The Associated Press

COLDWATER, Ohio - Some folks come back from the West Coast with seashells as souvenirs. Oliver Wendel brought beer cans.

"I thought I should bring back something from the places we visited, something I could collect and add to if I wanted," he said of his 1971 whim to buy 24 cans.

"Add to" is an understatement. Mr. Wendel, 66, now has a 5,500-can collection - and about 4,000 duplicates for selling or trading. They fill his basement, plus a room with custom floor-to-ceiling shelving at his home in this city about 55 miles northwest of Dayton.

"Of course, when I first started, I didn't even think about there being other collectors out there," he said.

He's now among the 4,000 members of Beer Can Collectors of America, based in Fenton, Mo., and attends its trading shows, called "CANventions." He's vice president of the group's Wooden Shoe Chapter, based in Minster.

Most of his cans are intact on top. Mr. Wendel punctures the bottom to drain the beer - over a glass - then attaches a card describing the can and when and where he bought it. He ends up drinking a beer "about every other night."

He buys six-packs and keeps the duplicates for trading. He arranges the collection by categories such as antique, international and small brewery.

"I suppose the cone tops are my favorites," he said. "I've got some from the former Wooden Shoe Brewery in Minster and one from Koch in Wapakoneta."

G. Heilemann Brewing Co. of LaCrosse, Wis., first marketed the cans with funnel-shaped tops in 1935 - the same year the first beer cans of any type were made. Brewers liked cone tops because they could be filled on the bottling lines, without adding extra equipment, Mr. Wendel explained.

But the cans were difficult to store. Consumers preferred flat tops, so cone tops were discontinued in the 1950s, Mr. Wendel said.

Smaller breweries seem to be disappearing, or they sell only bottles, Mr. Wendel said. But large national breweries put out new designs yearly and also customize cans for events such as the Super Bowl.

Mr. Wendel also has added about 150 cans that he found discarded on the side of country roads while working part time as a truck driver.