Always on the Lookout

The company I work for received a pallet of fifteen new laptops earlier this week.  Of course we're all excited about the new hardware, but my mind instantly went somewhere else.

After the boxes were emptied, I used a razor blade to cut off the top of each box, in essence creating fifteen "trays."

When I got home, I was able to get 24 cans in one of the trays.  Perfect!  Just what my mind's eye had seen.  I now have an organized way to store 360 more cans.  And since the shelves I built in the basement earlier this year still have some empty spaces, these will fit nicely.

As a collector, you're obviously always on the lookout for the thing you collect.  But when storage options and space become concerns, you also watch for other things that can benefit the collection.

Dr Pepper + Football = Star Wars?

When it comes to American football, I'd rather be collecting cans.  I've never been into sports.  But recently Dr Pepper has had a series of cans showing different aspects of football.  There are also Diet Dr Pepper versions of the cans.

But tonight I'll be tuning into Monday Night Football.  Not for the excitement of the sport.  Not for the great half-time show (which I've been informed not every half-time includes a show).  But it's for the new Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens trailer.

And to commemorate tonight's big event, here's one of my favorite Star Wars cans from my collection.

By the time you read this, the trailer will be watchable all over the world.  So sit back, have a Pepsi, and enjoy.

Last Weekend

Last weekend while running around with my sister, we were leaving the parking lot of a strip mall, trying to get back on a busy road.  While waiting for a break in traffic, I noticed a bright orange can lying in the grass close to a nearby sidewalk.  I may have said something like, "I sure wish I had that can."  So she jumped out of the car, ran over to the sidewalk and brought the can back to the car.  I was right, it was a new can for me.  It was a Monster Ultra Sunrise can.  It seems there are new Monster cans every week.  When I got home I cleaned the can real good and now it sits with almost a hundred other Monster cans in my collection.

And there was a Big Lots nearby so I had to go in there to check out their can selection.  I found a Starbucks Refresher with the new design, two different UP Time energy drink cans, and a small 5.5 oz can of Campbell's tomato juice.

Not bad for just running around town.

Lionel Richie at Church

Last Sunday when I walked into church, a gentleman came over to talk to me.  He said one of his co-workers had a few old Pepsi cans he wanted to get rid of, so this man from church thought of my collection and took the cans.

After church we met in the parking lot and he gave me the bag of cans.  A couple of them were beer cans that I gave back.  Another one was a can I already had.  But one was a cool can from 1985 celebrating the 50th anniversary of a Pepsi bottling company in Columbia, Missouri.

And the cans that surprised me the most were three Lionel Richie Pepsi cans from the mid 1980's, each featuring one of his hit songs.  I had no idea there was a collectible series featuring him.  Upon closer look at the cans, I saw it was a series of 6 cans.  These are numbers 1, 4, and 6.  So I guess someday I will need to find the other three to complete the collection.

3 of the 6 Lionel Richie Pepsi cans

But my question this week is, does anyone else have a good Lionel Richie at church story to share?  haha

Summer Ski

There's a bottling facility for Ski in my area, so I've always been aware of the soda even though I'm not sure I've ever drank it.  Ski is a brand of the Double Cola company and was introduced in 1956.  It's a citrus soda made with lemon and orange juices and has been compared to Mountain Dew, Squirt, Mello Yello, etc.  

It's a can with a design that doesn't change very often.  Since the 1980's, there have only been two major designs (with possible slight variations) that I'm aware of.  The earlier cans were white with one green and one blue stripe (see picture below).  Then in 2009 the cans went to a solid color scheme (see picture above).  I have a few cans with the solid color scheme, but only one with the earlier design (circa 1980's). 

Extended steel can

And for the summer of 2015 only, a limited edition can has been released to celebrate Ski's 60th anniversary.  Someone found this can on the side of the road and gave it to me, which is what inspired me to do a little research on Ski.

2015 Limited Edition

So where did the name Ski come from?  When it was created in 1956, employees were asked to come up with a name for it.  After a ski weekend trip, one of the employees suggested "Ski" and the name stuck.

Dewshine

I keep seeing Mtn Dew Dewshine at the store.  It's been out for quite a while.  So I finally decided to give it a try a few weeks ago.  And these are my thoughts on it.

To me, it tasted really sweet.  Almost too sweet.  Could it be the real sugar?  Maybe.  It also left a light but strange aftertaste in my mouth.  After I drank the first bottle, it was about a week before I tried it again with the second bottle.  At that point I decided to give the other two bottles away.  But a couple more weeks went by and I got thirsty so I tried the third bottle.  It's a taste I'm just not acquiring.  I have one bottle left and I still might give that one away.

