Big Sprite

A co-worker brought a can to me at work yesterday.  It was this Sprite can:

 

None of us at work had seen a 16 oz can of regular Sprite before.  This probably isn't big news to a lot of people, but for me this is the first one I've ever seen.

2012 Halloween Cans

Early last week my wife called me at work while she was grocery shopping.  She said they had Frankenstein 7 Up and Dracula Sunkist cans.  I hadn't seen any of the Dr Pepper Snapple Group Halloween cans this year, so I told her to go ahead and get them.

Just in time for Christmas!  HAHA!

There were six cans this year in the Halloween set.  I got the picture below from BevReview.com.  It shows the color-changing effect of each can. 

So I have a few more cans to watch for.  But I haven't given up hope.  In the summer of 2011, I found a Halloween can from 2010 at a store, so I could still stumble across some more in the coming months.

12-11-12 update - I was getting a couple things at a local grocery store this evening and decided to check the cans.  Guess what?  They had the A&W werewolf!!!  So guess what I drank with supper?

Antique Shopping... Yet Again

Last Saturday, we did another one-day road trip checking out antique stores and flea markets we hadn't been to yet.  Overall it wasn't the best can hunt, but I did come home with a few new ones for my collection.

Holiday 2009 can

I saw my first can of the day at the third store we visited.  They had a Coca-Cola Holiday 2009 can which I didn't have.  The can was still full of soda and had no price tag.  So I asked how much it was and the lady working had no idea.  She asked what I'd give for it and I said, "A buck" and she said, "Sold!" 

Japanese Cokes

I found quite a few cans throughout the day but they were priced from $5 to $8 each, and I just don't pay that much for cans.  The next reasonably-priced cans I found were these two Coke cans sitting next to each other in a shop.  I assume they are Japanese (they both have JAS in a circle on them).  But the interesting thing is their size/shape.  They are 250ml, which equals 8.4oz, but they are tall and thin (similar to a Red Bull can).  So I bought both of them.

Sprite 2012 holiday can

One of the stores we went to was having an open house and Christmas sale event.  Just inside the front door they had tables of cookies, cakes, pies, donuts, and several crockpots with assorted cooking meats and there were crackers and breads.  All of it was free for their customers.  They really knew how to have an open house!!!  They also had a tub of soda for customers and that's where I found this 2012 Sprite holiday can.  Last week I blogged about finding this year's Coke holiday can, so now I've found Sprite's.

Cans are just one of the many things I watch for when "junking."  And even when the day doesn't turn up many cans, I still have a ball looking for the many other things that my wife rolls her eyes at.  So when are we going again?

Remembering Our Anniversary

Today is our 12th wedding anniversary.  Last year I posted about the cruise to the Bahamas we took for our 11th anniversary and the few cans that came back with us from the trip.  One of them was the controversial 2011 white "Arctic Home" Coca-Cola can.

Coca-Cola 2011 Holiday can

During one of the shows aboard the cruise ship (on Nov 12), the couple we were sitting with was enjoying the show with a 6-pack of Coke and a bottle of whiskey.  My eyes were all over the white Coke cans and I finally broke down and asked him if I could have one.  Of course he didn't mind at all.  So I carried that can with me from the ship to the hotel to the airport and back home.  When we got home I wrote the date 11-12-11 on the bottom of it to remind me when I got it.

It wasn't long before those cans showed up at stores in my area and a Coke-drinking co-worker brought in a 12-pack of them.  So I was able to bottom-open one for my collection.  I've replaced top-opened cans with bottom-opened cans before and I always put the unneeded top-opened ones in my trade pile.  But in this case, I had to keep the top-opened white Coke can from our cruise.

So as of this post, it's the only can I've kept both top- and bottom-opened versions of. 

And I thank my wife for putting up with my cans for a year and a half now and I hope she can put up with them for many years to come. 

