Don't Forget to Check Craigslist

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A search for soda cans in my area on Craigslist rarely turns up anything.  So I was surprised two days ago when I checked (for the first time in a long time) while getting ready for work and found a listing that had been posted just several hours earlier. 

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The listing said, "800+ cans ($50)."  It was both soda and beer cans.  And it was only about 15 miles from where I work.  I didn't want to call the phone number at 5:45am, so I waited until I got to work and settled in.  Then I called and found out I was the first caller!  I could either pick them up that day or Friday (today).  I didn't have the cash on me and my car wasn't big enough, so I said I'd be there today.

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So this afternoon, with money in hand and at the wheel of my wife's mini-van, I headed to the house on my lunch break.  The family who had lived in the house moved and left what they didn't want to take with them, which included this can collection.  The guy who listed the cans said his company empties houses.  When they saw the cans, his coworkers wanted to recycle them but he thought a collector may want them, that's why he put it on Craigslist.  I was at the right place at the right time.  For once. 

You can tell from these pics the owner had a nice setup.  He'd built plenty of shelves to display his collection.  The crew that was there emptying the house was kind enough to provide boxes and even helped me carry them to the van.

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One of the guys that was disassembling a glass display case saw a couple of old Schaefer beer cans and said it reminded him of his grandpa who used to drink that brand.  I told him to take them.  I don't collect beer cans.  I might try to use the ones I got today to trade for more soda cans.  Anyway, he was very grateful.

After the wife and kids were in bed tonight, I sneaked out to the garage and separated the beer cans from the soda cans.  I took some better group photos of the soda cans.  Eventually I will take individual pictures and get them on my main collection site. 

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Final count on soda cans:  726.  And probably a couple hundred beer cans.  It's funny that last
week marked the two-year anniversary of when I started collecting cans. 

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I mentioned I had hoped to have 3000 cans but fell a couple hundred short.  And now a week later, I have around 3500 cans!

Thanks for making your lists, Craig!

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