One Man's Trash...

Last week someone gave me a trash bag of cans for my kids to recycle.  

The good thing about this system is I get to dig through the cans before the kids get a hold of them.  And in this bag, I found ten cans I didn't have.  Jackpot!!

Good for the environment... and my collection.

The Can Fairy: Second Visit

Two years ago I posted about the Can Fairy visiting my house and leaving a can on the front porch.  I still don't know who it was.  Yesterday, the Can Fairy returned.

This time I was checking the mail and saw these three cans down inside the mailbox.  I took them out to see what I got.

I already have an orange Monster Juice can similar to this, but upon closer examination there is a variation in the icons that are listed on the back of the can.  So it's a new can.  The Lime Freeze Rockstar is a brand new can for me.  And sounds delicious.  Plus I was given an extra to trade.

I could ask around and probably find out who left them, but it's more fun not knowing :)

Please Ask First

Last year I received an email from someone who had visited this blog.  The email said they saw a listing on eBay for a soda can collection and for the listing, the picture of my cans in the background of this blog had been used.  I found the eBay listing and sure enough, that was the picture I had taken of my cans!  (I edited out the personal info in the screenshot below)

So I sent a message to the seller and told him that was a picture I took of my own collection and no one had asked permission to use it.  Now, I've needed pics before and went to Google Images and grabbed a couple of random ones, so I figured this may have been the case with him too.

I read through the description of his listing and he said it was several hundred cans for sale.  I warned him that someone buying cans would probably expect to receive the cans shown in the picture, especially since he made no mention that the pic wasn't his actual collection.  

I'm not sure if the auction expired or he took my warning and ended it, but it soon disappeared after I sent the message to him.  He never did reply to my message.

In the last four years, I've been asked if people can use pics from my site to make t-shirts, use in articles they were writing and even a couple of professors for their classes.  I've said yes in every case.  It's nice to know my pictures can sometimes be of use to others, but I certainly appreciate being asked first.   :)

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.

Coca-Cola Life

One of my friends sent a picture to me a couple of weeks ago and asked if I had that can.  What can was it?  I'd never seen one like it before.  It was a Coca-Cola Life can.  A what?

I said, "I don't have it!  Save it for me!"

When I got the can, I looked it over.  CC Life is sweetened with cane sugar and Stevia, the middle ground between real sugar and HFCS.  I didn't get to try it, but I would guess the taste is better than Diet Coke but not as good as delicious Mexican Coca-Cola.  And you get better taste (I'm assuming) at only 90 calories compared to regular Coca-Cola's 140 calories.

But the elephant in the room is the color of the can.  Is it "green" because its ingredients are more natural (somewhat)?  Is the competition green with envy?  Is it just another cash-grab for the company?  Green means go, so go get some Coca-Cola?  Or does that color stand out on the shelf at the grocery store?  YEP.

This is such an unusual color, especially for a Coca-Cola can, that I immediately wanted it regardless of what the contents of the can were or what the label said.  And just like the black Coke Zero cans, these cans will definitely stand out in the walls of red Coca-Cola can displays.  

What I Got Out of Training

I spent the last two days in training at work.  During one of the "get out of your seat and mingle" exercises today I spied this can sitting on a nearby table.  I immediately knew I didn't have it because it looked totally unfamiliar.  My next task: watch to see whose it was.

A few minutes later when we returned to our seats, I saw who the owner was.  Fortunately it was someone I have worked with in the past, so I might not seem like a total loon when I asked him for can when he was finished with it.

At the next break I took a deep breath and did what I've actually become rather accustomed to doing... I asked if I could have his can when it was empty.  I got the typical "This?  Why?" look, but I explained about my collection and then he understood (or at least he said he understood).  Either way, I had a new can.

He said his girlfriend had bought this Dasani apple flavored water.  His review was not so good.  He named a few other brands he'd rather have, which led to a short discussion on flavored water.

And THAT is what I got out of my leadership training.  I call it a success.

Kickstart Valentine's Day

The third set of Mtn Dew Kickstart flavors recently came out.  These are slim 12oz cans whereas the first two sets were 16oz cans.  The red can is strawberry kiwi and the yellow can is pineapple orange mango.  These hydrating boost drinks are both made with coconut water, something I've not been a fan of in the past, but with flavors like those I'll still give them a shot.  Who knows?  They could become a new love of my life...

Happy Valentine's Day

Trashed Cans

I watch for cans to add to my collection while the kids watch for cans to recycle.  A few people at church heard we collect cans, so I made sure they understood the difference in the two types of "collecting."  Once in a while someone at church will bring me a can and ask if I have it yet.  Others will bring a trash bag of cans for the kids to recycle.  But I always go through the bags first to look for cans I need.

And so was the case today at church.  Someone gave this bag to me for the kids.  Of course Dad gets first dibs, so I went through the bag and only found one can I didn't have yet:

But a collection gets bigger even one piece at a time, right?  Keep the bags coming...