Family Pictures

A few months ago we realized we haven't had family pictures taken for a couple of years.  But instead of going to Olan Mills or Sears or even Walmart, we had my photographer cousin come over for several hours one Saturday last month to take our pictures inside our house, outside the house and even at my in-laws' house out in the country.

As we posed at the piano, the dining room table and even on the couch with X-box controllers in hand, I suggested we take a few pics to reflect my other hobby... can collecting.  So we headed to the basement.

I was only able to get a few pictures taken with the wife before she mysteriously disappeared.  So then I was on my own for a few pics.

And my son, "Lil Pepper", had to ham it up a bit.

Needless to say, none of these will be on the front of our Christmas card this year, but it's still a memorable moment captured in time. 

Return of the Polar Bears

Last week, my wife and I saw a lady sitting next to us in traffic.  I noticed the lady was drinking a red can of Coke with polar bears on it.  I told my wife, "She's drinking a soda that's almost a year old!"  But then I thought about it and realized soda can last quite a while in a can, so the incident left my mind.

Until today when a co-worker brought in a new 12-pack of Coke to work.  He commented that the polar bears were back.  I asked to look at the can to see if they changed the design from last year.  Initially it looked the same, then I saw the 2012 copyright date.  It actually was a new can.  And then I noticed the bears are different.

2011

2012

The 2012 holiday cans have arrived.  Now I'll be watching for the other Coke product variations.

I guess the lady in traffic wasn't drinking an old can of soda but a brand new can.  She fooled me.

How I "Process" A New Can

If I had to take pictures of my 2200+ cans now and do an inventory, it would not get done!  Fortunately I started my web site and catalog when I started collecting and I update both as I get new cans.  So what is the process of adding a can to my collection?  Read on.

For this post's example, I will be using the Diet Dr Pepper can featuring another tuition winner, Antron McCullough, that I found this morning at the local Dollar General store.

The first thing I do is bottom open the can using a hammer and nail.  I put two holes in the bottom, one to allow the soda to drain and one to allow air to go in (notice both holes in the pic below.)  And then I drain the can. 

Once the can is empty, I wash it off and set it on the island in my kitchen to take its picture for the web site.  Every can picture on the site has been taken in this exact spot using the same two CD's to prop the same camera up so every picture is taken at the same level.  I appreciate consistency. 

Then I head to the computer to add the can to my master Can List, which is an Excel file.  The data recorded for each can is the date I got the can, the manufacturer, the brand, the variation (flavor or can design), condition (which is for steel cans describing whether they are straight steel, extruded, etc and what kind of tabs they have), where I got the can, its assigned catalog # and any special notes.

I've highlight today's can in the screenshot above.  Its catalog # is DP01d-20.  And here's what that means.  The first two letters tell me which major manufacturer made the soda.  Examples are DP for Dr Pepper Snapple Group, CC for Coca-Cola, PE for PepsiCo, etc.  The two numbers following the letters tell me which brand of soda it is.  So in my Dr Pepper Snapple Group brand list, 01=Dr Pepper, 02=7 Up, 03=A&W, etc.  And if it's a diet version, I tack on the little "d" after the brand number.  So by looking at DP01d, I know this is a Diet Dr Pepper can.  So which Diet Dr Pepper is it?  #20, the number following the dash in the catalog #.  Looking at the chart above, you can see all of my Diet Dr Peppers listed.  You can also see my newer Dr Peppers and oldest 7Up's on the chart too.  It took a while for me to tweak the catalog # system, but it works for me.  Each can has its own unique number and by looking at that number I know exactly what can it is!

In the case of this can, I had to take two pictures, one of the front and one of the back.  I used Paint Shop Pro photo editing software to combine both pictures and added that pic to the Dr Pepper Special Promos page on the collection web site.

And then the fun part... I add the can to the shelf.

And in this case, Antron now sits with the other three tuition winners I've collected so far in my Dr Pepper section.

So, anyone need an Antron can?  I have five extras!!!