Know anything about Mason jars?

[bjscheel]

We just picked up a bunch of the old blue Ball mason jars from my dad's barn. DD12 is going to clean them up and try to sell them on Craigslist. I know the blue ones can be in demand for décor/centerpieces/etc so we picked up all the blue ones (and zinc lids) we could find.

There are LOTS of clear ones yet. eBay doesn't show as strong a demand for clear. Anybody have any experience selling them and know if they're worth picking up? Many of them are my grandma's who stopped canning in the 80's so these are not recently purchased.

 

[nicolita3]

Mason jars are very in right now for weddings and parties, even the clear ones. I would totally pick them up and put them on craigslist for a reasonable price..

 

[powellrj]

http://www.balljars.net/

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/bottles/ball-jars

try these sites

 

[nerderella]

When we were planning our wedding, we scoured tons of places for older mason jars for centerpieces. I ended up finding some on a website-- I think it was called Recycled Bride? Basically, brides would sell their used wedding decorations/dresses/etc to those who didn't want to pay full retail. Not sure if it's still around or if there are others like it, but might not be a bad way to go if you don't find any hits selling them via Craigslist or eBay.

 

[lynxstch]

you could also try any local online yard sale sites you have in your area. I'm always seeing them for sale and for people looking for them on ours!

 

[bjscheel]

you could also try any local online yard sale sites you have in your area. I'm always seeing them for sale and for people looking for them on ours!

Just joined our county FB swap last night. I do not want to ship glass jars, that is for sure, so definitely will try all local avenues.

The one link provided above has a page where you can identify the markings by date, so that will be interesting to find out what we've got.

This will give DD12 some purpose for a while this summer getting them prepped and hopefully she makes some decent money for it. She needs something productive to do.

 

[dyna]

Glass jars are also great for storing staples in along with beans an rice anything you don't want to take a chance on getting wet an are always pretty much odor free unlike plastic.

The wide mouth jars are the BEST they got the biggest hole at the top, then there are regulars they a bit smaller momma used those for sauces an things that was small easy to get in the jars. Then there are 63's they are even smaller at the top than regulars an it has gotten very hard to find the seals for 63's.

 

[bcla]

I don't think any jar that's similar enough to modern production would be worth that much. I thought that glass jars tend to be cheap, and that's basically the point of using glass. Of course there are vintage ones that collectors might prize.

I do like the square shaped mason jars that Atlas makes and that Classico pasta sauces are bottled in. I also recalled mason jars with handles used for beverages. Sort of made me fantasize that I was drinking moonshine, which of course is one thing that mason jars are associated with.

 

[3boymthr]

My brother collects them. Some of the clear and other odd colors are even more valuable than the blue to a collector. The rarest he ever found were in my great aunt's barn. They were clear and had the metal bail and glass top. They were only 1 inch in diameter and about 8 inches tall but had more of a jelly jar shape (they were marked "Ball"). He hasn't found any other examples but figures they are really old. My aunt was over 90 years old when he picked them up from her and she said they were in the barn when she moved in when she was in her 20's.

 

[pjlla]

I love, love, LOVE the old blue (and blueish green) ones! I am lucky enough to have a handful of them.

I was at the Brimfield Flea Market about 3 weeks ago and the quart sized blue Ball/Mason jars were priced anywhere from about $12 - $20 each, depending on type (glass lid with bale versus zinc lid versus no lid), condition, etc. As much as I would love to get my hands on more, that is way over my budget.

You might stand to make some good money on these! Best of luck with your sale....................P

 

[Ponygirl]

Reproductions in both green and blue are available fairly cheap.

http://www.freshpreserving.com/products/heritage-collection

I bought some pints at my local Tractor Supply store on clearance.

 

[aprilchem]

Yes, I think you'd have better luck figuring out their age & selling to a collector; the blue and green ones have been re-released and are readily available now. I've seen them at Target and Wal-mart.

 

[NC State]

If you find one with "13" on the bottom it's a high dollar jar. Old moonshiners would break them because they fear bad luck....my granddaddy was one ;-)

 

[NewRVLady]

Look on Etsy- lots of peeps paint inside and sell as vases- very popular