Are these painted tiki mugs on ebay worth anything?

Just wondering if these mugs were worth anything. I recently saw 3 or 4 of them at a local antique store but passed them up. They seem to be going sort of high. Does anyone know anything about them or have any comments? Thanks guys!

(I'm sending this from the school library so I don't think the link will show up, sorry if it doesn't)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14899&item=754263072

Happy Tiki Hunting!

I don't know anything about those mugs, but I'll make a couple observations. First, mugs generally have greater value to collectors if they are stamped by the manufacturer and even more so if stamped by a restaurant, particularly if that restaurant is now out of business. These mugs aren't stamped or marked in any way.

Second, the price of any particular auction is dependant on the parties involved. ludwicke, the current high bidder, is frequently willing to enter into bidding wars for tiki items. Consequently, auctions he's in until the end usually are at the high end of what an item will go for generally. To get a good sense of the average auction value of a particular mug requires looking at the same item auctioned multiple times.

Hope that little bit of info helps.

[ Edited by: Suburban Hipster on 2003-01-14 10:50 ]

The place I saw them had several different tiki mugs so I opted to pick up an Orchids of Hawaii and a mug from some tiki restaurant in Louisiana. I liked the painted ones but they seemed crudely painted to me and a little overpriced at $9 each. I was just curious about them since I had never seen them before. Thanks for your help Hipster! Anyone else know anything?

mug from some tiki restaurant in Louisiana. Anyone else know anything?

What was the place in LA?

Those mugs in question are fairly common and not all that interesting, IMO. One can see that style in many forms, they're definitely vintage, just not that "exciting".

midnite

The mug is from the Huki Lau in Metairie, Louisiana. Does anyone know if this place is still around or when it was around? The mug itself doesn't seem to be that old, and is only marked with a "Made in Japan" sticker on the bottom. Still an interesting Southern find I thought.

Happy Tiki Hunting!

On 2003-01-14 12:54, waikiki tiki wrote:
The mug is from the Huki Lau in Metairie, Louisiana. Does anyone know if this place is still around or when it was around? The mug itself doesn't seem to be that old, and is only marked with a "Made in Japan" sticker on the bottom. Still an interesting Southern find I thought.

Happy Tiki Hunting!

I was under the impression that older mugs (40s and 50s) were made in Japan, whilst later mugs were made in other locales (ie. China, Taiwan)

Anybody know for sure?

and the definitive answer to your question is:

these mugs are worth $37.60 - not to me of course.

On the other hand, I just over paid for an Aliis Mug-chipped, that I have long covetted.

jtiki wrote:
On the other hand, I just over paid for an Aliis Mug-chipped, that I have long covetted.

The key to enjoyment of all Tiki mug collecting lies in this quote. Set your sights on the one tricky mug to find, look high and low until you finally get to it, picking up lesser pieces on the way, then spend the rest of your life accumulating the curious & exciting.

I did that with the old Mark Thomas green mug. Once that arrived in my hot sweaty palms, I knew my personal ultimate Tiki mug was in my ownership, the rest would be gravy.

Trader Woody