A Cache of Cans (part 3)

I have made two previous posts about a cache of cans I found by a garage in town (post 1 from May 17 and post 2 from May 21).  This is an update about my latest visit.

A couple of weeks ago I finally ran into the guy whose recycle pile I've gone through a couple of times.  I told him about my can collection and he told me about his, except he turns his in for money.  So we now have an arrangement that I can go by any time to look through his pile for any cans I may need.  I told him I would replace any I take (although he wasn't too concerned about that). 

So last night after work, I stopped by to see what he had.  I know he recently cashed in all the cans I had gone through before, so pickings were a little slim this time.  He only had a couple of trash cans full.  This time I didn't dig too deep, I didn't go through every can as I did last time because the mosquitoes were horrendous.  But I was able to find five cans in the five minutes or so I was there. 

My plan is to visit the cache at least once a month. 

New 8 oz "Trim" Cans

There is a new can size coming to the beverage world, the 8 oz "trim."  Ball Corporation will produce the can, which will meet the newly recommended guidelines from the USDA that says 8 oz is the maximum serving size for beverages sold in schools.  The can is small, lightweight, unbreakable, quick-chilling and 100% recyclable, ideal for juices and other beverages.  The new size is a shorter version of Ball's current 8.4 oz can.  For reference, the standard Red Bull cans are 8.4 oz.  Ball will continue to make the 8.4 oz cans along with its popular "shorty" 8 oz squat cans.  I'll be watching for the new cans and will post pics of my first 8 oz trim can.

Just Relax, Mon!

As I drive, I see a lot of Mountain Dew, Dr Pepper, Coke, Pepsi and other big name soda brands lying along the sides of the road.  Occasionally I'll find a less popular brand such as Summit, Big K or A&W.  But it's a rare occasion that I find a brand I've never heard of before.  But yesterday, that happened.

After watching for cans and finding none along my one-hour commute to work, I made a discovery across the street from my job's parking lot.  I almost passed it up thinking it was an alcoholic drink, but after stopping and studying the label, I found no mention of alcohol.  So it was mine!

This was my first Marley Beverages drink, something called Marley's Mellow Mood.  Yes, this is THE Bob Marley.  The warning on the label reads, "This product may cause drowsiness.  Do not exceed 2 cans daily, consumed several hours apart.  Do not drive or operate heavy machinery after consuming this product.  Do not mix with alcohol."

This is an all natural relaxation drink which reduces stress and relieves tension.  If I didn't already need a nap on Saturday afternoons, this sounds like it would be a good way to wind down on the weekends.  Maybe this is for those people who get through the week by slamming down energy drinks.

Regardless of who it's for, I'm glad I found the can.  New brands are always welcome.

Energy Drinks, Coffees and Teas, Oh My!

As stated in a previous post, I only collect cans of non-alcoholic drinks and that's because I can't collect every kind of can out there.  Alcoholic or non-alcoholic is a black-and-white issue.  If I said "no teas," then what about Ohana which is distributed by Faygo?  I collect Faygo cans but do I say only some Faygo cans?  And Monster Energy has a line of coffees and tea, so do I only collect some  Monster cans?  So to make things easy, I collect all cans that are non-alcholic.  I even have a V8 12 oz can.

Which leads to this post.  Last night I decided to get out my boxes of cans that are taller than the standard 12 oz size, which usually means energy drinks, coffees and teas.  When I set them out I was a bit surprised.  There were only 75 cans.  In a collection that has reached 750 cans, only 10% are taller than 12 oz cans.  It seems like I pick up teas and energy drinks quite often, but apparently not as often as I thought.

Energy drinks, coffees and teas

Going the other way and looking at cans smaller than 12 oz, I only have a couple dozen 8 oz cans.  The next two sets of shelves I build will be smaller than the previous shelves I built.  One set will be for the cans pictured above (larger than 12 oz) and the second set will be for the small 8 oz cans. 

Shasta Week

I was on vacation from work Monday, June 27, through Wednesday, June 29.  A guy I work with was on vacation from Thursday, June 30, through July 7.  So we didn't see each other for two weeks.  He knows about my collection and has brought a few cans to me.  And with that background out of the way, here's the story.

When I returned to work from my vacation on Thursday, June 30, there were two Shasta cans sitting in my desk.  I knew they were from him, he had mentioned his daughter liked Shasta.  I have a lot of old Shasta cans, but these were my first ones of the current design (cream soda and kiwi strawberry).