The Newest Coca-Cola Can

The Coca-Cola 2014 holiday can featured Santa in front of a horizontal logo.  Now that the holidays are over, Santa has disappeared from the can and now there's just the logo.

The new design matches the horizontal logo Diet Coke switched to late last year.

I was at a friend's house last night and noticed they had the new can so I snagged one for my collection.

Canbot

What is this crazy thing?

This is one of the gifts my kids got me for Christmas.  After I put it together, I slid a can through the two rings and had Canbot!

With a couple of AAA batteries, the thing vibrates and scoots around on any hard surface.  

This is definitely a novelty item that I'll be proud to display in my can collection.

My Latest Trade

I made a recent 12-can trade with a fellow collector in Canada. 

 

Among the cans I received is a Scottish carbonated soft drink (Irn Bru), a Pepsi Light from China, the Canadian 2013 Mtn Dew Dewmocracy winner (Voltage) and many more. 

My trading has slowed down this year but I still like receiving an occasional box of cans that I can't get in my area. 

Thanks, Ryan!

2014 Holiday Cans

It's that time of year again; time to hunt down and collect the new batch of holiday cans.  I've seen the Coca-Cola cans in stores for a couple of weeks and I finally got my hands on a couple of them.

As more find their way to my collection I'll update this post to keep track of what I have from the 2014 holiday season.

Christmas Shopping

My family went Christmas shopping yesterday.  And I found a few things for myself :)

We went to Target.  A quick walk down the soda aisle revealed a new logo for Sierra Mist.  I wasn't prepared to buy two 12-packs just to get a regular and a diet can.  They'll come to me eventually.  But I did find a leftover Dr Pepper/Snapple Group Halloween can I didn't have yet.

A few more stops, a few more disappointments.  And then we went to the glorious Big Lots.  I walked out of there with six new cans, all priced from $.50 to $.75 each.

 

I also have my eye on the new Coca-Cola holiday can design.  But I had to leave something to look forward to...

How Much Caffeine?

I saw a former co-worker last week for the first time in a few months and he brought this cool Mello Yello NHRA can to me.

I'd never seen it before.  You can't see it very well in the picture, but both sides of the logo have cool flaming tailpipes on it.  I've always liked the color-scheme of Mello Yello cans.

While checking out the can, I happened to notice the caffeine content:  69mg/16oz.  I've never paid attention to caffeine content before, so that made me wonder how Mello Yello compares to other major brands.  After looking at some other recent cans in my collection, this is what I found:

Coca-Cola = 34mg/12oz
Diet Coke = 46mg/12oz

Pepsi = 38mg/12oz
Diet Pepsi = 35mg/12oz

Dr Pepper = 41mg/12oz
Diet Dr Pepper = 41mg/12oz

Mtn Dew = 54mg/12oz
Diet Mtn Dew = 54mg/12oz
Mtn Dew Game Fuel = 73mg/12oz

Converting the 16oz Mello Yello to 12oz = 51.75mg/12oz

The data surprised me in a few ways.  I always thought Coca-Cola was the soda to drink to get the biggest caffeine buzz but it ranks lowest in the five major brands I checked out.  Diet Coke even has more caffeine than regular Coca-Cola.  And the Mtn Dew Game Fuel I recently bought has twice the caffeine of Coca-Cola.

By the way, the original flavor of Monster energy drink weighs in at a whopping 120mg/12oz.  But I think energy drinks are a whole other study and I'd probably be surprised by some of the numbers of those brands.

After all this research, I think it's time for a nap...

Beverage Fashion

Why haven't I come across these before now?  While shopping I saw these fashionable beverage shirts.  Of course I had to have them!

Now I've got something to wear when David Letterman asks me to come on his show to talk about my collection.
 

Did I really just take a couple of selfies? 

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Yesterday my daughter went to her friend's birthday party in the park.  When her friend's mom brought my daughter home, I noticed a can in their truck's cup holder that didn't look familiar.  When I asked about it, she said it's Vernors, a favorite from when she lived in Michigan.

I mentioned my can collection and that I didn't have that can.  She reached in the truck and gave me a new one so I could try it.  She said it's the best ginger ale out there.  And the can says Vernors has been around since 1866!

I'm not much of a ginger ale drinker but I tried it and it was pretty good.  I have other Vernors cans in my collection but this is the first one I got to drink.

Sometimes it's embarrassing asking for cans, but when you're passionate about your hobby you shouldn't let anything get in the way.

By the way, this is the 300th post on this blog.  Cheers!

2014 Mtn Dew Game Fuel

I ran down to the local Dollar General early this morning for a birthday card and on my way out I saw two flavors of Mtn Dew I didn't have yet.  And I didn't buy them!

But after running a few more errands, I went back and grabbed a 12-pack of each.  I had the original flavor version of the can from work, so why wouldn't I buy the two flavored versions?

The cans look great and have bright colors.  The two flavors are lemonade and citrus cherry.  On the right is the original flavor can.