Post #21218 by Trader Woody on Wed, Jan 29, 2003 5:15 AM

There was an item on the previous evening's news about a restaurant in London that has had 20,000 of it's ashtrays stolen since it was opened a few years back. They were attempting to get some of them back by offering an amnesty as well as a free glass of champagne for anyone returning their stolen ashtray.

This begs the question, "In what kind of quantities were Tiki mugs produced for the various Tiki establishments?" I realise that numbers will differ wildly for different restaurants and bars, but does anyone have any concrete numbers? Is 500 a bare minimum run for any Tiki bar? Ten times that?

What intrigues me is that while 20,000 of these ashtrays (made of metal and forged
into a distinctive Q shape) have been stolen, I've not seen any offered for sale elsewhere. (I can't say I've looked too hard, though)
Even relatively rare mugs like, say, the green Mark Thomas moai, come up for sale
fairly regularly. Were they made in even greater quantities than 20,000?

Or to put it another way, to what extent are the Tiki mugs being traded these days
just the tip of an enormous Tiki iceberg?

Trader Woody