But as far as its clear look and the old-time packaging, it gets two thumbs up for me.  I even kept one of the bottles for my very small bottle collection.  I just wish they would do a limited edition in cans.

Abraham Lincoln's Big Lots

I was in Springfield, Illinois, a few weeks ago.  Everything in Springfield is about Abraham Lincoln.  The Big Lots I visited there didn't reference Lincoln, but I have dubbed it "Lincoln's Big Lots."

And what a great find.  I left with sixteen new cans for my collection.  The cashiers must really think I'm a thirsty person.  I found some Big Hero 6 cans, which my son loves.  And this pile is full of energy.

My general rule of thumb when visiting different cities: Always check Big Lots.

HoJo Can #1

While out and about on a short roadtrip today, I visited a few antique stores and flea markets (as usual).  I saw a lot of soda bottles and beer cans (as usual), but only one soda can.  Can you find it in the picture on the right?

A Howard Johnson's restaurant

When I was real young, there was a Howard Johnson's restaurant near where we lived.  The building looked so different and the orange/blue motif caught my eye every time we drove past it.  A few years ago I learned that Howard Johnson's had their own line of soda back in the 1970's.  I instantly fell in love with the orange/blue retro design of the logo on the cans.  

A Howard Johnson's can

And then a couple of years ago I entered a bidding war on eBay for a set of Howard Johnson's cans.  After some intense key pressing, I was unfortunately outbid.  

But today I finally found a HoJo can out in the wild.  I hesitated to buy it because what if I find another set for sale and end up with two ginger ale cans?  But then I realized I wouldn't have a collection if I based my collecting on "what if," so I bought the can and now I can finally say I have a Howard Johnson's can in my collection.

My Destiny

In September 2014, a video game company called Bungie (makers of the Halo game series) released a little game called Destiny on the Playstation and Xbox.  I was in a couple of the betas earlier in 2014 and I was there for Destiny's launch.  Next month, a new expansion is being released.  Bungie and Red Bull got together to promote the release by selling special "Destiny" cans that contain codes under the tabs.  You enter the code on Bungie's website and it gives you an in-game consumable that awards extra XP and it unlocks a special quest in the game that won't be available for everyone else until January 2016.  I love this game.

Blah-blah, right?  So I've been waiting to find a Destiny can to call my own.  They were exclusive to 7-Eleven stores in July, but the ones in my area aren't very convenient for me to get to.  I heard Walmart was getting them in August.  While at Walmart this morning, I found them!  They only had about 6-7 of the cans mixed in with the regular ones, but that was enough.  I grabbed one and now it sits in my collection.

So if you're on the PS4, look up the gamertag MuneMud and we can run a strike or do some patrols.  Or talk cans.

eBay Strikes Again

Last weekend my daughter looked up a couple of things to buy on Amazon for school.  I told her before I buy online there are a few different websites I check, including Amazon and eBay.  She had never been to eBay so I went there.  I told her she could look up anything and it's probably on there.  I tried to think of something crazy to look up but my mind went blank.  So as an example I typed in "bunch of soda cans."

And then I saw a listing of a seven can set from the 2002 movie Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.  Each can featured a different character from the movie.  And they were delivered to my house on Wednesday.

Gollum design

Introduced in September 2002, dnL was the "opposite" of 7up (including its name which is an upside-down "7up".)  It contained caffeine and had a stronger citrus taste than 7up.  It was discontinued in 2005.

original can

What made me push the "Buy It Now" button on this collection was the special dnL can.  I thought the original can was somewhat rare, but here was one with Gollum on it from the movie.  Wow, I HAD to have it!

I've resisted the temptation to look up cans on eBay for a long time because every time I look, I buy.  But if I hadn't looked this time, I wouldn't have this treasure in my collection now.

Sparkling Rockstar

When I got to work on Monday, a coworker asked if I had the new Rockstar can.  He showed me a picture online and I definitely didn't have it.  So when he came in on Tuesday he brought one to me.  He's a big energy drink drinker, yet he wasn't willing to try this sparkling cherry citrus version.

I think it sounds good and will give it a try someday.  I still have it at work "in case of emergency" if I need a quick pick-me-up.  There's at least one other flavor in this new lineup, so I'll keep an eye out for more.

Flea Market Find

I just got back from a small flea market.  Can you find the item I bought in the picture above?  If not, look at the pic below.

The vendor had this empty 8.5 oz aluminum bottle marked as $1.  She said all prices were negotiable, so I offered her $.25 and she took it.  Truly one woman's junk is another man's treasure...

