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When you visit a thrift store, you never know whether you’ll walk away with ultra-rare Pyrex glassware, a fully working Nespresso machine, or just plain old junk. That’s the beauty of the hunt. However, the next time you pass by the glassware section, or spot a friendly little cartoon staring back at you from the side of a drinking glass, it may be worth investigating. If you happen to pick up one of In-N-Out’s vintage collectible character glasses from the 1970s, you’re in for a treat.
In 1970, In-N-Out began offering collectible character glasses as a partnership promotion with whatever movie, TV show, or characters were big at the time. In 1973, just one year after the now-famous X-shaped palm trees were planted outside of the fast food chain’s doors, Warner Bros. and Pepsi released their line of Looney Tunes character glasses, which were sold at In-N-Out and became synonymous with the time. There were about 18 different characters in the set, and they featured the cartoon characters posed on the six-inch cups, which customers could purchase with an order of Pepsi for just 29 cents.
Some of In-N-Out’s glasses have a clearer connection
In-N-Out sold the Looney Tunes collectible glasses during the early ’70s, but the glasses were also sold at chains such as Arby’s and Taco Bell, among other vintage fast food collectibles everyone used to have. The only In-N-Out-branded collectible glasses sold during this time period were the Christmas Santa and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” collection. The Christmas glasses were released in 1982 and showed Santa Claus eating an In-N-Out burger, with the logo on the back. The “Temple of Doom” collection was sold at multiple fast food chains, but it also released a special print with In-N-Out in 1984, which featured several cartoon scenes from the movie and the In-N-Out logo displayed on the back alongside the 7-UP logo.
Today, collectors are selling solo Looney Tunes glasses for an average of between $10 to $20, though some characters are worth more. The “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” set is going for roughly $15 to $20 per glass, while the In-N-Out Christmas glasses sell for $10 to $12. It can be harder to identify whether the Looney Tunes glasses came from In-N-Out, given that they don’t feature the chain’s logo, but using this one-second trick for spotting glass versus crystal drinkware and checking for either a Pepsi or 1973 Warner Brothers logo is a good way to tell if it’s actually vintage.
