Cans from a Road Trip

Now that the weather is nice again, it's time to hit the road to see what's at the flea markets and antique malls.  And here's how today went.

No cans at the first store.

The second store wasn't much better... until I found a customer snack area.  A quick look through the soda fridge revealed no cans I needed.  And then I glanced down into the trash and saw Wonder Woman from the Batman V Superman Dr Pepper set.  She's #3 of 5 in the set and now she's mine!






It wasn't until the afternoon that I had my next can sighting.  This one was next to a Mission can (orange soda) that had been turned into a bank and a couple of beer cans.  And a LOT of bottles.

This can was an Upper 10 that looked old enough that Fred Flintstone may have drank it as a teenager.  www.canmuseum.com dates it at 1963.  It wasn't in the best shape but I didn't have it.  I talked her down from $3 to $2.  What a bargain!

The lady that sold the Upper 10 to me mentioned another junk shop up the road, so we made that our next stop.  And as fortune would have it, he had a few Coca-Cola cans for sale.

The first can I bought was an 8 oz Halloween-themed Coca-Cola can from 1999.  Halloween is my favorite holiday and I had no idea Coca-Cola ever had a Halloween can.  So that was an easy buy for $1.

The other can was a 150 mL can from Holland.  The seller was impressed that it still had some soda in it even though it was still sealed.  I showed him why collectors don't like to leave soda in cans:

Notice the brown sludgy substance along the bottom of this can.  That's the little bit of soda that had somehow leaked out over the years.  It made a sticky mess of the can and his display shelf.  I had him pack that can in its own bag and when I got home I drained it and gave it a nice bath:

And to wrap up the day we went to Big Lots, a store that sells discontinued items real cheap.  And that's where I found these cans for less than $5 total.

I would classify this as a successful hunt.  And the best thing is we only had time to go to half the shops we had planned, so that means we'll be taking another trip soon...