Beer can collections

[CWK]

This is my second post to these boards, so I'm still new here. I have a question about purchasing a beer can collection. I'm considering turning a room in my basement into a bar. Specifically, I'd like to build an Irish pub themed bar. I'm not one who believes that it absolutely has to be 100% authentic in that regard, and one of the things that I think would be cool would be to have a beer can collection, possibly filling up one wall of shelving. I have no interest in actually collecting the beer cans, and I don't care whether the can's have any value or not. In fact, cheaper would be better. I just want a lot of different brands/styles of cans. Does anyone have any idea whether there are web sites where I could potentially purchase such a collection?

Thanks, Clayton

[chazwicke]

How many cans do you need?

I have a bunch of old ones stored in my attic that are not part of my own collection. Also I see bulk collections on Ebay and Craigslist all the time.

[CWK]

I'm not real sure how many I need at this point. I guess I would take as many as I can get, within reason. I'm thinking maybe in the neighborhood of 250 cans, but I'm not set on any specific number. Any idea how much someone might expect to pay for something like this? Is there usually some set amount per can?

I'm not familiar with craigslist, but I'll check it out. I checked ebay a couple of days ago and didn't really see anything. There were a lot of individual cans, and small sets of 8 to 10 cans or so. But I didn't see any larger collections.

Thanks for the input.

[chazwicke]

Craigslist you'll find the better deals. If you lived near me, I'd give the ones in my attic to you for free. Most were given to me from an employee whose father collected them. None are valuable. I sold my collection of over 4000 back in 1980 but I had lots of valuable cans then. I still have a collection of about 200 or so that are limited to Virginia and Washington DC. When I sell those, they'll be on Ebay.

I actually would like to see more people collecting breweriana and cans again. I belong to all of the major collecting clubs. It's a fun hobby with great people.

[CWK]

Thanks for the offer, but I'm in Northern Wisconsin. Probably not worth driving to D.C. for! I think that actually collecting cans would be a lot of fun. But the time needed to collect that many cans is just not feasible for me right now. So I'd like to buy a collection, and then maybe add to it. That probably seem like cheating, in a way, but I guess we gotta do what we gotta do.

I'll check out Craigslist.

Thanks.

[chazwicke]

Not cheating at all. We all buy and sell. Let us know how it works out for you on craigslist.org If you don't find a collection in the next few weeks let me know and I'll see about pulling mine out of the attic.

[CWK]

I checked out Craigslist, but found it confusing because it seems to be arranged by location rather than by the item wanted. But when I have some time I'll explore it some more and see what I can find. I went back to ebay and found lots of collections. I don't know why I didn't find them before. They seem to run in the neighborhood of about 10 cents per can. Doesn't seem too bad to me, but I have nothing to compare it to.

I appreciate your help with this. If I decide I might want to buy your cans, I'll get in touch thru this forum.

Have a terrific day.

[chazwicke]

You'll only have to pay for shipping. I need to clean them out of the attic.

[CWK]

Well, since you made an offer like that, can you tell me a little more about what you have? Approximately how many cans? Are there lots of duplicates? As I said before, I'm really not interested in the quality of the cans as far as their value goes. I'd just like a lot of different cans, in reasonably good shape. If you're serious in wanting to get rid of them, I would gladly be willing to pay the shipping fees, and a little extra for your efforts.

Also, I havent' checked this site out enough, but I assume that trying to negotiate something like this doesn't violate any rules of the site. Is that your understanding as well?

[chazwicke]

It's no problem on the site but we can set it up via private messages or PMs. It is a collection of different cans mostly from the 1970s with foreign cans as well. It belonged to the deceased father of one of my empolyees and she was cleaning out several years ago and gave it to me as she knows of my breweriana interest. There was no real cans of value or interest to me so I stuck them in the attic. I'm having surgery in a week and will probably have some mobility issues for about a month afterward but if you are in no hurry I'll get them boxed and weighed. I have no use for them myself as my more valuable collection is separate from this one. I think there is at leat 100. but there may be more. maybe 200. it has been a few years since I stashed them.

[CWK]

If you really want to get rid of them, I will gladly pay the shipping, and I would add a little extra for your efforts. When you have sufficiently recovered from your surgery, please contact me and we can make the arrangements at that time. I am not in any hurry, and in fact would prefer not to get them until I move to my new house, which will be November 3.

I don't know how to PM, but I'll see if I can figure it out and give you my name and address.

Thanks again very much.