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Beer Can collecting has been around as a hobby for many years. It was probably at its peak as a hobby in the late seventies but it is still going strong today. In the Internet age finding others in a strange and obscure hobby is far easier than it was before. There are still many collectors out there and some are spending gobs of money on ebay buying rare cans. All you have to do is go to ebay and search for beer can and you will find thousands of current entries. Check out some of the highest bids and you will be shocked to find that some rare cans are going for thousands of dollars. Sometimes even tens of thousands.

So what makes a beer can collectible? And why would anyone want to collect them anyway? Well first off beer cans come in a lot of different shapes and sizes. Some of the cans have elaborate graphics and art on them. Some, of course, are quite common in appearance. Over the years, however, some have come with pictures of naked women on them, women in bikinis, pinup girls, James bond women, classic cars, baseball and football players and team logos, and a ton of other stuff. There have literally been hundreds of thousands of variations of beer cans over the years.

Beer cans began to be made in 1933 immediately following prohibition. Actually the cans began to be made before prohibition ended in anticipation of the law being repealed. The first known can was made by Kruger and was called Kruger Special Beer. Only two thousands of these cans were made and none are known to exist now. Three such cans were rumored to be in existence in the Seventies when collecting beer cans was in its heyday but today no known examples are in existence. There may be one or two out there but if anyone has one they are keeping it to themselves for now. Needless to say this can would be the most rare and probably most valuable can you could find. However, there are a ton of other Kruger cans from that era which are available. If it is a Kruger Special Beer then it is extremely valuable and rare. This can is a red body with yellow or gold on the label.

Early beer cans came in two formats. One was shaped like a beer bottle. Early breweries had used bottling for beer and chose cans that could be filled with the same bottling equipment. These cans are called Cone Tops and there only a hundred or so variations known to exist. A shorter version of the cone top came out in the early fifties called a crowntainer and probably thirty or forty variations of this kind of can exist.

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