing to accept the $20,000 offer. I explained to the attorney that the original $20,000 offer
had been declined by her and that the most recent offer was $15,000. The attorney
blustered on about the value of the collection and the $15,000 offer was ridiculous. When I

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