When I met someone from Craigslist to buy their 7 Up "United We Stand" collection this last Wednesday, there was a Schnucks across the parking lot.  So I ducked in there to look for AriZona tea cans I am missing.  They had no AriZona tea in cans, but I did see the Shasta section.  And they sold them individually for $.27 each.  What a bargain!  So of their selection, I chose ten that I didn't have.  That was a big Shasta score! 

And when my co-worker returned from his vacation two days later, on Friday, he brought me three more cans of Shasta (grape, black cherry, and tiki punch).

Current Shasta flavors

Fifteen new cans, thus ended Shasta Week.  What will this week bring?

I Almost Lost at the eBay Game Today

So I've been watching an eBay listing for cans (go figure) for the last several days.  I didn't want to bid too early, that would make my opponents aware that they had competition.  So I waited until today, until the last hour, actually until two minutes left and then I made my move.  I figured two minutes was a good time to surprise the others, let them know I was in the game.  IF they were well-prepared, they could come back with a higher bid.  Or if their max bid was already higher than what I bid, the ball would be back in my court.  Two minutes should be enough time to see their move and leave me enough time to counter it.  So I typed in my bid at T-2:00 and hit the BID button.

That's when I panicked.  I got a message that said this seller required a PayPal account to be linked to the buyer's eBay account.  Couldn't the system see how many purchases I have made on eBay using PayPal?  Ok, maybe there was a glitch. I logged out of eBay, closed the browser, and faster than a speeding locomotive, opened a new browser, popped back into eBay, logged in and found the listing at T-1:00.  I placed my bid again and got the same message.  I'm not sure why, but at this point of near defeat, I fell back in my chair and thought, "I might as well be sitting on a penguin watching Santa bake cookies."  Again, I'm not sure why that popped into my head.

"Please don't sit on me"

I considered sending a message to the seller, "I wanted to buy the cans but I was having technical problems, can we do it outside of eBay?"  But there was already a bid, so then I considered contacting the seller and offering $2 more than the other offer.  Haha, but all jokes aside, time was still running out.  Luckily, there were no bidding wars going on.

I composed myself, entered my bid yet again, and this time when I got the message I noticed a button at the bottom of the screen that said "link your account," so I pressed it.  It went to PayPal, I logged in, I clicked the LINK button, it said I was successful, I clicked on "back to eBay" and ended up back on the listing page with twenty-three seconds left.  I calmly entered my max bid at this point, there was no time left for haggling, I had to shoot straight to the maximum amount I wanted to spend and hope for the best.  The page refreshed and I watched the counter tick down from 7-6-5-4-3-2-1.  I won the auction.

No one else cared about those cans.  That had been the most intense bidding war against myself I have ever been in!  And now my accounts are linked, so I shouldn't have to go through that again.  And now I will reconsider my Two-Minute Technique.  Things can go wrong in two minutes, maybe I should allow for a little more cushion when bidding.  Such a fun game to play.

Current Excitement: Japanese Cans

When I began collecting, I told someone, "I'm only interested in contemporary cans from here," contemporary meaning aluminum cans from the last ten years and from here meaning from the United States. 

The first part of that statement to change was contemporary.  That changed when I found an eBay listing for 132 steel cans from the 70's and 80's.  I won the auction and thus began collecting "older" cans, meaning cans I was familiar with while growing up.

The second part of the statement to change was from here.  That also changed with an eBay auction when I received a few cans from Canada in a lot I bought from northern USA.  Canada may not be as exotic of a foreign land as India or China, but it is another country.

"You're getting sleepy... you want our cans..."

While perusing eBay listings earlier this week, I saw some cans from Japan.  In shape and size, the cans are familiar, but the alluring writing on the cans and the enticing pictures and the vivid colors were very appealing to me.  It wasn't long until I found a beer can collector in Kobe, Japan, selling some lots of "non beer" cans, including a set of twelve Ultraman soda cans.  And with his offer to combine shipping on multiple listings, I couldn't pass it up.  One listing was seven cans for $7.47, another was ten cans for $5, and the Ultraman 12-can set was $19.95 (but they're from Japan!!!)  One of the listings was ending very soon, so I quickly made my decision to buy all three.  He shipped them the next day, but who knows how long it will take to get here from Japan? 

