A friend asked in a comment on Friday's Glass Incarnate post how many of the Starbuck's Skyline series mugs I have and couldn't I augment my collection by shopping on eBay. The picture at right is not my collection. This collection came up for sale on eBay this morning with a "Buy It Now" price of $1,050.00 and a minimum bid of $999.00. I know this not because I search eBay compulsively every morning because I get an automatically-generated email whenever one I really want (Austin, Atlanta, Denver, Las Vegas) comes up for sale. This morning I got a bunch of email as this collection is up for sale in toto or piece-meal.So how do I know that I am still sane? Because I do not want this collection of mugs. Would I want it if it were a factor of 10 less? ($105--I checked with my spouse to be sure. It sounded good, but I am a bit math-challenged) Maybe, but only MAYBE. Where would I put them all? There would be no room for any of the smaller mugs I still have (I did do a major mug weed-out when I started getting the Skylines because they just take up so much darn room in the cupboard).
But more importantly there would be nothing left to hunt--no more thrill when a new one comes up on eBay or we go on vacation to a city in the series. These mugs--though only produced through 2002 are still around in some Starbucks. I bought my first one in the Starbucks at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago last December and (as far as I know) they still have them. That's actually what makes it exciting: they are very hard to find, but not impossible. I have my Aunt Sheila hunting one now in Denver.
And that's the other good thing about the hunt: You can share it with your family and friends and if they happen to find one you have really been wanting, they KNOW it is going to be the best birthday/Mother's Day/Christmas gift ever! So I might bid on a few of these mugs (well that's guaranteed) but I am not even tempted by the entire set. Besides, I think Dave would notice if the income tax refund disappeared and the cupboard was suddenly overflowing with Barista!
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4 comments:
Good answer. So, you're really not interested in a Los Angeles mug, then...
Of course I am! But I already wrote in a previous post (keep up, Bill!) that I plan on getting it while I am out there. It will be my Quest!
I bought a set of the Italian series of these mugs for my wife and, somehow, we've lost Florence (Firenze). I searched for it on eBay and found it - for like $45 from a dealer in Taiwan. My wife thought that was an OK price, but I just couldn't make myself buy it for that much. She also didn't like my suggestion of selling the one's we have and collecting something else :-)
So, we have still have the full set and are still looking for a Firenze -- anyone got an extra?
I must have missed out on that response; silly me.
There's a number of Starbuck's in the area. Being that I'm not a coffee drinker, I wouldn't be aware of all of them, but there's quite a few. I can just see us stopping at each one to check it out...
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