Post #360699 by ScarabaTiki on Tue, Feb 12, 2008 6:27 AM

I probably see more mugs at antique shops than I do at thrift stores, but the thrift stores are usually more productive because the prices are much more reasonable and their inventories change more frequently. More often than not I will find a mug at an antique store where the asking price is just ludicrous....like $25 for a common Orchids of Hawaii R-6 seen last year in a San Diego store. An antique store closer to home is asking $95 for a Mr. Bali Hai that is missing much of its earring and nose bone paint! I find it interesting that some antique dealers just slap a high price on a mug when they obviously know nothing about its actual worth.

In the last two months one particular thrift store I visit regularly has been fairly productive, which I find interesting because I was unable to find anything over the previous year before that. In the last four visits I have scored about 10 tiki mugs and other tiki items, including a Don the Beachcomber coconut mug and a cool ceramic Ku made by Treasure Craft. Come to find out that there was a manager change at this store recently. Apparently the previous manager was purchasing most of the good stuff and selling it on eBay!

Unfortunately, as Naugatiki states above I would guess that many thrift stores simply auction off the good stuff before it ever sees the front room floor. Employees buy stuff too. I recently purchased a couple of mugs on ebay from a person I met for a local pick-up, and it was admitted that the mugs came from a thrift shop (that I shop at!) where she does occasional volunteer work. That's pretty hard competition to beat. Last week I observed several store employees shopping at another store where they had just emptied a bunch of crates with new stock.

I haven't had much luck with garage and estate sales, but then again I haven't been to that many. Like anything else I suppose it requires persistence. I would say that is the key to finding tiki in the wild whatever the source - go often. Most of the time you will leave empty-handed, but occasionally luck will be on your side.

Admittedly ebay used to be my shopping place of choice. Although I absolutely enjoy the hunt and am out usually once a week in the local thrift and antique stores, ebay is a great resource for some of the harder to find pieces that would take several lifetimes of thrift store scouring to actually find. However, like Tiki-Kate I have backed off of ebay in recent months because of high shipping prices, which raises the average price for a common tiki mug to $15 or $20. In addition, it seems like there has been a big surge of new collectors lately willing to pay just about anything for a mug on ebay. Several vintage mugs that I paid $25 to $40 for just a year ago are now fetching prices well over $100. Amazing. Many more common vintage mugs seem to be going for much more than the average price sightings listed on Ooga.