1984 Big Ten

In 1984, this Sports Soda set was created for the Big Ten Conference.  Each of the ten cans features one of the teams' mascots on the front and their 1984 football schedule on the back.  A cardboard display and carrying case were also produced, but I don't have those.

Occasionally one of these sets appears on eBay.  And sometimes they even have the carrying case with them.

During my online research, I found another set of cans released in 1984.  It was called the Big Eight Collection.  * The pictures below are from other websites, I do not have that set.

Another Can, Another Expansion

Two years ago my can collection started out in a couple of cardboard boxes in a closet.  Soon I built a wooden shelf in the basement for them.  Then I built another shelf.  Then I added some plastic shelves.  And then some metal ones.  Eventually I also had boxes in a couple of corners of the basement.

In the recent relocation of the company I work for, I acquired some nice heavy-duty shelving and decided to put it in the garage and move some cans out there.  I finished the can migration this evening.  I still have plenty of cans in the basement, but now I also have a corner of the garage dedicated to my hobby.

Basement shelves - front

Basement shelves - back

Doubles, foreign and 16oz cans

It may not look like it, but my cans are well-organized.  I obviously have many brands on display on the wooden shelves.  The cardboard trays I use hold 50 cans each.  In the above pic, I have some trades in the trays on the left.  The trays in the middle on the plastic shelves are my foreign cans and the trays on the plastic shelves on the right hold my 16oz and 24 cans (along with some other miscellaneous can stuff).

New can corner in the garage

Cans along the wall are trades, boxed cans are in the collection

My new Can Corner in the garage has more trades on the left-hand wall.  The cans straight ahead are in trays and alphabetized (each tray holds 1-3 letters).  The cans on the right are waiting to be added to my website.  The boxes on the top shelf are empties for shipping and the boxes on the bottom shelf are full of more cans waiting to be processed.  It's not climate controlled and I need to add some lights, but at this point I have to take what space I can get.

After taking the above pictures tonight, for the first time in two years I had to stop and consider, "Maybe my family is right and I do have a problem..."  haha

Kickstart the Day

I heard about Mountain Dew's new "energy drink" a couple of months ago and now it's here.  I got home from work yesterday and saw the orange citrus can in the kitchen.  My wife brought it home from work after one of her co-workers was done with it.

Kickstart is a "morning soda" that was released on February 25, 2013.  It comes in energy drink sized cans but has less caffeine than other energy drinks.  It launched with two flavors: citrus orange and fruit punch.  And I'm surprised to see the 16 oz can is one serving with only 80 calories.

I will be driving around this morning looking for the fruit punch variant.  If I find it, I'll try it out and post an update with my critique.

05/04/13 Update - I headed out this morning in search of the red Kickstart.  I had a few free hours if I needed it.  I had my list of grocery and convenient stores to check.  I told the family if I wasn't back by midday not to worry, I was out hunting.  And then I checked the store one block from my house and found it.  They've had both flavors for a while, I just didn't know it.  Silly me.

I bought it and tried it out.  Eh.  Carbonated fruit punch is kind of a weird experience, but I guess it could help wake one up in the morning.  I'm not a big fruit punch kind of person to begin with, so I probably couldn't have expected too much out of this.  Overall, it wasn't too bad.  Give it a try.

And the good news is that during my abbreviated can hunt I found a couple other cans I didn't have.  Maybe I'll write about those some day...

Can Clean Up

I recently purchased a lot of old cans.  They had been in a semi-damp and dusty basement for who-knows-how-long.  The corroded condition of some of the cans initially concerned me, but after using warm water and an old toothbrush on one of them, I feel a lot more confident that these cans can easily be cleaned up to look good in my collection.  Below is the straight steel White Rock tea can from the 1970's that I cleaned up.

After

Before

Before

After

Monster Vs Monster

USA                                 Canada

I was recently given a Monster Absolutely Zero from Canada.  I already had one from the USA.  So I decided to compare the two cans to see what the similarities/differences are.  And here they are.

The first difference is the "Zero Calories" on the front of the Canadian can.  And near the bottom is printed the can size, 473mL in metric for Canada and 16 FL OZ for America's Old English measurement (why change now?).  The tops of the two cans have the same light blue Monster tabs.

The back of the cans are quite different.  The American can is split into two columns, the left being the nutritional content/ingredients and the right being a story about why they made Absolutely Zero.  The Canadian can has one column which contains information and ingredients printed in both English and French. 

