The Random House "Price Guide to Beer Cans" was written by the owner of Pacific Coast Breweriana, Bill Mugrage, which went into five editions was the benchmark for books of it's kind. To give you an idea of the content, the following is an excerpt from the book:
Rarity alone does not determine value - condition plays a large part. One scratch, crease, or other imperfection can and will reduce the value of a beer can by as much as one third. This is not to say, however, that off-grade cans are not without value. I have paid $100 for a can that would cost me $1,000 or more if I had found it in mint condition. In this case, I could likely recover my investment with little effort.
The famous Rosalie can that sold for more that $6,000 in the late 1970s would be greatly reduced in value if a case or even a six-pack of cans in perfect condition were found and put on the market.
Remember, even if a brewery canned only 10,000 barrels in its prime, that would result in approximately 3.3 million cans of beer. The question is, of course, how many of those 3.3 million cans servived over the years, and in what condition.
The greatest values lie in the steel cans, produced prior to 1960, and in cone-top cans. Most of the smaller breweries where gone by the end of World War II, and nearly all of them were gone by 1960 or so. Cone top cans were used basically by the smaller breweries because they could be filled on their existing bottling lines, and the smaller brewer could avoid an expensive investment in canning equipment. The exception to this was Pabst, which canned quart size cone tops into the mid-1950s.
It should also be noted that the reason today's microbreweries do not put their beer in cans is the same reason the smaller breweries in the the past did not - the high cost of canning equipment. There have been two microbreweries that have bought four and five liter cans from Europe and hand filled them. These cans carry more novelty value than anything else. Small labels that appear in can form are usually brewed and filled on a contract basis by larger breweries.
There are many reasons why aluminum cans will never carry a high value. Besides the millions and millions of cans that are made, the quality of the graphics and coloring on the cans are not as good as the old steel cans - some of the cans carried up to eight different colors. The aluminum cans in this book at $10 will increase in value at a rate of only 5 percent a year, while a steel can will increase in value much faster. The value of aluminum will at some point, reach a ceiling, while steel cans will continue to rise in value.
For a period of about five years, beginning with the 1976 American Bicentennial, some of the smaller breweries stayed in business by changing labels often. The most notable of these was August Shell in Minnesota. Schell issued commemorative cans for every town festival in a five state area. These cans will probably peak in value somewhere between 5 and 10 dollars in the future.
Another can that should be mentioned is Billy Beer, names for President Jimmy Carter's brother, Billty. Billy Beer was issued by four different breweries, and there were millions of cans produced. The are not worth hundreds of dollars, as some people believe. A price of 2 or 3 dollars is more than reasonable. Other special issues such as JR Beer and M*A*S*H Beer will carry a similiar value.
Finally, if a can is worth putting on the shelf. it is worth at least $1 to the collector. The collector will either have to go to the store to purchase it or trade or buy from another collector. That time and effort combined with the can's inherent value - gives us a base price of $1, which is the base price used in this book."
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