The Vintage '70s In-N-Out Drinking Glasses You Should Always Look For While Thrifting

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You may think you know all about In-N-Out, from the many ways to order onion to the secret menu mess that is the Flying Dutchman. But do you remember the vintage drinking glasses from the '70s and '80s? We're not talking about the plastic souvenir cups you see now. These were real glass pint glasses with painted graphics of cartoon characters, movies, holiday themes, and more. Today, these In-N-Out drinking glasses can only be found in secondhand stores. So if thrifting's your game, be on the lookout for drinking glasses featuring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, or — if you're lucky — Indiana Jones.

In-N-Out began offering the glasses in 1970. To leave In-N-Out with a glass in hand, you just had to order a soda and pay an extra $0.29. While some customers definitely picked up glasses at In-N-Out, others remember picking up nearly identical glasses from Taco Bell, Burger King, and even gas stations. That's because the vintage drinking glasses were promotional items offered through fast food chains by soda companies, primarily Pepsi and Coca-Cola. Some restaurant chains added their own branding to glasses while others accepted the glasses without modifications. According to In-N-Out's website, only two series were sold using company branding — a holiday set and an Indiana Jones set. These are the golden tickets of thrift store finds for In-N-Out fans.

The first branded In-N-Out vintage glasses were released in 1983 for the Christmas season and featured Santa himself on the front of each glass along with a rounded ribbon above Santa's head that read "In-N-Out Burger." The second set of In-N-Out-branded glasses commemorate the release of 1984's "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." Each of the four glasses was available for separate purchase so customer had to collect the full set. "Temple of Doom" glasses were a 7Up promotion, and the ones sold through In-N-Out featured the company's yellow arrow logo on the back graphic alongside the 7Up logo. These two designs may be the only ones with In-N-Out branding, but all the other glasses offered through this soda company promotion — including the previously mentioned glasses featuring the Looney Tunes — are now considered collectibles and thrifting treasures, much like valuable Happy Meal toys.

Some families held on to vintage character glasses like heirlooms to be passed down to the next generation. Others donated the glasses after the kids moved out or when they simply ran out of room. Soda companies and fast food companies slowly pulled back on promotional glassware to cut costs. 

There was also one glaring problem associated with the glasses offered by fast food chains: lead. It seems many of the glasses soda companies were producing for promotional use contained lead and cadmium that could wind up in your drink. So go ahead and search thrift stores to build your In-N-Out vintage drinking glass collection from Daffy to Santa and Indy, but maybe don't use them as actual drinking glasses.