Cans in the Shoppes

I spent today in an area I've never been before.  It consisted of a 1.5 mile long street full of ol' time shoppes and vendors.  Lots of shoppes.  Lots of vendors.  And lots of cans.  BUT...

Good price, but all beer cans.  Except one Coca-Cola can which I already have.

RC soda cans, but I wasn't sure which ones I have and don't have.  And they cost too much $ for me to be guessing.

Three trays of beer cans, one tray of soda cans.  Unfortunately, all the Vess soda cans were the same.  And I already have it.

All beer.

All beer.

I wasn't about to go home empty-handed.  I stopped by Target and found the two newest flavors of Red Bull (orange and wild cherry).  I also picked up a Vitamin Water can I didn't have.

I had set a goal this morning of coming home with at least one new can.  It's nice to achieve goals.  One way or another.

Flea Market Fonz

Third weekend of the month.  Temperatures hit the 70's.  I could hear a distant call of soda cans beckoning me.  My family headed to the flea market this morning.  And boy was it crowded!

I saw a few booths with beer cans and an occasional lone soda can that I already have.  And then my mom called me and said she found a table with soda cans.  So I made my way through the crowd to the table and saw about twenty steel soda cans for $.50 each.  Nice.  

The seller was impressed when I whipped out my phone to check my collection website.  I said with nearly 4,000 cans, it's hard to remember what I have and don't have.  After a good look, he had two I didn't have.

The Fonz

In the end, I walked away with this straight steel Nehi strawberry soda can from 1978.  It's the Fonz, can #17 of the 35-can "Happy Days" set, series 1.  There are a lot of Happy Days cans and I haven't put any effort into collecting them yet.  In fact, the only other one I had until now was the #24 Howard Cunningham fruit punch can.  

The other can I bought was a straight steel Staff diet root beer can.  And I learned a bit of trivia when I bought it.  My mom said Schnucks (a local grocery store) sold Staff soda back in the 70's when she worked there.  Nice connection!  I have quite a Staff collection started, this being my 26th steel Staff can.

Overall, not bad for $1.  

No Cans, Yes Cans

I did another flea market and antique store road trip today to a city I've never been to before.  Not much luck as far as soda cans go though.  I saw an old Vess and an old Ticket can, but I already had both of them.  So the day was already feeling like a bust when I drove past this:

Not what a can collector likes to see.  The pallets stacked and lined up behind that truck were all crushed cans!  The day could only get better from there.

Not far from there I rounded a bend in the road and saw a glorious Big Lots store!  I have referenced Big Lots several times before after finding discontinued drinks there.  So I stopped and ran inside and sure enough, I walked out with six new cans:

So the day wasn't a total bust.  And I'm ready for the next road trip.

180 Degrees

Back in 2006, Anheuser-Busch of St Louis, MO, launched a new energy drink called 180.  It has since been discontinued.  The can I have is 180 Blue with Acai.  It became one of the first cans in my collection when I dug through the recycle bin of aluminum cans at work back in 2011.  The bin hadn't been emptied for a few years.  So after my first dig I had scored many cans, some that were no longer available.

But what's interesting about this can is one side is printed the correct way and the other side is printed upside down.  At first I thought I had a rare misprint, but no, it was just a gimmick that tied into the name of the drink.

With the 4-year anniversary of the start of my collection coming up next month, I thought it'd be neat to "circle" around (360 degrees) and highlight one of my first cans.  Especially one that is now extinct.