I'm not a "career" dealer, just a collector who seeks to increase his collection and spares by buying the collections of "retired" collectors. In order to recoup some of my expenditure and have money to buy the next collection, I do sell my spares, either singly or in bulk.

How much is your collection worth? That can be a very difficult question to answer because:

bulletThere are no price guides to the value of beermats. True, I have come across the occasional book on antiques that attempts to value a few, but because the author is not a serious beermat collector these prices are not very reliable.
bulletThe value of a collection is subjective- six different people may give you six different answers because they value different things within the collection.
bulletThe presence of as few as two or three particular beermats may greatly increase the collection's value.

Any offer I make would be for the whole collection and exclusive of shipping costs, but to be able to make a meaningful offer I need to know as much of the following information as possible. To answer most questions you will need to do some rough counting.

I'm sorry to have to make you do a lot of work, but would you buy "blind"?

The quickest way to do any counting is to make up a pile of one hundred beermats and then make up piles of the same size and count them. If you are unsure about the origin of a particular beermat, just leave it out.

Of course, if you live close to my home perhaps you will allow me to visit and look for myself! Otherwise please answer the following as best you can. If you have any queries please e-mail me.

  1. How old is the collection?

    2. Between which years did you or the person whose collection it is actively collect beermats? Have you inherited any beermats that could pre-date these years? Were you ever a member of a breweriana collecting society and between which years?

  2. How many beermats are there?
  3. What condition are they in?

    4. They do not have to be in mint condition, but if they have been fixed to a wall, fading, pin holes, glue marks, missing pieces of design, etc. will reduce their value.

  4. How many doubles are there?

    5. As well as their collection many people accumulate doubles, so if you have any of the latter please count them separately from your main collection. (If you collected two copies of the beermat that had different designs on both sides, count them all as your main collection).

  5. From which countries?

    6. Please let me know the approximate number from the UK, France, Belgium, German-speaking countries, rest of Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Australasia

  6. How many advertise beer (including lagers)?

    7. As opposed to spirits, sodas, hotels, etc.

  7. If the collection is small please list any breweries (or beers if the brewer is not obvious) that you do not recognise. If the collection is large please give a brief description of what you think are the most interesting twenty beermats.

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