I really never thought I’d let 5 months go by without posting what’s new, but I’m getting older and time is going faster.  Maybe you already knew that.  Thanks to new collector David Carver for the new listings L072 Liberty and P247 Pure Rubber.  Other new boxes are the T023 Telmo and E044 Emerald.  There’s also a new variation of the U.S. Security U054 United States Rubber Products instead of U.S. Rubber Company.

Here’s living proof that restoration is priceless.  Many thanks to Herb Karcher for the great job he did restoring this Emerald box for me:

Emerald before and after

Supplement 3 has just been completed and sent via email to all my purchasers of record. If you have a book, but have not received the supplement, please let me know and I will send it via email immediately.
On another note, because I got really really tired of removing 75 to 100 drug-pushing comments daily from my inbox, you now must answer a simple math question in order to post a comment, just so I know you’re actually human.
And, lastly the new boxes M134 Monadnock for Lightning, P246 Pure Rubber Fruit Jar Rings (both round boxes) and J031 Jar Rubbers.

Just a couple of new boxes since last time, the C014 Cardinal Brand Nuway and P163 Plu-Nel. Also, the variation of the Good (Swastika) Luck G141 Old Style Lightning Seal.

Here is a scan of the R.E. Tongue & Bros. ad  mentioned in the last post.  I guess it’s actually a catalog listing, circa summer of 1926 catalog. Interesting how they describe the Big Chief as their “Best Seller”, when those boxes seem to be pretty scarce.  It seems to me the Lustre is the really common one, with the Excelsior and Ruby falling into the moderate range. Anyway, interesting ad, thought I’d share it. Just click on the picture to see the ad full size.  Full color photos of everything except the Black Knight can be found in the Fruit Jar Rings Album.  This copy of the catalog page was in some of the papers that came with the Jim DeGrado collection, but I believe it’s Larry Munson who has the original page.

First of all, I’d just like to set the record straight – The photos you see here are NOT all in my collection! I comb eBay as well as other online sites, and happily accept contributions of photos from other collectors of items I don’t have. While my collection is pretty impressive (I think anyway), I don’t own every item pictured here.
Secondly, there seems to be a little confusion as to where to find said photos. First, click on “Fruit Jar Rings Album” (in that black strip just above this article), that will bring up an alphabetical listing “Jar Rings A”, “Jar Rings B”, etc. Click on the letter of your choice, and that will bring up all the boxes listed under that letter. Click on each individual photo and you will see manufacturer information as well as estimated value and availability. New items are being added all the time.
Speaking of new items: B296 Black Knight – this photo was found in an old black & white R.E. Tongue & Bros. ad showing all their various brands – Lustre, Ruby, Excelsior, etc. but I’ve never seen this one. If you have it, please send color photo! Also see: C216 Cupples Presto, F160 Fulton, H032 Happy Hour, R251 Royal Blue Stores (variant), U091 Uncle William (variant), and V098 Victory.

Once again, Larry Munson has surprised me with this gem: A case of 12 gross Top Flite jar rings. Hmmm… that’s 12 times 12 times 12, right? 1728 jar rings or 144 full boxes.

Here’s what Larry says:
“Sending a picture of a box that I have had in Storage for many years and just got it out;. The box has never been opened.”
“The guy that I bought if from said he got it when a Carnival sold out, said they used them for ring toss games.”
as ever
larryjar

Top Flite rings are already pretty common, but 144 mint condition boxes? Talk about flooding the market!

You may have noticed the addition of some of the wrenches, sealers and sealbreakers in the  ”Fruit Jar Tools” album.  I have completed almost all of those categories, so if you have something you don’t see a photo of, please send to me and I will add it to the album.

There have been several additions to the “Fruit Jar Rings” album over the last few weeks.  I haven’t figured out a way to make these additions stand out, so I will list them on the postings so you don’t have to dig through all the folders to see what’s new.  Larry Munson sent in photos of a couple of new round boxes – see the Y002 Yacht Club and the N067 None Such.  Also, there is now a photo of the long-awaited S125 Security round box.  We always knew it existed, just didn’t have a photo until now.  There are also new improved photos of the A077 ARAP, C116 Crawford, M140 Monarch Schaeffer’s, R142 Reliance Perfect Seal, and T060 Tite-Rite Top Seal (in plastic bag).   Some of the more interesting box additions are the D084 Deerwood, F093 Fort Leavenworth, H062 Hillcrest, R071 Red Loc Brand, T061 Tite Rite Single Lip (in plastic bag), and U078 U.S. White.

I’ve also gone through the fruit jar rings album and marked various boxes as “available” – meaning these show up pretty often on eBay, so you know there will be more out there if you miss it once or twice.  Generally, I’ve marked as “not available” those boxes that the photo you see is the only specimen I am aware of.  If you really want it, you better be prepared to bid accordingly.  If there’s no “available” or “not available” comment, there are probably some of those out there, but there may be limited availability or showing up on eBay with varying degrees of frequency.

Now that not one but two group hosts have dumped groups, it’s time to bite the bullet and go for the stand alone website.  But along with that, there’s a whole new learning curve.  So, I am enlisting the assistance of someone more computer literate than I to help get this thing going.  It is a bit of a challenge to get all the features we want on the new site, and to translate that into something that is user-friendly and easily accessible.  At the same time, I am envisioning the site to eventually include all the go-withs:  wrenches, lifters, lids, lid boxes – the whole magilla.

What would you like to see on the new site?  What information are you looking for when you come to this site?  I would like this site to reflect what its users want, and the only way to do that is to get some feedback from you: what do you want more of?  what do you not really care about?  -Tammy