Another Team Meeting at Work

This evening was our team meeting at work.  Historically the meetings have ranked rather low on my "Highly Anticipated Things To Do" list, but that changed last year when I realized it's a source for new cans. 

At November's meeting last year, I was able to score a Cardinals World Series Pepsi can (read about it here).

At our last meeting in April, I scored four aluminum bottles (read about it here).

And tonight there were about 8-10 cans to choose from.  I had them all but one...

And now I have that one too.  I can't wait for November's meeting...

Another Saturday, Another Antique Mall

It's that time of the week again; time to browse thru a local antique mall.  The one we went to today was about an hour from our house and I had no idea it was even there.  And this place was HUGE!!!  It took us over two hours to rush through it (we had our young kids with us).  And unlike most antique places I've checked, this one actually had some soda cans!!!  I couldn't buy every soda can I saw, so I choose these five:

I plan on doing a couple of posts this week to highlight a couple of these special cans.  There were several more convention cans and "special" cans I didn't buy, so maybe some day I'll have to go back...

But this place was a small heaven for beer can collectors.  One booth had 5-6 old beer cans bagged together and each bag was $1.95.  Several other booths were selling singles.  But this booth was the most impressive:

They were selling trays of 24 beer cans for $8.95 per tray.  I looked thru all the trays and only found two soda cans, one of which I already have.  But for the beer can collector this would have been an awesome find!!!

Also, I met a beer can collector there.  He said he has a few soda cans he wants to get rid of from trades and I said I have a few beer cans I want to get rid of from trades.  He lives about twenty minutes from where I work, so there may be a local trade in my near future.

By the way, the peach box on top of the beer cans in the pic above was full of bags of bottle caps.  I had considered collecting those at one time but decided to go with soda cans instead. 

2012 Olympic Coke Cans (complete)

On June 4, I started a post about the 2012 Olympic Coke cans.  I was on a quest to collect all six cans of the set.  I updated the post every time I got a new can.  So if you'd like to see how the quest progressed, you can read about it here. 

Today I got can #6 and my set is complete.  In addition, I also got an Olympics Diet Coke can.

Coca-Cola Can Radio Offer

I went to a flea market today on the lookout for any old soda cans.  There are always a lot of soda bottles, but usually not many cans.  The only can I found worth buying was this Coca-Cola can.  After getting home, I dated the design to be around 1970-1971 (notice "caramel colored" written under the Coca-Cola logo).

But the reason I bought the can was because of the offer on the side of it, "Can radio... yours for only $5.95 with proof-of-purchase."  The offer ended on February 29, 1972, reinforcing that this can is probably from 1971-ish.

The reason I liked this "ad can" was because it's the first vertical ad on a Coke can I've seen.  I don't know how common or uncommon that is, but I thought it was pretty cool.

So what did I pay for it?  Well there was a plain Coke can next to this one.  I asked the guy how much they were and he said, "$3 each or both for $5."  I think I already had the other one, so I just wanted this one.  I said, "How about $2.50 for just this one?"  And he replied, "$2 and it's yours."  That's the first time a seller has bid me down.

A Tour of My Collection

I still have around fifty cans that haven't been "processed" yet (meaning they haven't been added to the website or shelved/boxed with my other cans), but this is my collection as of today.

This is shelf #1.  It starts with 7Up and alphabetically goes thru some of the major brands thru Hi-C.

Note: the spaces have been left intentionally to allow for new cans to be added without having to shift other brands around.

This is shelf #2.  It starts with Hires root beer and goes thru some of the major brands thru the Walmart line of sodas.

Shelf #3 contains Sprite, Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Shasta.

Shelf #4 holds my Coke cans and short 8oz cans.

And these are two additional shelves. 

The gray ones on the left hold the soda brands that don't fit on shelves #1-4.  They are organized alphabetically in the trays.  The bottom shelf has six trays of foreign cans.

The black shelf on the right holds my large 16 oz cans, slim 8 oz cans and any other odd-sized cans.  This is where most of my energy and juice cans are.  I also have some 12-packs of soda on this shelf.

The boxes on the floor are cans I haven't added to the trays yet.




And now for the two overall shots of my collection:

Shelves #1 and #2

Shelves #3 and #4 and more

What I don't have pictured are my can sets such as the 7UP Bicentennial 50-can set, the 24-can Star Wars Pepsi set or the two 1970's RC sets of baseball player cans.

Antique Shopping

We spent a lot of today driving around southern Illinois visiting all kinds of antique shops.  Among other things, I was on the lookout for "antique" cans.  But unfortunately I wasn't having any luck.  Until...

We found Big Lots!!!  We ended up back in civilization and did some real shopping where I found plenty of cans I didn't have.

Last year my wife and I recorded season one of a taste-testing podcast called The Aftertaste Report.  And after today's haul, we are considering doing season two.  But with school starting next week, things are about to get hectic so we'll have to see if there's time for another podcast.

Variations of the Wild West

When people come by to see my can collection, I remind them that there are 2000+ different cans.  And then they proceed to point to my four Wild West cans and say, "Well those are the same."  And then they get a can education.

Sure, they are all Wild West Sarsaparilla (whatever that is), but the cans are different.

These first two cans are both straight steel.  Notice the sides of the body are straight all the way from the bottom to the top.  Also, both the bottom and top are separate pieces attached to the body.  That's how you can identify a straight steel can.  By the way, these two are different because one says "12 FL OZ" and the other "12 FL OZ - 354 mL".  Also, one is still sealed and one is open.



 This is an extruded steel can.  Notice how the bottom is rounded and made of the same piece of steel as the body.  Only the top is a separate piece of metal on this can.

There is a third type of steel can which I don't have a Wild West example of, but this Dad's root beer can volunteered to model.  It's called crimped steel.  It's top and bottom are separate pieces like the straight steel, but in this case the sides of the body aren't straight.  Notice how they are crimped inwards near the bottom and top?  





And then there's the aluminum can.  The bottom of aluminum cans is also molded from the same piece of metal as the body, only the top is a separate piece.  And aluminum cans usually have some kind of recycle symbol on them.






If there is no recycle symbol, extruded steel cans and older aluminum cans can sometimes be hard to differentiate.  So what's an easy way to tell which it is?  Use a magnet!  A magnet will stick to any steel can but won't stick to aluminum.

And now you've had a can education.