The Vintage Grape Soda Bottle That's Worth Thousands

Next time you go antiquing, consider searching for old-school glass soda bottles. While these relics might not be as popular as vintage Pyrex cookware, reselling certain ones could fetch you a pretty penny. In fact, Antique Advertising, an auctioning platform and price guide for advertisement-themed vintage products, is selling off one grape soda syrup bottle for a whopping $12,650. This particular bottle once contained the syrup used to make California Grapine grape fountain soda. 

While most people can't fathom why anyone would spend so much on an empty old bottle, there is definitely a market for it. The Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors is an entire organization of vintage bottle enthusiasts who might be willing to fork over the cash for it.

Antique bottle collectors love to collect these items because of their simple beauty, and they appreciate the history behind the bottles. The treasure hunt of finding well-preserved items that fit a collector's niche interests is as much a part of the draw as the aesthetic value. Ultimately, the value of glass bottles depends on factors such as age, historical significance, rarity, uniqueness, condition, and color.

Unfortunately, tracking the historical significance and origins of this California Grapine soda syrup bottle is quite difficult. A listing for a California Grapine syrup dispenser from Miller & Miller Auctions on the Barnebys site states that the product is from the 1910s, which hints at when the $12,650 syrup bottle could have been made. Aside from this estimated manufacturing timeframe, it's difficult to confirm more details about the bottle's backstory.

Perhaps this mysterious product faded into obscurity once it was overshadowed by other grape-flavored successors like Grapette and Grapico, which are old-school drinks that are still around today. Vintage bottles of these sodas are all over eBay and nowhere near as expensive as the bottle of California Grapine — depending on the specifics, they typically can be purchased for between $10 and $20 each.

Given its age and the mystery surrounding it, the California Grapine bottle up for auction might be one of the few left in existence, hence the ridiculously high cost. Although the $12,650 price tag may be jaw-dropping to most people, there are actually many different vintage soda bottles that could be worth thousands.