Drive past any neighborhood on garbage day, and you will see hundreds of ordinary beer cans have been thrown away. Steve Lesniak, however, sees an opportunity to add to his collection.
Lesniak, of Ft. Lauderdale, likes to search old dump sites to add to his collection of Florida beer cans from the 1940s and 1950s. This past weekend, though, Lesniak went to a special birthday party to find new keepsakes.
Celebrating the beer can's 80th birthday on Jan. 24, Lesniak, 52, went to the Beer Can and Breweriana Show on Friday and Saturday in Orlando. It was hosted by the Gator Trader chapter of the Brewery Collectibles Club of America.
During regular shows, about 15 people circle each of the 48 tables of members hoping to buy, sell or trade their collectibles. Since this show marked a special occasion, there were about 50 people crowded around each table.
“Collecting beer cans is a dying hobby," Lesniak said. "I thought a lot of people had given up, but it's as if there's been a resurrection.”
Lesniak said he thinks because of the increasing popularity of craft beers across the United States, more people are interested in collecting. Small breweries usually make their craft beers in glass bottles. But they sometimes make about 1,000 cans weekly or monthly that sell as quickly as lottery tickets, Lesniak said – they can disappear in days.
Lesniak, who was born in Chicago and now lives in Ft. Lauderdale, travels to Ocala, which he thinks is the best place to find rare cans because of its higher ground and lack of salty air. Both are conditions that help preserve beer cans.
In the early 1900s, there was not an established local garbage pickup, which led people to leave their trash in forests, according to Lesniak. Some of the garbage from that time is still there, including vintage beer cans.
“It's an adventure to find these spots,” he said.
In September, he started to rebuild his collection with a focus on 1940s and '50s Florida cans after selling an old collection of 1,000 variety cans for $22,000. So far, he has about 200 Florida cans, but it's nearly impossible to find cans that haven't rusted.
The smallest details make the difference on the can’s rarity. On Friday, Lesniak bought a Krueger can for $100.
Unlike most Krueger cans that usually have a graphic of a hat above the K design, his did not, making it more valuable. He kept it for about 20 minutes before trading it for a 1950s white Marlin flat-top Atlantic Brewing Company can that was only sold for four to six months.
Joe Older, 53, of Maitland, has been collecting since the 1970s and said he's seen the evolution of the beer can's designs within his own collection of about 2,200 cans.
From 1935 to the late 1960s, Older said a lot of the designs were politically incorrect, with references to the “man's beer” and images of African-American caricatures on them.
Pat Taylor, 67, of Altamonte Springs, who is the president of the Gator Traders chapter and ran the show with Older, has kept beer collectibles since the early 1970s.
“I admire the works of art, the time and effort spent on the cans,” Taylor said. “And it's fun to watch some of the drunks.”