eBay: Mauna Loa Tiki Cup from 1967,,,Authentic...

I've sold a couple of these, I'm only selling 2 more and then I'm completely done because I'm keeping the remaining two for myself. For me, these things are amazing because they are in immaculate condition and I'm actually including an original swizzle stick with this cup (all the way from 1967)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200370844716

check out another picture of the cups and some other cool photos of paraphernalia that I've collected about the mauna loa. http://picasaweb.google.com/jtmack/MaunaLoa

Whats just amazing about this restaraunt is that its a peice of detroit history that has long since disappeared. Opened in 1967, it cost an incredible $21 million to build and open! Unfortunately it only stayed open for 8 months before closing.

I've done an entire write up on the cups and their awesome history at the mauna loa right here: http://www.mickings.com/tiki/tiki_sell.htm

Even if youre not interested in bidding on this, at least take a look at the awesome history behind this mysterious and amazing restaraunt, I promise its a real interesting read!

http://www.mickings.com/tiki/tiki_sell.htm

Your write-up? Who are you trying to kid?

Well, we are all so ANONYMOUS here on TC!

On 2009-08-06 07:53, jmack wrote:
check out... some other cool photos of paraphernalia that I've collected about the mauna loa.

He's collected. That's rich.

This gets my vote for most clueless post of the year. Unless he's trying to deliberately insult the people he's selling to. If that's the goal, then I couldn't have done it better.

1. Posts that he's found 10 Mauna Loa mugs in the garage. Asks members to email him if interested. An altruistic first-step, guaranteed to gain long-term good-will from the Tiki Central community.

2. Changes mind and puts them on eBay to "be fair to everyone". Well. That's the Biblical way to go, sure.

3. First mug sells for $225. Being Fair is Awesome!!!

4. Let's brag about the sale to the Tiki community. But let's do it in the form of a question so it doesn't seem like bragging. Like "Why did my mug sell for $225?". Make sure to use language that implies we believe the folks here are "obsessed","insane", and "cult"-like in their collecting.

5. Starting to sense animosity. Be strong. Push through it and don't take it personally. Just have to stick it out on this site a few more months until all the mugs are sold...

6. The benefits of this site still outweigh all the hurtful people here. For instance - all this free text and photos people have posted for me to use in my auctions!

7. Attribute text and photos to myself. They won't notice. "Locating Tiki" is a completely different forum from "Marketing Tiki", with different members. Right?

Normally, I would have PM'd this rant to jmack, but 1) His first 2 posts indicate he doesn't read his PMs. 2)He's not really a member. Not one of his posts makes a contribution to TC. Let's U-mod this thread out of here.

jmack's already got the words "Tiki" and "Mauna Loa" in his auction title. That's all a mug of this caliber needs to sell itself. Posting here isn't going to help in the slightest.

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2009-08-06 14:53 ]

yes im trying to sell these. youre right. Im not a tiki fanatic nor have i ever led on that I am. no need to get so upset.

I apologize if I offended anyone. And I'm sorry that you're offended that I DID use 4 of those images on google that I pulled from here. All the rest I found on google images. by me saying there were some other images i "collected" i wasn't trying to steal anyone's credit nor did I realize how personal some people would take it.

I would just like to get a few things straight here.

1. I am selling all these cups and giving the money to my grandmother. I'm not doing it for anything else. they were her cups.

2. A SPECIAL THANKS to those of this tiki commuunity who emailed me and alerted me to not let them go for cheap or free as they were antique collectors items. the only people who are pissed off at me are the ones who I didnt give the cups to for $5. I am not here to upset anyone or slander or anything like that. Im here to sell these cups to sell them for my grandmother PERIOD. thats OBVIOUS.

3. I am not a tiki fanatic. Although I am a Detroit history fanatic. And the story behind the cups and the Mauna Loa restaraunt intrigued me. Hence me writing that page. That page is nothing more than me doing some homework here, through Wayne State here in Detroit and doing some google searches. The page has had 100+ visits. Its not like I'm mass marketing and slandering tiki culture.

4. Me being "fair to everyone" by posting the cups on ebay was simply me tyring to be cordial and avoid confrontation. But if you want me to be blunt, then so be it. I posted pics of my cups here on tiki central with no intention other than to ask people for information about them. I never knew these were worth anything. within hours I had over 50 emails from people asking me for them, within a day I had 150+ emails. But I also recieved several emails from individuals advising me that people would be rabid about them and they suggested DO NOT give them away, they are VERY valuable to tiki collectors. My original reason for posting was NOT to make money as I did not even realize they were worth anything let alone this entire tiki subculture. Once people were suggesting these cups were worth at least $100 a piece! As soon as I decided that I would sell them and give grams the cash, the hate mail started. Here let me copy and paste one for you:

"You dirty S.O.B.!! You post those pics of those cups and ask for info. I email you offering you $5 each for them and you put them on Ebay? Enjoy your cups asshole, rot in hell. Thanks for ruining my day. Ill be emailing the admin to see that you get banned"

Please note I received at least 15 hate emails and threats.... why?

What would you do? You show some people what you found, you find out its a collectors item, so I decided to sell them and maybe send grandma on a trip or something. So stop trying to make me seem like a tyrant. If anything alot of you are VERY crazy for this stuff and I've recieved quite a few messages and emails similar to this of people who are rabidly pissed off that I wont sell them the cups for $10 or $20.

5. Let me be clear... the REASON I posted the cups in the tiki central MARKETPLACE was to SELL THESE CUPS. PERIOD. Youre very right, Im not a member of the tiki community and I'm not a fanatic about it, although I will admit it is interesting (I've done ALOT of research on the Mauna Loa and Chin Tiki in Detroit since getting into sellign these cups)

All in all I dont get why you're getting so pissed off at me for trying to sell these cups. I post here because I realize you guys love this stuff. Much like I'd be excited if someone posted cool antiques at a vintage detroit forum. To me Sabu sounds like someone who is sincerely upset that he cant get his hands on one of these.

