Cans from a Road Trip

Now that the weather is nice again, it's time to hit the road to see what's at the flea markets and antique malls.  And here's how today went.

No cans at the first store.

The second store wasn't much better... until I found a customer snack area.  A quick look through the soda fridge revealed no cans I needed.  And then I glanced down into the trash and saw Wonder Woman from the Batman V Superman Dr Pepper set.  She's #3 of 5 in the set and now she's mine!






It wasn't until the afternoon that I had my next can sighting.  This one was next to a Mission can (orange soda) that had been turned into a bank and a couple of beer cans.  And a LOT of bottles.

This can was an Upper 10 that looked old enough that Fred Flintstone may have drank it as a teenager.  www.canmuseum.com dates it at 1963.  It wasn't in the best shape but I didn't have it.  I talked her down from $3 to $2.  What a bargain!

The lady that sold the Upper 10 to me mentioned another junk shop up the road, so we made that our next stop.  And as fortune would have it, he had a few Coca-Cola cans for sale.

The first can I bought was an 8 oz Halloween-themed Coca-Cola can from 1999.  Halloween is my favorite holiday and I had no idea Coca-Cola ever had a Halloween can.  So that was an easy buy for $1.

The other can was a 150 mL can from Holland.  The seller was impressed that it still had some soda in it even though it was still sealed.  I showed him why collectors don't like to leave soda in cans:

Notice the brown sludgy substance along the bottom of this can.  That's the little bit of soda that had somehow leaked out over the years.  It made a sticky mess of the can and his display shelf.  I had him pack that can in its own bag and when I got home I drained it and gave it a nice bath:

And to wrap up the day we went to Big Lots, a store that sells discontinued items real cheap.  And that's where I found these cans for less than $5 total.

I would classify this as a successful hunt.  And the best thing is we only had time to go to half the shops we had planned, so that means we'll be taking another trip soon...

Share a Coke and a Song

Coca-Cola is at it again this summer.  Their new campaign puts popular song lyrics from more than 70 different songs on Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, and Coca-Cola Life cans and bottles.

My first can was this Coca-Cola can featuring lyrics to "This Is How We Do It" by Montell Jordan from 1995.

My second can was a Diet Coke can from work with lyrics from "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt.

We have a lot of these cans at work, so I'll be watching the trash and asking people for their empties.  Ew, that's gross... but necessary.

Where Is It?

Can you find the camouflaged can hiding in the picture below?

Yeah, not too hard.  But a closer look at the can shows its camouflaged paint job.

The person who bought this and drank it gave me the impression Rockstar's usual decent energy drink taste was also well-hidden in this "Killer Citrus" flavor.  One taste and the they were done.  But at least they saved the can for me.

On the Road Again

With the nice weather came a short, one-day road trip scouring the antique malls and flea markets for other peoples' trash today.  My finds were a-plenty, but I only bought one can.  I saw some interesting things.

This was a neat checkerboard game, but at $150 I had to pass.

I saw this selection of cans, but some were beer cans, some were popcorn cans (?), and the soda cans were too expensive.  The old Gatorade was $7.50 and the cool push-button top Pepsi cans were $12 each.  So I moved on.

This "Redneck Chimes" joke is older than most cans in my collection, but this one caught my eye because I do not have that design of Bubba Cola.  Still, I had to pass.

Here was a little fella amidst some salt-n-pepper shakers.  $8 for a Coke Light can, but it was behind glass to I couldn't tell what country it was from or what size the can it was.  For $8, I wasn't even going to act interested.

This is the first Mission can I've seen that had its top and bottom still intact.  I see these cans quite a bit but they've usually been made into a bank or are missing their top or bottom.  Neat, but pass.

I have some Donald Duck orange juice cans, but I've never seen a root beer can with him on it.  This one has obviously seen better days.  I was afraid parts of it would fall off if I tried to pick it up.  $4.95 is too much to pay for rust.

I'm a sucker for Halloween, so even though this is a beer can I almost bought it.  But I know one beer can will lead to many.  So I saved $6 and an eventual beer can collection by passing on this one.

And then I saw this straight steel Tico Cola can sitting among the Native American dolls.  It was in great shape and only cost $2.50.  I pulled up my website on my phone to see if I had it and I didn't.  So I finally made a purchase!!!  Its pull tab top was still sealed, the owner had bottom-opened it.  According to the Can Museum website, this can is from the 1960's.  

  

Exito.

Yard Sale

While at my son's baseball practice this morning, I received a text with the following pics from a yard sale:

 

My eyes went straight to the Howard Johnson can in the first pic.  I'm a sucker for Howard Johnson cans and there's only one in my collection so far.  I also noticed several others I didn't have.  I immediately started counting the cans to estimate how many there might be.  An offer for all of them had to be made.  $15-$20 was coming to mind when I got another text that said they had just bought them all for me, two large trash bags worth.  The seller took $10!  Wow!  How did I get such a great deal while sitting in the middle of a field not doing a thing?

They dropped the cans off later this afternoon where we took them all out to see what "treasures" I got.  There were about a dozen beer cans in the lot which I let them take to try to sell.  That left me with 195 steel soda cans to clean up and sort out.

front of the pile

There are quite a few of them already in my collection, but there are a lot that I know I don't have.  So I can't wait to dig in to see exactly what's there.  And I'm sure there will be a few upcoming posts about some of these cans.

back of the pile

So why was the seller so eager to get rid of them?  He said he's been selling them on eBay for $10+ each but he's headed on a mission trip soon and needs to quickly get rid of some of his belongings.  The right place at the right time...