Obey Your Verse

I saw the Obey Your Verse campaign from Sprite several weeks ago and have been trying to avoid the cans (not another collection to work on).  First, Coca-Cola brought back its nicknames campaign which meant I would be on the search for those again this summer.  And now Sprite has this collection of cans that features lyrics from various artists.

When I got home I checked all the cans and saw I got eight different ones from this one 12-pack.  Not too bad!  I wasn't sure how many cans were in the collection until I saw the numbers on each can.

Sixteen.  That's not too bad since I now have half of them.  So I'll continue to watch for the other cans.  At least Sprite made it easy by numbering the cans.

Upside Down

I've spent the last couple of days out of town at a conference.  During my free morning yesterday, a couple of us checked out some local antique/junk shops.  I wasn't expecting to find any cans... and that's when I found one.

Tucked away on a shelf in the corner was this lonely straight steel Dr Pepper can.  I already have similar cans, maybe even this exact one I thought, until I noticed the top of it was smooth.  I picked up the $4 can and that's when I saw the label was upside down.  

I know these aren't super rare or really worth much more (if any more) than a normal can.  After all, it's just a mistake.  But it's the first one for my collection!  

The guy at the counter asked if I was a Dr Pepper collector.  I told him no, I collect soda cans of all brands.  He told me he had a couple of old paper Dr Pepper hats worn in a soda shop years ago.  Tempting as it was (haha), one treasure per day is enough!!

July 11, 2015, Update:
A collector of Dr Pepper cans has helped me immensely in the last few years by offering his extras when he needed to make room.  I've bought various Dr Pepper and DP clone cans and offered them for his collection, but he has always had them already.  But when I sent the pic of the above upside-down can he said he did not have one of those yet.  I was finally able to contribute to his collection.  In return, I received a few more of his extras in the mail today.  It's all about the trading...

Summer Nicknames Have Returned

It was to my dismay that I recently saw a new Coca-Cola can... that had a nickname printed on it!  I remember last summer trying to track down all the different names for Coca-Cola cans, then the ones for Diet Coke, then Coke Zero had some, then... then... then...

At the office

Yesterday at work they restocked the beverage fridge.  And that always means new Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Dr Pepper, Diet Dr Pepper, Mtn Dew, Diet Mtn Dew, and sometimes cans of other brands.  So once everyone was out of the break room, I started digging through the shelves of cans to see how many different nicknames I could find.

The Diet Coke cans were the only ones with names.  I found BFF, Mom, Dad, Soulmate, Superstar and Trendsetter.  I also found a Coca-Cola can with a 2015 Six Flags coupon.

Ok, let's see how many different cans Coca-Cola makes me work to collect this summer...

The Winner Was... Pepsi!

I found this Pepsi can at an antique mall in Evansville, IN, last weekend.  Since I had never seen one before, the $3 price tag seemed reasonable.  The expiration date stamped on the bottom is April 26, 2010.

When I got home I did a little research online and found an article explaining how PepsiCo won the 2010 CO3 Award.  Rather than try to paraphrase it, here's a link to the article.

Looking at the picture below on the left, I'm led to believe this may have been a four-can set with this being the fourth can since the number 4 is highlighted.  

Regardless of what brand or flavor or special occasion, gold cans are always attention-grabbers.  This one grabbed my attention and now sits with over 300 other Pepsi cans in my collection.

Sprite 6 Mix (part 2)

Shortly after purchase

When I stopped in a gas station for some ice on the way to a friend's house this evening, I perused the station's assortment of cans.  I was actually looking for the two 16 oz Dr Pepper Avengers cans but instead found this year's Sprite LeBron's Mix.

In better lighting

Last year I posted about finding the first can released.  I read an article earlier this
year that said a new version was going to be released, but I hadn't seen it yet.

For $.99 I couldn't pass it up.  It's a cool looking red can, but do you know what this means?  I'm still looking for the two Avengers cans.  :)

Road Trip to Evansville

I took a short road trip to Evansville, Indiana, yesterday.  I've been there a couple of times before with limited success in finding cans.  But yesterday was a different story.  I had to choose which cans to buy.

The first booth that had cans sold them for $1 each.  I'm used to buying in bulk, so to have to choose which few I wanted to buy was really hard.  And being an antique mall, the seller wasn't there to make a deal with.  So I chose five and continued shopping.

Next was a booth with old steel cans but they were asking $5 each!  Nope.  Another booth had a green aluminum Pepsi bottle and a special edition Pepsi can for $4 and $3 respectively, so I bought those.

Before we left, I lined up my purchases for a group shot which was eerily reminiscent of a picture I took back in 2012 of my first Mountain Dew aluminum bottle (purchased in the same store.)

