DAPHNE, Ala. — Rod Vining and other Mobile Bottle Collectors Club members collect pieces of history most people would throw away, but Vining sees old glass items as treasures.

Vining said there are around 200 bottle collectors in the Mobile and Baldwin County area who actively seek to add to their antique-glass collection, but he said there are many others who leisurely collect bottles. The club mostly comprises bottle collectors from Mobile and Baldwin counties.

Vining, 48, started his bottle collection at age 12.

“Once you find the items yourself you have more of an attachment to them than if you just go out and buy stuff, so we are actively digging and seeking for antique bottles,” Vining said. “We dig the old landfills and outhouses from the middle 1800s. Some people like to go fishing in their spare time; we like to go work ourselves to a frazzle digging holes in the ground hunting for those bottles.”

The 38th Annual Mobile Bottle Collectors Trade Show is set for March 26, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Daphne Civic Center.

“We have dealers come from about 15 different states and they put items out for sale, show or trade. Just like a baseball card show, everybody there is selling stuff and is also a collector themselves.” Vining said. “A lot of times we buy, sell and trade amongst ourselves if nobody else shows up because we are all after something. We are all collectors and we do it because we love it, not because we make any money at it. We are just trying to make enough to finance our habit.”

Vining said the show will be interesting to everyone, not just avid bottle collectors.

“There will be all kinds of pretty stuff to look at,” he said.

He said dealers will bring antique bottles dating back to the 1600s, painted-label soda bottles from the 1940s and 1950s and everything in between. Most items will be more than 100 years old, he said. Expect to see antique bottles that held: sodas, bitters, flasks, cures, medicines, mineral waters, inks, beers, fruit jars, milks, whiskey, insulators, poisons, hair, sauce, food, condiments and utility items, as well as black glass, pontiled glass, small antiques, advertising signs, jugs, mocha ware, memorabilia, relics and artifacts.

“There are some dealers who have Civil War relics and Indian relics and other things to go along with bottles. It is just a wide selection of tabletop collectibles and antiques, but it is mostly antique bottles,” Vining said.

Vining encourages people to bring their own items to the show.

“If they have something they are free to bring it by. Anyone of the dealers will tell them what they know about it or if they don’t know they can direct them to someone who collects similar items,” Vining said.

One of the collectors may even purchase items brought in.

“They will come in and say ‘I have something in my car, do you want to come take a look at it?’” Vining said. “If I don’t buy it the next guy might.”

For more information about the event or about the Mobile Bottle Collectors Club, contact Jim Simmons at 251-824-2697 or Rod Vining at 251-957-6725 or vinewood@mchsi.com.