COVID bump in your other hobbies

[smellthegum]

Originally Posted by 4815162342

I wonder what the beer can collecting community’s stance is on restoration. Is there a Kurt’s Beer Can Care?

Repainted cans with any level of retouching are generally shunned by collectors and dealers hobby-wide. Most amateur attempts at restoration are readily spotted, but around 2000 so-called professional restoration began to take place whereby cans would be arduously prepped for high-level airbrush work that’s not readily apparent to the naked eye. This work was not divulged during sales in efforts to yield higher prices and therefore defraud buyers. Black lights are used now to expose this type of work.

Replaced lids ARE generally accepted because they don’t affect the originality of the label itself. One individual in the hobby makes a living doing this type of work and the quality is so good that, in most cases, the relidded can is indistinguishable from an original. However, crude amateurish work or mismatched lids are much less embraced as they really stand out as repair and this is generally reflected in the value/price.

This same person, and others, can also remove dents from cans with hardly a trace of the original damage (this depends, of course, on the severity of the original damage; not all cans can be resurrected). Professionally repaired dents are accepted by the hobby and have no adverse effect on values, while amateur work -- such as attempting to push a dent out from the inside with the tip of a screwdriver for example -- is as likely to harm the can even more than the original dent. This type of work has an adverse affect on the value.

In the case of the Triangle can shown in this thread, the lids weren’t well matched and the work wasn’t done by a professional but it is an exceptionally rare and renowned label within the hobby. If the can was all original, the price would likely have been higher. If it was a clean indoor can, the value would easily have reached the $50,000-$60,000 range.