USA

Canada

Another difference between the cans is the drink's purpose.  In America, it's labeled as an energy supplement.  In Canada, it's labeled as a natural health product (or produit de sante naturel.)  Also note on the Canadian can its "recommended dose for adults" is "Drink 1 can per day as needed."  It's probably just how they've worded it, but that sounds like something on a medicine bottle here in the States.

The Canadian can doesn't have the nutritional chart that the American one has.  And although both cans list the ingredients, the Canadian can breaks the list into "medicinal ingredients" and "non-medicinal ingredients," again making it sound like an energy drink you'd buy at a pharmacy. 

And if this post wasn't enough reading for you, then sit back and enjoy the story on why Monster created its Absolutely Zero flavor...

Souvenirs from Canada

I had a pleasant surprise this past weekend.  A family friend stopped by to give me two cans she bought for me on her trip to Vermilion Bay, Ontario.  These are not my first cans from Canada.  But what's neat about it is I didn't know this person even knew I collected cans. 

Canadian Pepper

In an upcoming post I am going to compare the American version of the Monster Absolutely Zero can to the Canadian version.  The differences aren't real big, but there are some things I'd like to point out.  So stay tuned for... "Monster Vs Monster"!!!

Canadian Monster

Don't Forget to Check Craigslist

Shelf 1 - left

A search for soda cans in my area on Craigslist rarely turns up anything.  So I was surprised two days ago when I checked (for the first time in a long time) while getting ready for work and found a listing that had been posted just several hours earlier. 

Shelf 1 - center

The listing said, "800+ cans ($50)."  It was both soda and beer cans.  And it was only about 15 miles from where I work.  I didn't want to call the phone number at 5:45am, so I waited until I got to work and settled in.  Then I called and found out I was the first caller!  I could either pick them up that day or Friday (today).  I didn't have the cash on me and my car wasn't big enough, so I said I'd be there today.

Shelf 1 - right

So this afternoon, with money in hand and at the wheel of my wife's mini-van, I headed to the house on my lunch break.  The family who had lived in the house moved and left what they didn't want to take with them, which included this can collection.  The guy who listed the cans said his company empties houses.  When they saw the cans, his coworkers wanted to recycle them but he thought a collector may want them, that's why he put it on Craigslist.  I was at the right place at the right time.  For once. 

You can tell from these pics the owner had a nice setup.  He'd built plenty of shelves to display his collection.  The crew that was there emptying the house was kind enough to provide boxes and even helped me carry them to the van.

Shelf 2 - top

One of the guys that was disassembling a glass display case saw a couple of old Schaefer beer cans and said it reminded him of his grandpa who used to drink that brand.  I told him to take them.  I don't collect beer cans.  I might try to use the ones I got today to trade for more soda cans.  Anyway, he was very grateful.

After the wife and kids were in bed tonight, I sneaked out to the garage and separated the beer cans from the soda cans.  I took some better group photos of the soda cans.  Eventually I will take individual pictures and get them on my main collection site. 

Shelf 2 - bottom

Final count on soda cans:  726.  And probably a couple hundred beer cans.  It's funny that last
week marked the two-year anniversary of when I started collecting cans. 

Shelf 3 - left

I mentioned I had hoped to have 3000 cans but fell a couple hundred short.  And now a week later, I have around 3500 cans!

Thanks for making your lists, Craig!

Shelf 3 - right

Two Year Anniversary

It was two years ago today that I decided to start a soda can collection.  In case you missed them, here are a couple of relevant posts:

My first post on this blog
My one-year anniversary post

My official collection website currently says I have just under 2400 cans.  I also have around 300 I haven't put on the site yet.  I had hoped to hit 3000 by now but I'm happy with what I have.

It's hard to tell what the next year will bring, but I know I'll keep grabbing those cans I don't have!

A Truckload

Yes, those bags are full of soda cans!!!

But I didn't know who owned the truck or where the owner was, so I had to hold back the tears and keep walking.  Who knows how many cans I could have scored from that find?  But as I always say... another big find will eventually come along!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter

 

* It's the closest thing I have to an Easter can

I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here

Two months ago I made a post about my job and how they are moving my department to a different building and closing our current building.  I wondered how working at the new building could affect my can collection.  Today I found out during a visit to the new building.

While exploring the break room, I found  an entire fridge stocked with free soda for employees.

And a nearby storeroom revealed the stash of soda to stock the fridge.  It took a few minutes to wipe the smile off my face.  And so I partook in my first soda at the new building...

A Sprite can I didn't have yet.  I'm not sure yet what can set this belongs to, but now I'll be watching for more NBA Sprite cans.

