Post #758362 by ErichTroudt on Wed, Feb 3, 2016 10:20 PM

The decline of prices of vintage mugs goes back way further than months. Its been on a steady decline for years.
For example, Back in early 2000's, a hawaii kai hula girl tiki mask mug was $70-$100. Now, they are $30-$70.
Stephen Crane yellow/red Ku mugs went $100-$125, now I've seen them on ebay sell for $40-$60.
Go to Ooga-mooga, Pick a vintage mug, looks at the oldest price listings (which I believe is 2006) and then compare to now. Its a steady decline.

Why? I'd say supply and demand and a shift in the priorities of the "tiki" fan.

Early collectors focused on vintage, because that was all there was. We searched out old places, old menus, and later saw cool mugs we didn't know existed in books like Duke Carter's book and here on tiki central. We searched them out. It was tough to find mugs from someplace 3000 miles away. Ebay made it easier. Prices grew and serious and/or rich collectors fulfilled their wishes. Once those collectors had those pieces, demand goes down, and so do the prices.

New mugs came on the scene. At first they were easier to get and cheaper. Now you have people that just collect "new" (post 2000) mugs and could care less about the vintage stuff. No hunting in thrift stores, yard sales, swap meets...just order online...Its weird to me. Now the new mugs are even harder to get and more expensive than some vintage mugs, so people are focused even harder on saving money and getting these new mugs.

Shift in priorities played a big part too. In the early days, tiki was all about collecting...matchbooks, mugs, menus, actual pieces from the restaurants. Then came a HUGE emphasis on drinking. It became all about the drinks, mixing, this rum, blah blah blah. People spending way more money on the drink side instead of decorations or collecting.
I've heard people at events say, "I'd love to buy that but I need the rest of my money for drinks". You see it in the home bar section. First thing they do is build a bar, set it up, and then build a room around it. You see threads with People filling a shelf behind a bamboo bar with tons of liquor, 3 new style mugs sitting on a shelf, a string of lights and a crappy wood sign that says tiki bar. They name it the "comeiwannaleiya bar" or some stupid name and they get 6 comments about how awesome their rum selection is. Their priority is drinking, not collecting.

Decline in tiki popularity? Obviously it isn't as popular as 2004, but its still popular enough. I don't think its a loss of popularity, I think its "lost its way" so much that many old school people just don't choose to be active in it. Major events having themes or cowboys, space, spy....mug companies making monkeys, pink gorillas, zombies faces, rocket ships...entertainers consisting of techno, hillbillies, burlesque dancers, mermaids..... etc etc etc. There's no connection. Some person with "skin in the game" will come on here and try to justify it, but its a huge stretch and nonsense. There are people in this thing we call "tiki" that have no idea who stephen crane was, but partying it up at a cowboy theme room crawl while drinking from a $300, #7 of 25 special blue glaze rocketship fez mug....That's what tiki is to them. Its not about studying old buildings or collecting menus.

Decline in tiki central? Anyone actually still reading this isn't going to be happy.
At the last 2 marketplaces I attended I asked people "do you go on tiki central?". When they said "No" or "rarely" I asked why. I got the same answer repeatedly, the only answer I got...."Its full of Jerks"
And they are right. Certain people here are terrible to others, especially newbies. Over the years I've seen it all ...People can't play nice with FOM, can't play nice with random people coming here to sell, can't play nice with the newbie who gung ho because he just discovered it, and oh, say something slightly against one of the "tiki elders" around here and the villagers grab their torches (even if the disparaging remark is true)

Its turned into a board with basically one active moderator, an owner who left, and about a dozen people who consistently post, one of which who is beyond rude. The language on the shout is always terrible, I can't even bring tiki central up on the computer when my daughter is in the room because of the language.

People got sick of the hypocrisy. Someone posts a vintage Philippine wood carved Ku mug. "hey look i found a tiki mug"....the response they get is basically "its tourist trash" "its not tiki"....yet everyone is super excited about a Steampunk munktiki mug or a Krampus mug and NOBODY says "hey, thats not tiki".
They come on to sell an item...they get bashed, "introduce yourself...leaching off us".... but if you have a name in the business, only come on here to promote and sell....nobody says a word. Regular People are tired of it.

Tiki central has had some incredible stuff posted over the years by some incredible people.
I've been here since it was a Yahoo message board... and not a day goes by I don't check in to read new posts, but Lately, not a day goes by I don't say out loud, "why do I still come here?"

Currently, if it wasn't for a handful of people...(for example) Hang10 and Buzzy posting their awesome finds and Dusty posting some great historical stuff, I wouldn't even bother.

[ Edited by: ErichTroudt 2016-02-04 09:21 ]