So far, I've avoided cans of any alcoholic drinks.  And it's mainly for the fact that I have to draw boundaries somewhere for this collection and that's a real easy black-and-white line, either it's alcoholic or it's not.  But after doing research on the Japanese cans after I bought them, I discovered that by "not beer," he didn't mean "not alcoholic," but "not beer."  The non-Ultraman cans I bought are Chu-Hi which, from my understanding, is the Japanese equivalent of wine coolers or similar fruity low-alcohol content drinks.  Oops. But you know what?  The cans look really good to me and no one I know will be able to understand the label to know it's alcohol.

Where will I display these cans?  The two sets of shelves I built a few weeks ago are already full and I need more display space!  The immediate solution is to display the cans I think are the most impressive and box the rest. 

And so I wait...

Sayonara

7 Up "United We Stand" Set Complete

In 1976, 7 Up released a bicentennial 50-can "United We Stand" set where each can represented one of the states.  On the front of the can was a picture of the state and on the back was a strange looking design on a white background.  Each can also had a number on it, and when the cans were stacked in a pyramid in the right order (instructions were printed on the back of can #1), the back of the cans showed a large picture of Uncle Sam.  Sweet.

7 Up Illinois can

In my eBay auction adventures, a few of the lots of "older" cans I bought had some of these commemorative 7 Up cans.  I ended up with a total of 34 of the 50 cans and had no motivation to complete the collection.  First, I didn't want to have to track down each can I was missing.  And as the number of cans I needed got smaller, I figured it would be harder to find those particular cans.  Second, the cans aren't cheap.  I have seen some complete sets sell for $50 or more, but I don't want the set that badly!  And to buy individual cans can be expensive because of shipping & handling.  A can may sell for only $1 but you could pay $3-5 s&h.  Too expensive to buy 16 cans that way.

Uncle Sam wants 7 Up

...until I poked around on Craigslist a couple of weeks ago.  Was anyone selling soda cans locally?  What did I find?  A complete set of the 7 Up cans for $20.  I emailed the seller and asked if he'd take $15, he replied, "Yes."  It took a couple of weeks to get our schedules to line up, but I met him just this morning and we made the transaction.

I asked where he got them and he said he is a beer memorabilia collector and found this set at one of the conventions he attended.  He is now clearing out some space and selling some things and this is one of those items.  My plans, throw my partial set on eBay to cover the cost I paid for the complete set.  See how this works?

The cans are very dusty, apparently they sat in a garage or attic for some time, but I clean all my cans anyway before adding them to my collection.  So this weekend I'll be hunched over the kitchen sink cleaning fifty 7 Up cans from 1976.  I've had worse weekends.

Complete set waiting to be cleaned

Mtn Dew Pitch Black and Supernova

2004 Pitch Black

Mountain Dew must be a nightmare for can collectors.  They have had SO many different flavors and varieties over the years.  Two such flavors are Pitch Black and Supernova. 

2011 Pitch Black

Mountain Dew Pitch Black (grape flavored) was released for the 2004 Halloween season and then discontinued.  There was such an outcry from the fans that PepsiCo brought it back for a limited time as part of their "Back by popular DEWmand" promotion in May 2011.  For collectors, the way to tell the difference in the two releases is the first release had "Mountain Dew" spelled out in full on the label.  The 2011 label has the stylized "Mtn Dew" spelling that began in 2008. 

Mountain Dew Supernova (strawberry-melon flavor with ginseng) was one of the three candidates for the first "DEWmocracy" promotion in 2008 but was discontinued after losing to Voltage.  And now it has also been brought back as part of the "Back by popular DEWman" promotion.  It was re-released in May 2011 for a limited time. 

2008 Supernova

I have seen the new Supernova in plastic bottles, but I don't know if it's been re-released in cans or not.  There are Supernova cans from 2008.  So if anyone out there runs into either of these two flavors in cans, please contact me for I am looking for both flavors.

The above pictures were grabbed from the internet, not my collection.




July 17, 2011 Update - While on vacation in West Virginia, we went to the Walmart in Williamson today and in the soda aisle I caught sight of the elusive Mtn Dew Pitch Black and Supernova cans.  They had at least a dozen 12-packs of each, so I bought one of each.

So at this point, I just need to find the 2004 version of Pitch Black and the 2008 version of Supernova cans.

July 18, 2011 Update - Upon our return to the same store today, all of the Pitch Black 12-packs were gone.  They must really be a hot item.  I'm glad I have mine now.

