1971 Kentucky Derby Glass sold for $35
On the first Saturday of May each year, short people hop atop three year old thoroughbred horses at Churchill Downs. They race around an oval track for about two minutes. This year 164,858 people gathered inside and outside of that oval to witness these fast two minutes.
While at the race track on that Saturday for the Kentucky Derby or on the day before for the Kentucky Oaks, about 190,000 people bought a mint julep. A mint julep is a mix of a sugary syrup with Kentucky bourbon and a sprig of mint.
The interesting thing for collectors and sellers is that these drinks are served in a commemorative glass. Each year a new design theme is rolled out on the fronts of the glasses. The backs are updated from the previous year so that the each winning horse in the history of the Derby is listed.
Both members of Fruzies (FRank + sUZIE) previously worked in the hotel industry in Louisville. Most hotels in the city provide free Kentucky Derby glasses to their guests. Each year many people would leave them behind. We built up a nice supply of these left behind glasses at no cost to us. We also purchased quite a few at yard sales for fifty cents to a dollar. In South Florida we have found a few at thrift stores for a very low price.
In April we made sure that we had all of our glasses listed in our eBay store. Sadly most of these glasses sell far below book value. This is because some sellers are just unwise in their pricing strategies.
In spite of having to compete with these low, low prices, we have still managed to make some good money off of our glasses. In the past two and a half weeks, we have sold fifteen Derby glasses for a little over $180. We have also sold Derby pins, t shirts and sweatshirts.
Our best sale was for a 1971 Kentucky Derby glass that went for $35.
We’ll be on the lookout for additional glasses before the next first Saturday in May.
