Post #360639 by MauiTiki on Mon, Feb 11, 2008 8:30 PM

I like this thread.... Lots of different opinions...

I personally collect Tiki mugs and have over 200. I don't collect coconuts, hula girls or severed heads, so all this talk of Ren Clark's severed head does nothing for me. Each person has his/her own most sought after mug.

If a mug is too rare maybe it becomes uncollectable, because no one knows what it is. If it didn't make Dukes book or get a mention in Book of Tiki it may get overlooked by collectors. The Schoon Tiki Mug came out right at the beginning of my Mug collecting as did Munk Tikis Goatiki. I could have had either mug for under $40 at the time. Now I wish I had, but I didn't know where my collection was taking me and what their eventual value would be. If the Schoon Tiki had come out before the internet, would it still be as desirable? Maybe because it's a good design, but maybe we wouldn't know enough about it for it to be worth anything. It would be classified as Homemade Tiki, and only be valuable if someone liked the design or color.

Soooo a mug like the Schoon Tiki is collectable because most of us remember the chance we had to get one and know some of the history behind it. I have a Very desirable Hala Kahiki Bumatay Mug. I didn't pay that much for it, and didn't know at the time what I had. I guess my timing was right. I'm still the only one on Ooga-Mooga to have one.

When I went through Tiki Quest for the first time I found several mugs I had never seen before and put them at the top of my "most wanted" list. One was the Blue Hawaii mug that looks similar to Leilani and the other was the Otagiri Vertical Woodgrain Tiki Mug. Both I was able to pick up on eBay for under $10. I guess they weren't as sought after as I thought.

Back to the original question...

What is the most sought after mug??? One that got recognition in the Book of Tiki and Tiki Quest, one that looks very cool, one that is associated with a restaurant, one that you don't see on eBay very often and many big-time collectors don't have.

These factors will drive the price up and make it sought after for the rest of us.

Well I didn't give a mug as my answer, but I would put the "Hawaii Kai - Wahine In the Tiki Mouth" as the most sought after mug out there. And maybe Steve Crane's "Clown" mug as second because it's on the cover of BOT.