Post #161855 by boutiki on Thu, May 26, 2005 7:58 PM

OK, this may have already been brought up before, but I couldn't find it– and I searched.

I sometimes get tired of seeing and hearing so much talk about the crazy money being spent on mugs and stuff. Sometimes I find myself doing it too. But the question that interests me much more is what's the LEAST you have paid for a mug? Forget about whipping out your checkbook or punching in that Paypal info. Anybody with some scratch can type in a high number and throw down a big bid. For me, the real score is the mug you find at dawn covered in dew on a table at a flea market in an old drive-in, or heaped in a pile of "I heart Grandpa" coffee mugs at a garage sale.

I'm sure there are plenty of good stories to share, so break 'em out. Let's hear how you got your Tiki on the cheap. Here is your opportunity to really brag!

I'll get the ball rolling... we've have a few good scores, but a couple really stand out in my mind. One is the time Amy and I were at a garage sale and it was one of those where I take a look and immediately regret shutting off the car engine and getting out. Lot's of kid's clothes, old pans with the non-stick surface peeling, unopened boxes of Mary Kay cosmetics... you know. Well, I was ready to bolt when Amy said "wait" and reached into a cardboard box full of tupperware and pulled out something wrapped in a plastic grocery bag. She opened the bag and fished out the matte brown mug with "voodoo" written on his forehead (it's on page 29 of T.Q.). No lie. She asked the price and they said 10 cents. I still don't know what came over her, or why she would think to have given anything in that old box a second glance. Ever since then, when we are at a really good "junky" antique shop, we ask each other, "Smell any Tiki?"

A couple years later, Amy was riding shotgun while I was doing a job for an art gallery. I stopped at the house where I was to pick up a painting and Amy jumped out of the van and ran over to a yard sale across the street. By the time I was loaded up, she was back at the van grinning from ear to ear. She had scooped up two of the JPCo Bumatay mugs (page 9 in T.Q.) that were marked one dollar for the pair. She had pointed out a chip on one, and they gave them both to her for 50 cents.

So let's hear about your least expensive acquisition or best score in the wild when the Tiki gods smiled upon you.

-Duke