Stocking the First Set of Shelves

It took a couple of days to organize the cans and get the shelves loaded, but it's finished for now.  There are around one hundred 12 oz cans still not on the shelves.  I left gaps to separate brands when I could.  And they are organized alphabetically.  Side 1 has brands A thru F and side 2 has G thru Z.

Brands A thru F

My next plans are to build two smaller sets of shelves near these.  One will hold the short 8 oz cans and the other will hold the taller energy drink and tea cans.  But those shelves will probably have to wait a little while...

Brands G thru Z

Building the First Set of Shelves

I've had a plan in my mind for weeks on how to build shelves in the basement for my cans.  A couple of weeks ago, I went in the basement and cleared out the area.  Last Tuesday I picked up the particle boards I needed after work.  And this morning I picked up the back board for the shelves.  I was ready to build.

Basement ready for shelves

What I built is actually two-sided, there are twelve shelves on each side.  Each shelf can hold up to 27 cans.  That gives a current display of 648 12 oz cans.  A problem I ran into on the first side of the shelves was the screws that went into the ends of the shelves were splitting the ends.  I didn't know this until I was half done, so I went ahead and just finished that side.  The second side of the shelves used nails to hold the shelves in place.  But it turned out just fine.

And with the shelves finished, I just need to load them up now.

Alice in Wonderland

Sure, I enjoy collecting the standard Dr Pepper, Pepsi, Coke, Mountain Dew, etc. cans.  We've all seen their logos.  We're all familiar with their can designs.  I especially like collecting slight variations of the same can designs.

But when something unique comes along, I want it for my collection.  And that's what happened when I was browsing eBay recently.  I saw this set of four Alice in Wonderland designs on Fruit TeaZer cans, a product of the RW Knudsen Family line of drinks.  They were asking $5 with free shipping.  So I hit the BUY button.

Once again, I did my research after I bought.  I assumed this was a complete set of four cans but perusing the internets I found at least one other flavor not in my set, Blackberry Bramble.  So now I'm watching for additional cans that may be out there.

As a side note, I paid just $5.00, but it cost them $6.28 to ship it.  Not a good way to make money on eBay.

Bring Me Another Cold One, Wilma!

Yabba Dabba Doo

Fred Flintstone's favorite beverage was a fictional drink called Cactus Cooler.  That was the inspiration for the real-world Cactus Cooler started decades ago and found mainly in California and the southwest.  It comes in a yellow, orange and green can and boasts an orange-pineapple taste.  It is slightly carbonated and sweet enough to provide a slight sugar rush.  It was distributed by Canada Dry for many years but is now part of the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

A seller on eBay had a Cactus Cooler can in his collection and I bought it for $1.  I received it today.  It's the first "favorite drink of a cartoon character" in my collection.

7-18 Update - I just received some cans from an eBay purchase and it contained an older style of Cactus Cooler.  Before becoming part of the Dr Pepper/Snapple Group, it was distributed by Canada Dry.

Father's Day Gift

The only two cans of POPS soda that I've seen

Along with my Father's Day gifts, I was surprised to find these two cans from my kids.


They meet all the criteria of a good gift:
          1.  I was surprised
          2.  The gift was hand-made
          3.  The gift is unique, no one else in the world has it

So that is why the cans will remain in my collection.  They aren't part of the overall can count, but they are on the shelves with the other cans.

Captain America

"Can you run to the Dollar Store to get me some [whatever]?"  asks the wife.

Grumble, grumbles the husband.  But wait!  They have soda there.  "Sure, I'll be right back!"  And so I ran to the Dollar Store for my wife.  While there, I cruised through the soda sections and what did I see?  A little green Captain America staring up at me.  Actually it was six little Captain Americas staring up at me.

#1 of 5

So I returned home with her [whatever] and a 6-pack of 7 Up donning the heroic visage of Captain America.  And the beauty of it was that it looked like this was the only can, not a 5 or 6 can set of 7 Up movie tie-ins.  So I set the can on my shelf thinking I was finished.

Until I did a little research on the internet.  I had been right in that it was the only 7 Up Captain America can.  But my error lied in the fact that there were 4 other brands that had Captain America characters, thus began collecting cans for yet another movie.  I had just recently finished off my Thor Dr Pepper collection, now this?

I have decided to take the non-active approach for this set.  If I am meant to have it, the cans will find me.  I don't want to go to stores looking for and buying all these cans.  So we'll see what happens.

