Counterfeit Don the Beachcomber Tiki Mugs?

All of the rest of the tiki stuff from Kahiki is in Vermont or at least
it was.
May have moved.

AND one of the people that got lots of Kahiki had a shop in Vermont where he sold tiki.

The Frankoma War God tiki mug I found was in an Amish looking hop outside of
Chicago.

Thanks! Afraid it must all be gone now. We've looked pretty much in every shop & flea market around this region. But that info is encouraging and incentive to never give up & keep hitting those yard sales! It must have gone somewhere! :)

Oh, I bet it was Phin in Burlington who got a lot of the stuff. It's right up his alley. But he closed his fabulous junktiques shop a couple of years ago. But maybe I'll shoot him a message & see if he still has anything in storage. Thanks again! :)

First time, long time. I've really learned a lot from this community over the last five years-- especially on the cocktail front. So thank you all. But I couldn't resist sharing the heartbreaking way in which the story of these mugs ends...

The box in the photo is what they were shipped in. I asked for bubble wrap and peanuts-- explained that these were rare historical items, and they were instead shipped with a single layer of tissue paper, loose foam, and a thin non-corrugated box. Unbelievable. And naturally no insurance. I never wanted to be part of the "tiki mug misfortunes" thread, but I think this qualifies... The only good news is that my money was refunded and the one which is broken in half can be repaired and will display fine. But because of someone's carelessness, there are two less of these mugs in the world...

It's worth noting that all of the "would you accept ____?" side deals are in fact violations of eBay's rules, and worse than that, are not very sporting. Nomeus, if you'd just let the original auction run its course (I was the original $35 bidder), it would have been more fun, you probably would have won, and might have ended up with these broken shards yourself!

Oh how sad :(

Isn't it ironic...

So sorry for your loss : ( Can't believe how stuff gets sent...even when you've implored them to pack a certain way...Also think the end runs around fellow ebayers which has been the theme of this post is dickish and bereft of the Aloha spirit imo

On 2015-07-08 09:57, Bumboo wrote:
I never wanted to be part of the "tiki mug misfortunes" thread, but I think this qualifies...

Oh yes it does! Sorry to see this, I know that sickening sound of broken pieces rattling around when you pick up the box...

NOooooo!!

See yet another reason to find stuff in the wild and in person.
No shipping hassles!

I too think of this stuff as things I'm keeping / saving for the next gen of tiki.

Man! Even I'm shocked and pissed off by this one - and I don't even like these mugs. (Ok, after all this talk about them, maybe I'm beginning to like them a little). No offense meant to the seller, but come on! Think it through a little. When shippers move packages, they throw them into the truck or plane as fast as they can and whatever ends up on the bottom, so be it. I was buying old posters for a while, until every tube I was getting was crushed. Somethings just aren't safely shippable.

Really sorry to see this Bumboo. If you're interested, this place has tools, supplies and kits for repairing and restoring ceramics:
http://www.lakesidepottery.com/Pages/where-to-purchase-ceramic-restoration-supplies.html
These mugs have so much value, they might be worth the effort - and so much of this stuff comes chipped anymore, it's nice to have the skills to restore some pieces.

Konakaibaby, I think you're right but it's not just Vermont. It's never been easy to find this stuff. I know some areas seem more fertile than others. It's amazing though, things I've bought on Ebay, come from amazingly unlikely places around the country sometimes. But people travel and keep souvenirs, so you never know.

And to Tikiskip's comment about care taking things for the next tiki collectors. There's a quote or saying about collecting that essentially says - we never really own anything, we just take responsibility for it for a while to try, as best we can, to get it safely to the next generation.

Wow...I don't even know what to say about those broken mugs.

First of all, I stand by everything I already said. Also, I'm not surprised even a little that they are broken. If you saw the odd messages I got from the seller, you'd understand. Definitely not banging on all cylinders there.

To me, this is a big and sad loss for us all. 2 less dtb mugs in the world now. Really sorry this happened.

Man what a sad story...

But also another reason why it is bad to offer outside of ebay. It was easy for Bumboo to get his money back on these broken mugs, because they were purchased through ebay and they have buyer protection everyting, like Skip said buyers are what ebay wants (for some stupid reason). Last I checked, sales outside of ebay are usually not covered or protected, so the buyer would be out all of the money offered.

Sad to see the mugs shipped in this poor condition. I agree Ebay is usually at fault which makes it tough to feel bad about cheating them, but this is obviously a poor mistake on the sellers part.

I have a good dozen or so horror stories on how poorly ebay has treated me as a seller. Now I only sell broken junk, but people buy it so I sell it...

