Vintage Pepsi Memorabilia Collector Guide

Pepsi-Cola history for collectors

Pepsi began in a drugstore in New Bern, North Carolina. In 1893 the pharmacist Caleb Bradham created a drink he called Brad’s Drink for his customers, and it was officially renamed Pepsi-Cola on August 28, 1898. By 1910, according to PepsiCo, more than 250 companies in 24 states bottled it.

Bradham invested heavily in sugar during World War I, and the sugar glut of 1920 ended both his prosperity and his ownership of the company. Pepsi-Cola changed hands repeatedly over the next decade. In 1931 Loft’s, a candy-store chain with soda fountains, bought the Richmond-based business. Loft’s chemists removed pepsin from the recipe, and in 1934 the company introduced a 12-ounce Pepsi that sold for the same price as a 6.5-ounce Coke, promoted with the slogan “Twice as Much for a Nickel, too.”

Walter Mack won control in 1939. With the company now based in New York, Pepsi-Cola advertised aggressively, with skywriters, the jingle “Pepsi-Cola hits the spot” and ads in national magazines. In 1951 Pepsi introduced the red, white and blue bottle cap that evolved into its globe logo. The Pepsi-Cola Company merged with Frito-Lay in 1965 to form PepsiCo, and from the 1980s Pepsi ran national campaigns and giveaways under the theme “Pepsi: The Choice of a New Generation.”

Why Pepsi memorabilia is collected

The hobby is organized. The Pepsi-Cola Collectors Club published a newsletter called Express, and East Carolina University’s Minges Collection, which documents Pepsi’s history in New Bern and a family bottling business, holds issues from 1995 to 1998. After Morphy Auctions’ August 2025 soda and advertising sale, the firm’s chief operating officer reported excellent in-person attendance, “especially from the Pepsi Cola collectors.”

Collectors can follow one brand through a century of changing logos, prices and slogans. The earliest pieces show how the drink was first sold: a circa 1905 tip tray advertised “The Pepsin Drink,” and the lid of a ceramic syrup dispenser from about 1900 to 1910 reads “Cures…Indigestion / Relieves…Exhaustion.”

What Pepsi collectors find

These categories appear in archives, auction records and the 1990s Pepsi Stuff catalog.

• Soda fountain pieces: syrup jugs, ceramic syrup dispensers and tip trays from the early 1900s. A tip tray led the Pepsi results at Morphy’s August 2025 sale.
• Signs and outdoor advertising: Minges Collection photographs show Pepsi signs, storefront displays and billboards. In the 1910s Bradham’s drugstore had a Pepsi-Cola advertisement painted on the mirror behind its soda fountain.
• Bottles: the Avery Collection, bought to display at Pepsi’s 1998 centennial celebration in New Bern, included bottles, signs and promotional pieces. The 12-ounce size arrived in 1934.
• Promotional paper: the Minges Collection holds a 1910 catalog for redeeming Pepsi bottle caps for merchandise, a 1938 anniversary booklet and a 1940 cardboard fan.
• Recorded advertising: Pepsi jingles on 45 rpm records, a few of which are in the Minges Collection.
• Pepsi Stuff merchandise: mid-1990s T-shirts, sunglasses, leather jackets, a phone card and other logo items redeemed with Pepsi Points.

Pepsi Stuff, Pepsi Points and the Harrier jet case

Trading Pepsi packaging for merchandise goes back at least to that 1910 bottle cap catalog. In Pepsi Stuff, consumers collected Pepsi Points from specially marked packages of Pepsi or Diet Pepsi and redeemed them for merchandise featuring the Pepsi logo. After a test in the Pacific Northwest from October 1995 to March 1996, PepsiCo introduced the promotion nationally. The order form listed 53 items, from a 15-point Jacket Tattoo to a 3,300-point Fila Mountain Bike, and extra points cost ten cents each if an order included at least 15 original points.

A television commercial for the catalog ended with a teenager landing a Harrier jet beside his school under the caption “HARRIER FIGHTER 7,000,000 PEPSI POINTS.” On or about March 27, 1996, John Leonard of Seattle sent an order form, 15 original points and a check for $700,008.50. PepsiCo’s fulfillment house returned the check, explaining that the jet was not part of the Pepsi Stuff collection and was included to make the ad humorous.

In Leonard v. PepsiCo, decided August 5, 1999, Judge Kimba M. Wood granted PepsiCo summary judgment: the commercial was an advertisement rather than an offer, no reasonable person would conclude that a soft drink company was giving away fighter planes, and no writing satisfied the statute of frauds. For collectors, the catalog and order form remain the reference for what Pepsi Stuff offered.

Dating clues and reproductions

Old designs are still being made. The Pepsi Store at the Birthplace of Pepsi in New Bern sells new signs in vintage styles, including a 5 cent Pepsi sign and a Retro 70’s Logo sign. A nickel price or early slogan proves nothing alone; test a seller’s date against the documented history.

• Logo: the circa 1905 tip tray shows the early script Pepsi-Cola logo. PepsiCo dates the red, white and blue bottle cap to 1951, so a supposed 1920s piece showing it needs an explanation. In the mid-1990s Pepsi Stuff commercial, the logo was a red-white-and-blue ball.
• Company address: a circa 1920 syrup jug was marked “The Pepsi-Cola Co., / New Bern, N.C.” By 1931 the company was headquartered in Richmond, and under Walter Mack it was based in New York.
• Size and price: the 12-ounce bottle and the “Twice as Much for a Nickel” message belong to 1934 or later.
• Pepsin and health claims: Loft’s chemists removed pepsin after the 1931 purchase, so an original piece promoting pepsin or digestion points to the earlier years.
• Condition grade: read any grade with the written description. The circa 1920 jug earned an 8.0 despite a cracked bottom, and the dispenser an 8.25 despite glaze losses.
• Provenance: the Avery Collection was later split and sold at auction. A collection history like that can be checked; a family story usually cannot.
• Photographs and returns: ask for clear photos of the back, edges and any maker’s marks, and buy with a return policy.

What vintage Pepsi memorabilia is worth

Asking prices are not completed sales, and value depends on age, rarity, condition and the buyers present. At Morphy Auctions’ August 2025 sale, the circa 1905 tip tray, made by The Meek & Beach Co. and graded 85 by AGS, sold for $26,400 against a $6,000 to $12,000 estimate. The circa 1920 one-gallon syrup jug also reached $26,400 against a $3,000 to $6,000 estimate, and the ceramic syrup dispenser brought $19,680.

Those are scarce early fountain pieces with recorded grades, not a guide to a later bottle, a new retro sign or a Pepsi Stuff T-shirt. Compare completed sales of the same item before buying.

Where to find Pepsi memorabilia now

The Pepsi company page on I ♥ Capitalism collects live, relevance-checked resale listings and links each item to the marketplace selling it. Its Official Store tab links to The Pepsi Store in New Bern for new retro-style merchandise.