And by the way, a couple of my former co-workers who lost their jobs in this move found immediate work at another company.  So I'm glad for them.

And about this new building for me, I think I'm gonna like it here...

Joe Weider (1919-2013)

I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to the wide world of sports.  So when I woke up this morning and saw on CNN.com that bodybuilding icon and fitness innovator Joe Weider had died at the age of 93, his name rang a bell not because I knew who he was prior to that CNN article, but because I have two cans with his name on them.

If you're like me and not very familiar with him, it's worth a few minutes to read about all the things he did. 

As a side note, after I got those two cans I wondered who Joe Weider was but hadn't looked him up.  So now I know.

My Newest Batch of Cans

Last week a fellow collector contacted me and asked if I was interested in some cans he found.  Of course.  I said I'd take whatever he didn't want.  I got the package yesterday.

It's a really good batch for me.  Some of the highlights:  a New Coke can, a Pepsi ad for the 25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing (I'm a space nut), two versions of the Pepsi bicentennial can from 1976, a Pepsi Challenge can from the UK, and my first 8 oz Coke can.

Thanks G!!!

A Trivial Find

I helped set up for a trivia night yesterday at a local school.  While walking down the hall, a sign that read "CANS" caught my eye.

 

I stopped and opened it.  There weren't many cans in there, but there were a few I didn't have!

I grabbed the three I needed (and yes, I did replace the ones I took with some other cans.)  Unfortunately, one of them had been drunk by a "squeezer," the term I call someone who squeezes their can when they're finished.

I performed an emergency "reflate" surgery on the can when I got home and now have three new cans for my collection.

That's more payment than I expected to get for my three hours of work. 

Missouri Valley Conference

Last week was the Missouri Valley Conference in St Louis.  My company does some work for a few of the events throughout the week.  One of my co-workers was onsite at the Scottrade Center and was able to score this 2013 MVC Pepsi can for me.

It's another example of others watching for cans for my collection. 

Thanks Tammy!!!

Can I Have That Can?

So, what do you do when you're on a business lunch with your Regional Vice President of Operations and you notice he is drinking from a can you don't have in your collection?

You ask, "Can I have that can when you're done with it?"  That's what I did earlier today.

I am used to the funny looks.  I am used to explaining that I have a can collection.  I am used to the awkward silence after asking someone for their trash.  But it's that awkwardness that helps them think of me the next time they have a can in their hands.  I have had the conversation about my collection with several people that have come back to me at a later time with another can and asked if I have that one yet.  I think it makes people feel good when they feel like they've contributed.

So if you're ever in public and someone comes up and asks if they can "throw that can away for you when you're done," it just may be me you're talking to.

The Can Fairy

I got home from work today and found this can on my front porch:

I brought it in and tried to clean it up.  Here it is after I messed around with it:

Not much better.  It's an extruded steel can with a tab top.  The can dates back to 1982-1987, those were the "Pepsi Free" years before the "Free" was dropped.  Since 1987 it's just been known as "Caffeine Free Pepsi."

There are a few people I think it could have come from, but until I find out for sure I'm going to assume it was the Can Fairy.  You're never too old to believe in the Can Fairy, right?

ShowYourHeart

I've posted about Diet Coke's "The Heart Truth" campaign before, but last week at the store I noticed the new can design.

 

All of the previous cans have had the red heart as the focus of the design, but this is the first to have words inside the heart:  #ShowYourHeart  (Twitter)

I'm not sure if this is the first in a new set or just a one-off, but it's good to see a fresh design nevertheless.

Canada Dry "American Patriots"

Perhaps this should be saved for a July 4 post, but I'm going to post about it today because it's a set of cans I liked the first time I saw it.  In 1976, Canada Dry released a set of nineteen cans, each featuring a different American patriot.  I think the cans have a great colonial look to them.  I can just imagine George Washington urging his Continental Army not to throw their empty cans into the Delaware River on their way to Trenton.  After all, that was way before "Please don't litter" appeared on cans.

But I recently found fifteen of the cans:

They are Abigail Adams, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Henry Knox, James Monroe, John Adams, John Hancock, John Jay, John Paul Jones, Martha Washington, Patrick Henry, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine.

The four I am missing are Alexander Hamilton, Anthony Wayne, John Hanson and Thomas Johnson (images for these cans came from www.gono.com)

Of course I would eventually like to have a complete collection.  Maybe by July 4 of this year I will have found the other four.  But I'll keep in mind what Benjamin Franklin said, "He that can have patience can have what he will."  Perhaps he was talking about can collecting.