[ Edited by: lunavideogames 2015-07-08 19:13 ]

Thank you, Jamoorea for the Lakeside Pottery link! I might actually send them the totally shattered mug to repair, but their epoxy suggestions and tutorials are great for the other mug. And thank you guys for the sympathy. These little artifacts likely survived longer than the person who brought them home, but they couldn't survive that eBay seller. Ugh.

seller paid nothing for them...was told they belonged to his/her parents.

Went out hunting today and thought of this thread.
Here's what I found.
Was it tiki?
Not really, was I looking for it and even know of such a thing?
Could say yes and no to all of those questions in a way.

But here it is...
a BBQ salt and pepper shaker thing 50s style.
Now I'm going to tiki it up in time, but this as is would fit in
most of the tiki type parties we all have as is for sure.

True I had to pay $1.91 for it but still a find.
That would not cover shipping from eBay.

Next I got this a few days ago and it is one of my "tiki" holy grails.
A fish bill, it's tiki because Trader Vic had a sign painted on one in the first
Trader Vic's aka Hinky Dinks, dam I wish I had that one from Vic's!
And it's old exotic type stuff you would see in old tiki bars.

BUT it is hard to find these as they need to be old as you cannot fish these anymore.
Have seen some on eBay but not often and they sell high.

I put these here as to show that these are the kind of things you can find in the wild.
Will post after photos when I tiki up the Salt and pepper thing.
And when I hang the fish bill.

bro those are fake....and i heard that you made a shady behind the scenes offer to the seller of those...how dare you!

getting drunk is like borrowing happiness from tomorrow

[ Edited by: nomeus 2015-08-19 15:19 ]

On 2015-07-14 13:05, tikiskip wrote:

I put these here as to show that these are the kind of things you can find in the wild.
Will post after photos when I tiki up the Salt and pepper thing.
And when I hang the fish bill.

Saw this today at the swap meet. Asking price $120

Buzzy Out!

Nice!
These are getting hard to find and more pricy.

Mine was a bit more than that.

You used to see these much more, in sea food restaurants especially - as decor. I'm assuming they are a protected species now? (Or have we driven them to extinction too?) You might not be able to import these into the States anymore, justifying the prices we're seeing. I never knew what the creature was like. For some reason, I associated them with the sword fish, (you know - like tools. In your tool box you have a saw, and a, uh, sword…) but, of course, that's wrong. It is like a Ray and can end up in shallow water - streams and lakes. Like a lost world prehistoric animal. Super cool - and even more so now.

Reading through this thread was like a roller coaster, and up 'til now it sort of ended on a positive note. There are definitely still treasures out there to be found. We all have our holy grails and the hunt is definitely part of the fun. Finding something in the wild at a great bargain can't be beat. There are still some of these DTB mugs out there. I found this one yesterday at a a flea market for 20 clams. It was from the estate of an elderly woman in the LA area. This stuff gets passed down, and hopefully my kids appreciate this stuff when I'm gone. The menu belonged to my great grandpa and he checked off the drinks he had during his visit to Don's. He had a backyard tiki bar in LA and I hung out there as a kid. He's a big reason I love this stuff today.

Very nice find! I'd love to run across one of those!

Hi Hillbilly, This is the cleanest one of these I've ever seen. Congratulations! Just when you think everything is $300.00+ you come across something like this. I have a friend who used to deal in Japanese antiques and would say everything on the market is just cycling in and out of collections - not new finds. I start to think that's true for this stuff too - but you're right, there is still some buried treasure left. The more time passes though, the more the estates of people who held on to these things from personal experience, are liquidated. I'm not old old, but I'm not young either and I think about that a lot. Who will care about my collections after I'm gone? (which may not be far off). Do younger people care about this stuff? Does anyone young collect anything anymore? I keep telling my wife, if I don't make it home some night, DON'T just order a dumpster - there's gold in these cabinets. I love that your Dad tracked his drinks on his menu - what a great thing. Thanks for adding to this thread.

Thanks tikicoma and Jamoorea. There are mugs that I've paid a lot for and have no regrets, but finding something like this in the wild is pretty surreal. I'm not putting it on display until I have a safe place for it and some museum putty to hold it down.

Bumboo, I think both mugs are good restoration candidates considering how rare these are. My uncle just had a priceless antique ceramic piece restored by a highly qualified person (I think in LA or San Diego). If you're interested, let me know and I'll get the info.

I'm really hoping to find out more info on the history of this mug. Except for the illustration that DC posted early in this thread, I haven't been able to find any pics of it in situ, either in menus or in old pics. The designer/maker is also a bit of a mystery. There are a handful of mugs with the Vermonde inscription. I spent some time researching Vermonde and may have found info on this artist. I'll post more after some more digging on this topic, maybe on the crypto mugs thread. Not because this mug is crypto, but pics of it in use are.

[ Edited by: HillbillyBaggy 2017-04-28 15:38 ]