Petretti's Coca-Cola Collectibles Price Guide: The Encyclopedia of Coca-Cola Collectibles by Allan Petretti

Allan Petretti is the leading expert on market trends and values of Coca-Cola collectibles. He's been collecting, dealing and promoting this collecting arena since the early 1970s. He frequently conducts seminars around the nation, and is a noted appraiser whose expertise is called upon for special collector events at The World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, GA. He's also been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, The Robb Report, Ladies Home Journal, and the London Times. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
This book has excellent pictures and wide range of coverage - more than in any of the prior editions. I did find some inconsistancies in item pricing (Litchfield bottle pg 398 - $70 and same item pg 400 - $55, pg 152 item pcs108.000 - $1300 and same item pcs108.000 pg 87 - $1000). Given that this book has become the "bible" for Coca-Cola collecting - these inconsistancies can cause some problems... I could overlook some of the pricing errors - heck there's thousands and thousands of items and no one is perfect. But the real problem I have is how high the prices are for all of the items. Let me get on my soapbox for a minute and conclude by saying that I've been collecting 1890's - 1930's Coca Cola items for the past 20 years and have acquired a pretty extensive collection. I have to say that in my humble opinion the prices that are in this book are dangerously overstated - perhaps in an attempt to help us older guys as we approach retirement. Afterall, we are the one's that acquired the vintage, quality items inexpensively in the early days... In the end I'm not sure its working -- in fact I think the prices have begun to fall!!! One only has to look at the prices being realized on auction sites like ebay to see what I mean - even the "near mint" items don't even come close to the prices in the 10th edition, let alone those in the 11th. Many desirable items have no activity because of greedy sellers that set minimum prices that are out of sync with demand. I think the high pricing in guides like this actually harms the market, since most collectors can no longer afford the older, quality items. As the old-timers have seen, in the end - the winners are the manufacturers of the recent garbage made in CHINA as it becomes desireable since it's the only thing that's affordable. Vintage-item collectors die-out or begin to get frustrated since they can't find quality merchandise at affordable prices and move on to other hobbies, and there are no replacement collectors coming in. At this stage, as an old-time collector, I shouldn't complain I guess. Because of Allan's books my items have appreciated substantially. But I still enjoy the hobby - yet I can hardly afford to stay with it. I'm fearful that the number of vintage-item collectors is wanning, and the interest in the hobby is really falling off. If that happens - we will soon find ourselves using Shelly and Helen's old 1970's four volume price guides to buy and sell. Maybe that wouldn't be so bad afterall...

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