#2 of 5

July 5 Update - And so it begins.  On my drive to work this morning I saw a Sunkist can on the side of the road.  Knowing there just aren't many (if any) variations on the Sunkist can, I initially passed it up.  But the little fella on my other shoulder told me to stop and check it out anyway.  So I did.  And it was another can in the Captain America set.  So now I sit back in my chair, feet propped up on the desk, waiting for the next can to come to me...

#3 of 5

July 13 Update - And so it continues.  There is a person I know who collects cans to recycle them.  Once the trash cans behind his garage are filled, he takes them to be recycled.  I have an open invitation to check through those cans whenever I want.  So tonight I stopped by and I found this Howard Stark Captain America A&W can.  This is my third can in the set, only two more to go.

#4 of 5

August 5 Update - On my way home from work this evening, I saw a green can on the side of the road.  I caught a quick glimpse of the Canada Dry logo and turned around to get the can because I don't have a newer CD can.  But when I picked it up I saw it wasn't just a regular CD can,  it's the fourth can in Dr Pepper's Captain America movie promotion.  So with no effort so far, I've managed to collect four of the five cans.  Will can #5 find me???

#5 of 5

August 13 Update - So we were at Walmart today and somehow a 12-pack of Cherry 7 Up with Captain America on the carton ended up in the cart.  What?  How did that get there?  It was the elusive "last can" that completed my Captain America collection.  I said it before and I'll say it again, I'm done with collecting movie cans.

For now.

The Force Wasn't With Me

While looking through eBay listings a week ago, I found a complete set of Star Wars Episode 1 Pepsi cans from 1999, including the rare Gold Yoda.  But first, a little information on the set.

In conjunction with the 1999 release of the first new Star Wars film in over fifteen years, PepsiCo had the rights to release the Star Wars Episode 1 set of collector cans.  The set was different from country to country, but the United States base set consisted of twenty-four cans; eight Pepsi, eight Mountain Dew, four Diet Pepsi and four Pepsi One cans.  In addition, there was the rare Gold Yoda can.  At the time, you could redeem the Yoda can for $24 cash.  Also, there was a word hidden on each of the twenty-four cans that created three hidden messages.

Finding the complete 24-can set isn't too hard, but the Gold Yoda is rare.  So I was excited to find on eBay a complete set of twenty-four cans PLUS the Gold Yoda.  The price was a bit high for what I wanted to spend, but for that money I would have the total complete set of unopened cans.  The seller said it took him a year to collect them all from buying 12-packs and saving one of each can.  A perfect collection!

I bought the set.  He shipped the set.  When I got home from work two days ago and found the box (which looked a little small to hold twenty-five cans), I opened it and this is what I found:

There were only eight cans inside and they were smashed and dented.  Some of them were empty, a couple of the others were about half full after leaking soda on the outside of the other cans and on the plastic bags used as packing material.  Immediate fury.  Had I been scammed?  I emailed the seller.  He said he took pictures of the twenty-five cans in the box before he shipped it in case something like this happened.  Still, had I been scammed?  After discussing the situation with a co-worker yesterday, we realized what happened.  The seller had shipped the cans with soda still in them, one or more had leaked on the trip, probably ruining the original box, so the parcel service threw out most of the dented, wet cans and reboxed the remainder.  And that's what I received!

Damaged cans 1-4

I emailed the seller and explained what I thought had happened and suggested he refund my money and take up the battle with the parcel service, if he wanted to, for the value of the cans.  I explained the correct way to bottom-open a soda can (I use a small nail and punch two holes in the bottom, one to drain the soda and one for air to go in) before shipping.  He wrote back yesterday, just as angry as I was at the situation, and said he refunded my money, asked that I return the 8 cans, and he said he learned his lesson!  When I sent him pictures of the cans, he said he laughed because the cans were so beat up.  He told me to save my money and not return them to him, just throw them away.  

Damaged cans 5-8

He had worked hard at putting the collection together for someone to enjoy.  He lost a lot of time and money and I lost a good Star Wars can collection.

7 Up Retro, I Found You!

Last Monday, while shooting the breeze in emails with one of the sellers I've bought cans from on eBay, he mentioned he was looking for the new 7 Up Retro cans, one with the design of a disco ball and the other the design of a zebra.  The cans had become known as 7 Up Disco and 7 Up Zebra.  My curiosity had been piqued, so I did some internet research.  Sure enough, 7 Up was jumping on the retro bandwagon following the successes of Pepsi Throwback, Mountain Dew Throwback and Dr Pepper Heritage (all using real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup).  They made the big reveal on an episode of Celebrity Apprentice last month.