I have a few more can stories from the trip, but I'll save those for another day...

The Can I Almost Had

I haven't bought any cans on eBay for a while.  That's because I quit looking for cans on eBay.  I realized every time I looked, I found something and spent money.  So I decided to take a break from it... until last week when I decided to look again.  And guess what.  I found a can I wanted.  

I'm a fan of Shasta cans and I'm not sure why.  But I've got over 100 different ones.  So when I saw this tonic mix I knew I had to have it.  Not only do I not have a tonic mix can at all in my collection, this was an old steel can with a funky color palette.  It was also in great condition.  

But the clincher on the deal was the weird opening mechanism.  I don't have anything quite like it.  The listing said it was a prototype Stay Tab test lid.  So I placed my bid and waited.

The auction ended and I won.  Yay.  I knew this can would make a good blog post.  But then I got a real apologetic message a couple of days later that the seller had sold the can in a previous listing and accidentally re-listed it.  I got my money back, that wasn't an issue.  But then I had a decision... raise a stink or move on?

Everyone makes mistakes.  This person had almost 16,000 transactions and a score of 99.3%.  I agreed to cancel the transaction and replied that mistakes happen.  I was a bit disappointed, but you have to take the disappointments with the victories when collecting.

What I really lost was an opportunity to blog about a cool can.  Or did I?

Avengers Cans Assemble

The second Avengers movie came out last weekend.  And for a few weeks prior to that I was seeing can sites mentioning the new Avengers 7-can set from Dr. Pepper.  It was just a matter of time that the cans started finding my collection.

I'm not going to put a lot of effort into getting this set, I'll just see what I end up with and then fill in the holes later.  My household doesn't drink a lot of soda so I'm not going to go out and buy 12-packs to get one of each can.  Or is it two of each?  Or three?  After seeing the two characters I already have, my son decided he wants to collect a set too.  And then my daughter decided she'd like one also.  I hope I haven't created new monsters...

My son wants his own set of Avengers cans

Both of my cans so far have come from the beverage fridge at work.  They try to refill it once a month, so we'll see if new can designs keep coming.  I'll update this post as I get more cans, similar to what I did with the first Avengers movie back in 2012.

5/16/15 Update:
While shopping at Walmart today, I saw the Cherry Dr Pepper cans with Black Widow on them.  Ok, I had to buy it.


5/24/15 Update:
I saw my sister yesterday and she had a gift for me... the Hawkeye Cherry Diet Dr Pepper can.  Keep 'em coming...

7/18/15 Update:
I went by my parents' house yesterday and they handed me this Hulk can and asked if I had it.  Nope, I didn't.  I explained it's one of the cans I've been on the lookout for when I'm out and about.  Another one found.

One Man's Trash...

Last week someone gave me a trash bag of cans for my kids to recycle.  

The good thing about this system is I get to dig through the cans before the kids get a hold of them.  And in this bag, I found ten cans I didn't have.  Jackpot!!

Good for the environment... and my collection.

The Can Fairy: Second Visit

Two years ago I posted about the Can Fairy visiting my house and leaving a can on the front porch.  I still don't know who it was.  Yesterday, the Can Fairy returned.

This time I was checking the mail and saw these three cans down inside the mailbox.  I took them out to see what I got.

I already have an orange Monster Juice can similar to this, but upon closer examination there is a variation in the icons that are listed on the back of the can.  So it's a new can.  The Lime Freeze Rockstar is a brand new can for me.  And sounds delicious.  Plus I was given an extra to trade.

I could ask around and probably find out who left them, but it's more fun not knowing :)

Please Ask First

Last year I received an email from someone who had visited this blog.  The email said they saw a listing on eBay for a soda can collection and for the listing, the picture of my cans in the background of this blog had been used.  I found the eBay listing and sure enough, that was the picture I had taken of my cans!  (I edited out the personal info in the screenshot below)

So I sent a message to the seller and told him that was a picture I took of my own collection and no one had asked permission to use it.  Now, I've needed pics before and went to Google Images and grabbed a couple of random ones, so I figured this may have been the case with him too.

I read through the description of his listing and he said it was several hundred cans for sale.  I warned him that someone buying cans would probably expect to receive the cans shown in the picture, especially since he made no mention that the pic wasn't his actual collection.  

I'm not sure if the auction expired or he took my warning and ended it, but it soon disappeared after I sent the message to him.  He never did reply to my message.

In the last four years, I've been asked if people can use pics from my site to make t-shirts, use in articles they were writing and even a couple of professors for their classes.  I've said yes in every case.  It's nice to know my pictures can sometimes be of use to others, but I certainly appreciate being asked first.   :)