Zevia

I was recently given the above collection of Zevia cans with the promise of the Cola can coming soon.  This is the current can design featuring a banner around the top of each can saying each is "Clear in Color."  Imagine drinking a clear black cherry or Dr Pepper clone soda.

4/29/16 Update
As I pulled into the driveway this evening another car pulled in behind me.  It was the delivery of the aforementioned Zevia Cola can, along with three others I didn't have.  Wow, this keeps getting better all the time.  The newest cans:

Older Zevia cans already in my collection:

 

1893

I got a text a few days ago from someone showing me the can of 1893 they just bought.  At a quick glance, it almost looked like a drink with alcohol.  Then I noticed the Pepsi logo and replied, "I'll take it."

So I got the empty can from them yesterday.  I wasn't able to try it but I am curious as to what it tastes like.  Apparently this was some big mystery drink Pepsi's been eluding to for a while that would change the taste of soda forever.  

I don't think the taste is quite that powerful, but from what I've read online it does have a slightly different taste.  The color and smell are like regular Pepsi, but it doesn't have as much carbonation.  The two main flavor points are it's made with kola nut extract and real sugar.  

But I'm still not sure why it's called 1893.

A Cool Coca-Cola Zero Can

Room temperature

Cold can

I have a few regular Coca-Cola cans that have printing that changes color in different temperatures, but this is my first Coca-Cola Zero can with that printing.  The label says when the white turns blue it's ready to enjoy.

The other cans I have just have the image of a soda bottle that changes color (which this one also has), but what's neat about this one is the letters C-O and O-L also turn blue, spelling out the word "cool."  

Cold can

Now that is cool!

Room temperature

Easter Can Hunt

Trash by the parking lot

I was meeting some people yesterday in an old gravel parking lot.  As I backed my car into position to wait for them I noticed the edge of the lot was lined with trash.  And what do most people consider trash?  Aluminum cans.

So I got out of my car and started poking around among the old bags and bottles and cans.  It was as I figured, mostly beer cans.  And a lot of the cans had been there a while and their colors were faded.  Many of them had been crushed.

But I did manage to find two cans I didn't have!  One is a newer style Great Value (Walmart's house brand) Root Beer.  I had to check when I got home if I had it but I didn't yet.  The other was a can I'd never seen before... Mt Vess, obviously a Mt Dew clone.  Vess is one of my favorite brands to collect and out of the 77 Vess cans I had, none of them were a Mt Vess.  So this was a great find for me.

Who knew the Easter bunny would hide a couple cans I didn't have yet?  My first East can hunt had a hoppy ending.  I mean, happy ending.

A Decent Week

It was a decent week as far as cans finding their way to me.  Here are some of my finds.

Tuesday

The monthly beverage order at work came in and I found these two cans.  One is a Coca-Cola Final Four can.  That's basketball, right?  The other is another design from Diet Coke's "It's Mine" campaign.  You can read about that here.

Wednesday

I had heard about Mello Yello's redesign but a co-worker found one out in the wild before I did.  He brought this yellow and black can to me.  Overall, I really like the new can; simple yet gets the job done.  The other can is #2 of 5 in Dr Pepper's "Batman V Superman" collection.  This is the third can from the movie collection I have (if you count my un-numbered 16 oz Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman can.)

Mtn Dew Black Label

I was at work last week and got a text from someone I know.  It had this pictures and said, "Got a new can for ya."

Awesome.  I hadn't seen the Mtn Dew Black Label yet.  The label says it's with "crafted dark berry."  A glance at the ingredients shows it has grape juice and orange juice in it.  That sounds really good.

I just may have to pick up one of these to try the drink.

Batman v Superman

This landed in my office at work last week.  It's can #1 of 5 of the new series from Dr Pepper for the Batman v Superman movie.

Here's the other side of the can.

Now we'll see how many of the others find their way to me...

A New Howdy!

Wandering around an antique mall yesterday I found a cool old Vess soda can.  Vess is one of the brands I really like to collect, but at the $8.95 price tag I had to pass on it.

 A little while later I found a can more in my price range.  It was a Howdy! Cola can for $1.10.  I knew I already had a Howdy! can but could this be a variation I didn't have?

Variations in my collection

One of the benefits of having my can collection as a website is when I'm can hunting out in the field I can pull up my whole collection on my phone to see if I have a can or not.  When I checked my phone, I saw I had three Howdy! cans already, but none of them had the blue stripe this one did.

Before

So I bought the can and brought it home to be with a few of its relatives.  The can was in pretty rough shape.  It had some rust spots (which I can't do anything about) but I knew some warm water and a soft toothbrush could get rid of most of the dirt and grime.

A few minutes later I had a can clean enough to be added to my collection.

After

Are Those Cans Legal?

How's that for a click-bait title?

A coworker brought two cans to me one day last week that he found in a local store.  I was hesitant to take them at first, I wasn't exactly sure what he was handing me...

It was two cans of a Cannabis drink.  Did these come from Colorado?  I quickly read the label to look for hints on the legality of the beverage and found it's an energy drink from Austria.

With 80mg of caffeine per can and only 10 calories, it sounds like it might be just what the doctor ordered.  The big question now is how does it taste?  I'll try it out some day when I'm feeling a little run down or if my glaucoma acts up.