"Or Got Rum?" - As far as saying it was a write up I did, I apologize. You're right. In all honesty I wrote this kinda half minded. I realize that page is a patchwork of my text and ALOT of text taken from a very cool Mauna Loa post here at tiki central forums. So for that I apologize.

please note however, hardly anyone has seen that page aside from you guys and my family. check out the hit counter at teh bottom of the page, its just over 100.

Anyway, Im through writing this novel. But please understand, Im not here to cause any issues with anyone but man you guys get so upset with me. Im simply trying to sell these cups and obviously for as much as anyone wants to bid for them.

There is the one on Ebay and I have one more. And thats it. Im keeping the last 2 for my "Detroit Room"

Thanks guys and again my apologies if I offended anyone. If you want to email me, feel free to contact me at [email protected].

[ Edited by: jmack 2009-08-06 21:39 ]

Believe me, I have no issue with you using this site to sell your mugs on eBay. It's smart and you have the right to get the maximum value out of them.

I don't even have a big issue if your sole reason for joining this website was to find out about these mugs so you could sell them. A lot of folks join simply to sell us tiki mugs and yours are better than most. Some folks would prefer that you contribute for a while before you try to sell in Marketplace, but I know that's too idealistic.

But when you try to sell to us using our own pictures and words which you cut and pasted from this site. That's when I feel a bit insulted. And when you promise that your content-scraping is "a real interesting read!", then I definitely feel that my intelligence is being insulted. Of course it's an interesting read. I've been reading it for months in "Locating Tiki". The folks who wrote it are interesting folks.

Plus you're using links to OUR pics and words on YOUR website in your eBay auction without crediting the source or re-stating the text in your own words. It's not going to get you arrested, but it's really tacky and, c'mon, we learned this was wrong in highschool.

All of these pics are technically public - both the ones you can find on newspaper sites and the ones people posted here from their private collections. However, time, effort, and money went into acquiring these menus and matchbooks and magazines so that they could be shared with the tiki community. We're realistic enough to know that sometimes these pics are going to end up on eBay to help sell mugs. But to use them to sell to us on our own site, in our own words, without credit given. That takes balls.

I'm sorry folks sent you hate e-mails. That was wrong and I don't condone it.

Sabu

Probably the coolest Tiki bar with a concrete foundation.

using a picture other than that of the actual item constitutes fraud as it is not a photo of the actual item you are selling...each mug must be taken individually for each auction posted, otherwise you are not giving the winning bidder the actual mug they are bidding on.....i would be pissed if i won one and found out later the one you sent me had a big glaze drip down it's face....this stuff matters to people so be careful...what you sell has to be represented by a picture of the exact item you are selling......

Sabu The Coconut Boy: Thank you! Again I'm not trying to muck up the tiki culture with capitalism. Like I said, thanks to TikiRoom.com, I found out these items were of value! I am a husband and father of three and I'm not the sneaky type and I never intended to frustrate anyone. If credit is what everyone is upset about, I thought that "block quoting" all of the parts of my page where it quotes other people would be enough. All the stuff on that page that ISNT "block quoted" (not wrapped in the gray box) is my writing. I'll add credit to tikicentral.com. But like I said that page isnt there for mass consumption. It's there strictly for informational purposes for my OWN family members and you guys... and well, I JUST decided to add a link to it on ebay... that wasnt why I made that page. THATS IT. No sites link to it, nothing... But just to show you guys Im not trying to cause any trouble, plaigarize or anything, I added credit to tikicentral.com all over it. Althoguh no offense, but the only people looking at it will be you guys (who dont care about that) and maybe 5 ebay members... Again, my intention wasnt to steal anyones text and claim it as my own, as you can see I had grey boxed ANY text that was not my own.

On a side note: I'd like to add that IS MY WRITE UP. Even thought I included outside sources such as tikicentral forums and a few other places, I put that page together with my own personal commentary. Just because I didnt add credit to all the resources to your specification and MLA standards, doesnt make it any less my creation. I DISTINCTLY showed the areas that were NOT my writing on that page. It's pretty obvious what I included from outside sources. The REAL reason people are pissed is because I didnt specifically give credit to this site. Well its there now. Now my uncle earl that reads the page and the two ebay users that check it out will know that the information came from tikicentral.com

Tipsy McStagger: I realize that but those cups are IMMACULATE and look 100% identical. Additionally I lost the battery to my digicam so I cant take any more pics. But if you don't believe me, you can email any of the winners, and they will tell you themselves that the cups are immaculate and look EXACTLY like they do in the picture (with the exception of the gold sticker being in a different spot). These things are all 100% immaculate no drips they are IDENTICAL.

This is so weird, I can't believe how upset everyone is over this.

I hope I made everythign right.

[ Edited by: jmack 2009-08-07 07:50 ]

Grandma needs a new pair of Shoes!

disclaimer: this photograph may not actually be Jmacks Grandma but shows an example of what can be done with the newly found wealth.

thanks for the reply jmack...i'm not upset..in fact i could care less about your auctions.......i was just sharing info on pics for you....i have a mauna loa mug and have had it for years so i have no motive to either be for you or against you....just puttin in my 2 cents...good for you for being an honest seller and if no one else was concerned, so much the better for you...

LOL TeaKey...now youre just acting silly.

My grandmother is actually my grandmother in-law... and is a cancer survivor that actually was just diagnosed with cancer yet again.

the whole point was to help send her somewhere for a really nice vacation, somwhere warm and quiet with our aunt and my wife.

not that selling these things is gonna fund it lol, but its nice for her.