Thars’ gold in them walls! What have you unearthed in a remodel?
Pardon the interruption,but if it wasn’t for people like YOU (and the work crews of 50 years ago) I wouldn’t have such fine examples on the shelves of my “man cave” You see, I have a tolerant wife that allows my dedicated “beer room”
During remodeling or renovation projects of houses, warehouses, churches, etc., beer/brewery items such as beer cans, beer bottles, bottle caps, signs, serving trays, bottle openers, etc. have been found. I am always interested in acquiring more items for my collection, especially old beer cans that used a “church key” (can opener-like a Hi-C drink can) to open them or the cone top cans which were sealed with a bottle cap on the spout (these look like old brake fluid cans).There are a few ring type pulltab cans that have value,but for the most part,they were made in great quantities-especially mega-brewers like Pabst,Bud,etc.
The beer can first was available for sale to the public in 1935 (Richmond, Virginia) so cans may be found in 1930s-present vintage buildings or from older renovation projects. Workers didn’t want their boss to find the empties, so they dropped them in the drywall or under the porch. Its like a time vault-no moisture or humidity!
Now heres the kicker-I’ll help you finance your renovation.You might have a can thats worth 100 bucks or more…empty even.I’ve been called a lot of things, but “cheap” isn’t one of them.If you’ve found any artifacts in your walls,crawlspace,etc I’m an email away.Even if you’d like to tell the story and not part with them,I’d love to hear it! Thanks.
Barry the beerguy
Replies
Figured I'd add a few of the lids I was talking about (below)
I have a gal that emailed me from Iowa today with an Uchtorff (don't say that after a few) can she'd found 9 years ago.
Pending her hubby's approval,she may be 200.00 richer by this weekend.
your premise isn't quite right.
I've found newpapers and I'm no writer.
I've found small toys, but I'm not a kid.
And I've found a gun with one bullet missing.........
that's right, I'm no murderer.
So to thank us (doing this 40 yrs) by suggesting it was our cans (all of us that built the house), isn't that great an honor.
Hopefully you won't find a bucket with a lid on it in a corner of the basement after the drywallers are done.
finds
Once I found a pair of antique Hans Christian Andersen type of ice skates! They have the classic toe curl and had a spike in the wooden base so you can tie them to your shoes. We have them hanging up in our house with some other antique things.
Walls I've opened rarely have cans--mostly can'ts, which aren't near as much fun.
One time I found $250 cash, though. It was bills wrapped in wax paper and aluminum foil, thumbtacked to a stud inside the access panel in the back of a linen closet, which I opened to change out the tub valve.
It had obviously been there for many years. I asked the lady how long she'd lived there, and she said over 40 years. So it was plainly her $. I took it out and handed the package, unopened to her and said here's a little something to help pay for the repair.
She had stashed it there when she traveled out of the country about 20 years previously, thinking to have a reserve that her son could use to help her get back home if she had trouble. She had forgotten about it.
Thank you!
That was a nice thing you did.
Reminds me of a situation a remodeler had a couple yrs ago in the Cleveland area-don't know the ending of the lawsuits but there was thousands involved in the find.
I would just like to point out, to others not so inclined towards honesty, that the money would belong to the owner no matter who had deposited it there or when. When one purchases a house, everything in it becomes theirs: roof, carpets, dead bugs in the crawl, etc. And including undocumented quantities of cash in the walls.
and in 40 years you have never seen a single beverage consumed (or consumed one yourself) on a job site and have NEVER seen anything thrown behond a wall by a worker or done it yourself? The BS meter just went off the charts.
Geez, who peed in your cornflakes this morning? He didn't call you drunks and child rapists. All he said is occasionally, a beer can makes its way behind the wall and he would like the chance to buy one if you come across them.
cuss
Nope, always put trash where it belonged.
Pulled styro cups from others out of block holes.
I don't think I'd sell anything I've found in the walls-to me their more like time capsules-info from the past-something I'd stick in the shop with a story.
Yes, I've put things in walls-to be found later and to provide visual aids to someone else's story.
Yeah,I was hesitant to post,but hey...state your case,intentions and ask.You never know what might happen.I had one gal call me here in St Paul that had over a case of more common Hamms cans,but she wanted me to actually LOOK at them.I was baffled when she took me down the basement and opened the lid of the piano.Absolutely packed with perfection by her deceased hubby,who was sneaking them over the years.3 deep in the upright piano!
Or the guy who got more from me than he did for installing a furnace.He ran into a crawlspace that was a regular "vice alley" of beer,whiskey and food containers,all from the 40's.The lone empty bottle of aspirin in the pile cracked me up.
Thar's gold....
My husband found a leather aviator's cap in an attic several months back, but nothing beer related, sorry!
Meat ration token
When I gutted my 1912 house in Toronto I found a cardboard "Canada Meat Ration Token". Its a little smaller than a nickel, blue and made of dense fiber or card stock.
It probably rolled into the floor boards circa WW2 - and was very valuable at the time.
John
thars gold in them walls
Renovated at cellar
In the chinaman's laundry room found newspaper from the 20's and two issues of National Geographic from 1944
Stuff in walls
I found 25 to 30 civil war letters in a wall behind a mantel. The letters were from a scared soldier writting home from his fox hole to his family discribing his horrable experiances. There were also about 10 signed sealed letters from the president of the United Stares in there as well. I did the right thing and gave them to the home owner. Several months later I asked the homeowner what they did with the letters and she replied that she threw them away. Kind of sorry that I did the right thing by giving the letters the the homeowners. I am sure that the familys would have loved to see these letters.
I also found something that was not in a wall. It was stashed high above a cabinet in a bathroom. The house had a flood and we did a flood restoration job. We always put everything back to the original place as close as possible. I guess my carpenters did not remember that the Playboy Mags went on top of the bathroom cabinets rather then inside the cabinets.
Got an angry call from the homeowner who is a minister complaining about my employees leaving dirty mags in the house. Of course I said that I would get to the bottom of this problem and agreed to meet with the homeowner the next day. I asked the homeowner to show me the mags and they were 22 years old. I told the homeowners that most of the employees were about 10 years old when these were published. The room got real silent. The ministers wife thanked me for my time and said good buy.