7 Up Disco representing the 70's

 So guess what?  I wanted them too!  Throughout the course of this week I have been in several grocery stores and convenient stores, but no 7 Up Retro could be found.  I was almost convinced that the limited edition cans just hadn't made it to the middle of the country yet.  And then today we went to my cousin Harry's house for his daughter's birthday party.

7 Up Zebra representing the 80's

We began discussing sodas and I asked if he had heard of the new 7 Up Retro designs.  He said, "Sure, they have them at Schnucks" just down the road from his house.  Guess where we stopped on the way home after the party?  Of course I had to buy them in 12-packs, but that's ok.  I have seen these cans selling for $2-5 each on eBay.  I don't know if they sold, but that's what people are charging.  I figure I'll sit on my extra cans for a while, wait till they quit selling it, and then put them on eBay.  If that doesn't work, then I'll drink them!!

Thanks again, Harry, for the lead!  By the way, these were the first soda cans I actually went on a hunt for in local stores.  Lots of disappointment in doing that, but when you do finally find what you're looking for, it's worth it!!

Throwbacks

My cousin's wife, DeAnn, asked me a question on Facebook one day recently, "Do you need a Pepsi Throwback can?"  Yes I did.  I had seen two versions of the can and had also seen some Mountain Dew Throwback cans, so what was all this "Throwback" about?  I jumped online and read the wiki entry.  "Throwback" not only refers to the retro packaging but the fact that the sodas are made with real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup that's been used in most sodas for the last twenty-five years.

Pepsi Throwbacks

Ok, so now I had it straight.  There are four cans in this "set." There are two for Pepsi; the first release can (all blue) and the can still used today (original red, white, and blue Pepsi logo design.)  There are also two for Mountain Dew; the first release can (green with the logo used from 1973-1996) and the can still used today (white with a hillbilly on it.)  In addition, Dr Pepper released their version of Throwback called Dr Pepper Heritage.

Mountain Dew Throwbacks

I went by DeAnn's house after work today and picked up the Pepsi can.  It is the current red, white, and blue can design.  I had already asked which can it was so I could order the other three cans in the Throwback set from a seller on eBay, along with the Dr Pepper Heritage can.  So in the next week or so, the package should come in and I will have all five Throwback/Heritage cans.

Dr Pepper Heritage

Sprite & Habitat for Humanity

Another reason to like our kids' softball and tee ball games; they have soda cans!  Our niece wanted a soda at the game last night, so when she came back from the concession stand she had a can of Sprite.  I could tell by the bright green coloring it was a Habitat for Humanity can.  When I got a closer look, I saw it was the skateboard design.  My dad had given me the other design, the basketball can, about a month ago.  So now I have both regular Sprite designs.  There is also a Sprite Zero Habitat can which I don't have yet.

Basketball and Skateboard

From March 28 to June 30, 2011, Sprite donated 10 cents to Habitat for every green tab from the top of Sprite cans that was mailed in. 

June 19 Update - I was just given a six-pack of 7.5 oz Sprite cans as part of my Father's Day gift.  They have the skateboard design.  Should I look for the 7.5 oz basketball design now?

7.5 oz skateboard design

Happy Days Are Here Again

I've known for a little while about the Nehi set of Happy Days cans from 1978.  I love having complete sets, but for this one I would have to fork out quite a few dead presidents.  Most listings on eBay are for partial sets, and even those are a bit costly.  I've only seen a couple of complete sets but by the time I would pay the asking price and shipping & handling, it's more than I'm willing to pay for it.  But maybe if it was Star Wars...

So the Nehi set consists of thirty-five cans.  There are seven cans in each of five different flavors: orange, grape, strawberry, fruit punch and red soda.  I would prefer a different character or location on each can, but I guess there weren't that many in the Happy Days run.  Even though there are quite a few character duplicates, they are from different episodes or shots.  For example, there are thirteen cans featuring the Fonz, but each picture is different.

In an eBay purchase of various steel cans that I received today, I got one of the Happy Days Nehi cans.  It is a fruit punch version of Howard Cunningham.  The can is #24 in the set.  I have no immediate plans of purchasing more in this set, but if they fall in my lap as this one did I won't turn them away.