New Port/Starboard light glasses?

I gather that original Trader Vic's Port/starboard light glasses are much sought after and expensive, but is anyone making new ones? They'd probably make a mint if they did! Or would there be copyright difficulties?

This is an old question in theory. Basically, what makes an old mug valuable is the old. If you copy it, it won't be worth much. It's not that the mug/glass is so awesome, but that it is no longer made and has a history with different places.

Trader Vic's actually has a new Port and Starboard Light mug, but it is ceramic instead of glass.

So if you copied those glasses, you would likely not make much. If you quietly could copy them and sell them as vintage on Ebay, you might make some money at first, but slowly, the value would decline as everyone who wanted one would have one. And if you were found out, who knows?

The truth is those are not that rare. They were given away with S&H green stamps as well as being used in Trader Vic's the Kahiki and other bars.

Thanks, Swanky!

Let me put my question another way...
bearing in mind these port/starboard glasses and mugs aren't all that rare, how should i go about getting some at a reasonable price... not for their rarity value, but to serve drinks in?

CHRIS

Ahem... "Aren't all that rare"??

Excuse me??

Raise your hand if you have a pair.

(And tell that to the guy that bought a pair off me in 2003 for $1300)

Doctor Z,
I back Swanky on this one. They're hard to find all right, but not impossible. I found two pair of them for cheap as Marine Tumblers or Nautical Lights (or somesuch). The mention of Trader Vic's or tiki really jacks up the prices.
Wish I'd sold the extra pair for $300, let alone $1300, instead of giving them away. D'Oh.

JTD

I found 5 in an antique store for $9 each. The Gun Club Punch glass is far more common, but these are not uncommon. You just have to hunt for the cheap alternative. If you know the maker, you can often search Ebay by the maker and find them cheap, not labeled TV. That's the key. Put TV on the auction and it gets crazy. I sold all mine on Ebay for money and figured I'd find some more. Now I have none. Well, I think. All the mugsa re in boxes these days.

Thanks again, Swanky.
Have you any idea of who the maker is?

Best wishes from a shell-shocked Britain,

CHRIS.

For whatever it's worth the maker of the gun punch cups was both the Imperial Glass Co and the Morgantown Glass Co. It was an Imperial glass item (they owned the rights and the mold) that was available at retail but sometimes they had the Morgantown company make them when they didn't have enough capacity. You can find these on ebay by looking under Imperial Big Shot. The pitcher and the Big Shot (larger) tumbler are difficult to find but the small ones seem to be pretty common and I have seen them go for less than $10 each on ebay.

The rights for the Mai Kai cocktail glasses with the amber Tiki stems from Trader Vics was owned by Trader Vics and never produced for retail stores. There were three differnt styles produced. Both Imperial and Moragantown shared production on these also. Since Trader Vics owned the copyright on these glass they are harder to find. I suspect that is the case with the Starboard glasses also.

Port and Starboard are Imperial. They were used at various tiki bars, the Kahiki for example, so it was not a TV exclusive. I know the Gun Club Punch glass was given away in detergent boxes and with Green Stamps. I am not sure about the others. Given that, there must be thousands of those glasses around. I am guessing they were taken home less often and are more fragile, so, that makes them somewhat less common than the ceramic tiki mugs. But they are around to be found for less than the $50+ on Ebay, listed as Trader Vic's glasses.