I have never been a beer can collector. This was true even when everyone was doing it back in the 1970s. Well, I was never a collector - with one exception. Back about 1980 or 1981, I did go buy a six pack of a novelty beer - J.R. Ewing's Private Stock Beer. I had to buy for reason's those who know me understand - Hint: it's not because I was a fan of Dallas.
Since I was a college student with limited resources, I found it economical to drink all the beer and save a can. At some point, I lost the can. It was probably a casualty of my divorce.
Anyway, I found a bunch of these vintage cans for sale on eBay (where else) and decided to once again complete my collection of one.
Actually, I bid on a set: a can of JR Beer and a can of Billy Beer. Billy Beer, for those of you too young to remember, was another novelty beer that came out in the late 70s in honor of Billy Carter, the beer-drinking, good ol' boy brother of then-president Jimmy Carter.
I got both cans for $1.99 and I was the only bidder. I think that says a lot about how far beer can collecting has fallen as a hobby. I mean, neither of these beers has been made in 25 years and they're giving them away on eBay.
Both cans are full but I don't plan on dinking them this time for obvious reasons. J.R. Beer was brewed by Pearl Brewing Company back in the day and it wasn't very good then, so I can't imagine what 25 years of aging has done to it.
Does this make me a "collector" now that I have TWO cans?
1 comment:
That brought back a lot of old memories. I had friends in high school who lined their walls beer cans of all different types. I never collected cans myself. I collected coins for years, but fell out of the hobby as a teenager though I still have the coin books.
Ben - aka Carnacki on kos.
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