The Bottom Line
Another welcome book from the Kovels! My first love in collecting was, and still is, advertising, but I've found it can be hard to find out more about certain products and specific companies. That problem should now be solved with this small book chock-full of advertising collectibles and the companies that produced them.
Pros
- Informative advertising history for the hundreds of companies spotlighted
- Over 10,000 prices in 400 categories
- Prices are not the only resources shown
- There is always room for another book from the Kovels on the shelves!
Cons
- Print is too small and not for the eye-challenged
- Sometimes even 10,000 is not enough
Description
- Book is brimming over with company information and values
- Advertising pieces are listed not only by brand name, but also by product and item type
- A full-color 16 page insert shows off some unusual, but not always pricey, collectibles
- Club and publication resource list
- Check out the advertising museum page before your next vacation
Guide Review - Kovels' Advertising Collectibles Price List
I've always loved advertising collectibles, a look through my house will convince anyone of that fact, so this book is a welcome addition to my library. Kovels' Advertising Collectibles Price List starts at A&P and ends with Wrigley, but it's not all companies indexes. The alphabetized book has item categories such as boxes, bottles, tins and potlids(!), as well as product categories such as coffee. The beginning of the book explains some of the history of advertising, especially highlighting the changes the U.S. has gone through in the way advertising is presented.
Although by the very design of the book it is limited in the numbers of items that can be presented, I would have really liked to seen a bigger volume covering more pieces. The company histories are a terrific resource, but in many cases only a very few items/values were given for each individual company.
If you don't have big bucks to spend on antique advertising, the Kovels' also have several suggestions of inexpensive and new items that can be collected today. As they say in the book "If they're not in your collection, they'll be in someone else's." If you're the least bit interested in advertising collecting, this is an affordable choice to add to your resource books and one that you will turn to many times.
