My First Steel Cans

You just don't find steel cans lying on the side of the road or see your friends/family drinking from them any more.  So I have only collected aluminum cans so far.  But that changed today when we went to a local monthly flea market.  This was the first time I had been to this particular flea market since I started collecting cans.  And it's SO big that I figured there had to be cans there somewhere.

The first soda can I found for sale was a little flat top can whose top had been completely removed.  I really wanted it because it came from the city where I was born, about an hour from where I live now.  But when he told me he wanted $10 for it, I kept on walking.

My second encounter was a set of twenty-four RC Cola baseball player cans from the 70's (series 1 came out in 1977 and series 2 came out in 1978, I didn't know enough about them at the time so I didn't notice which series they were).  The guy wanted $30 for them.  I kept walking, but I was still thinking about them.  I decided if he would take $25 I would take them off his hands.  A little while later I returned to him and said, "How about $25?"  He replied, "How about $35?  If you can go down then I can go up."  He wasn't funny.  He proceeded to tell me he usually asks $45 so at $30 he was giving them away.  But not to me.  I walked away.  Update - In the weeks to come I would get a much better deal on RC Cola baseball cans, but that's another story...

My first three steel cans

I found another stand that had a little bit of everything, and buried among the everything was a steel Dad's Root Beer can, a steel Mission Root Beer can and a steel IBC Root Beer can.  Each was $1, now that's a price I was willing to pay.  It felt strange holding a heavy, steel can.  It's hard to remember ever drinking from cans like that, I'm so used to the light aluminum cans we have now.  And seeing the familiar shape of the hole where the pull top had been removed stirred up some memories.  I have a feeling this is just the beginning of steel cans in my collection.