He sees evidence of this in customer reviews. "The taste ties into all your senses and brings back memories." The majority of Florence's customers want sodas to consume, not collect, but that doesn't make their motivations any less nostalgic. "Corn syrup is a syrup - you can tell on your tongue," Florence says. The kind Florence buys and sells is made with sucrose, which some consider a step below the cane sugar formula used in Mexican Coke (which Florence also sells by the single glass bottle), but it's a major improvement over high-fructose corn syrup. (Florence gets his supply near Charlotte, North Carolina) Buffalo Rock Ginger Ale, which Florence describes as "the spiciest you'll ever have in your life," produced by one independent bottling company in Birmingham, Alabama Tom Tucker Mint Ginger Ale from Pennsylvania as well as the simple but deliciously scarce Coca-Cola made with real sugar. His best sellers include Wink, a refreshing grapefruit-based citrus soda popular in the '60s that has since been relegated to a few regional bottlers in the Southeast U.S. Today, Sodafinder lists over 150 varieties of hard-to-find soft drinks, including 10 discontinued flavors that come with a warning label: "This item is out of date. He's since dabbled in selling on eBay, but never got many bids, and he won't consider selling on Amazon Marketplace, which charges 99 cents per item sold or a $39.99 monthly subscription fee.
When Florence amassed more than he could drink or give away, he took to the web, and launched his website in 2002. "It was more like the scavenger hunt just to find them. He was never a fanatical soda drinker, but he couldn't resist the search for new things. Soon afterward, he began collecting cases of unfamiliar sodas during road trips from his home in upstate New York to Nebraska. He liked it, but it was more a novelty than a delicacy. "I was like, I don't know what that is, I've never heard of that," he says. Pibb in the late '90s from an Iowa rest-stop vending machine. And when it comes to building a business on these products, vendors have their process down to a science.įlorence remembers the first time he bought a Mr. All together, they make up a fan base with unique appreciation and reverence for shelf staples that otherwise don't get much respect in the grocery world. Others are searching for flavors of their youth. Some sellers and buyers are drawn to the hunt and the novelty of collecting rare products. Likely thanks to their sturdy shelf lives - and their role in fond childhood memories - sodas, candies, and other packaged snacks dominate this niche market. If they don't," he says, "I will take it down and probably use it on my own tacos." Then there are the few casual opportunists like eBay user batwatcher, who says he had extra Diablo hot sauce from Taco Bell lying around his house when he heard it had been discontinued - and that there was a market for it online. In a 2008 Press Publications interview, Lloyd-Camp, a baby boomer, said that she opened a candy shop "to help our generation relive their childhood memories and to give their kids happy memories, too." She even has a small supply of discontinued Clark's Teaberry Gum. Lloyd-Camp runs a robust eBay candy shop called junk-it-junction, the online outpost of her brick-and-mortar business, Boyd's Retro Candy Store, where she sells old-timey favorites like giant Jawbreakers, candy cigarettes, and Sugar Daddies. Others, like Toledo, Ohio's Pam Lloyd-Camp, stake their business on the demand for vintage foods.
Customers bought bottles even after they expired, he said, just to have as collectors' items. He joined the mad rush of buyers who hoarded cases to sell online.
Pepper, a regional favorite made with real cane sugar. Pepper on eBay when the soda company announced it would stop production of Dublin Dr. In 2012, another soda seller, Josh Nichols of Fort Worth, Texas, had just begun selling Dr. From his (currently offline) storefront, Canadian Sweets Treats and Other Specialties, he can move upwards of 60 five-serving boxes in a given week to U.S.
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