B ack in November I got a text from my buddy Todd Barnes from Arizona telling me to check out this link to a
Tag sale in Shueyville
Iowa (South of Cedar Rapids) that contained some interesting Hamm s Beer pieces. After pulling up the link on the computer I noticed
mostly your garden variety garage tools and common household stuff. However, sprinkled in with these items were about a dozen
Hamm s Beer items. Noticing mostly common stuff until I came across this picture of what appeared to be a Hamm s point of purchase
display sign that I hadn t seen before. What I saw was a snowdrift sign that had a case of Hamm s Beer sitting in it. Quickly texting
Todd back and asking how he found this sale, he mentioned he was in Iowa visiting his Grandma and would be happy to attend the
sale and attempt to get me the sign. Looking at the site again and seeing the sale wasn t until December 7th I was curious if he would
still be in the area a month later and asked him. He had misread the ad and replied that no he would be long gone by then and I would
have to find another method of getting the sign. Since it was a month away I sorta put it on the back burner. A week before the sale
was going down I called the company that was running the sale and discovered that the way it worked is that you showed up, got a
number and that determined your place in line to enter the house to purchase the pre-priced items. I explained to the lady on the
phone that I was quite a distance away and was there any way I could buy this particular sign without being there. She in turn gave me
the number of the actual fellow running the sale.
Larry pretty much told me the same thing that
no I couldn t buy anything without being there. I
then asked him what he had priced the sign at
and when he replied 100.00 I about passed out.
I mentioned casually that I would be willing and
able to pay much more than that if he could
somehow work a way. He pretty much said no,
rules are rules and I m afraid you ll have to be
here in order to have a chance at it. Now I m
frantic. After hearing people showed up the
night before and camped out at a similar sale
recently held in Albert Lea I envisioned myself
taking the day off and driving to Cedar Rapids
the night before. The power of social media
came to mind shortly after and I posted a
message on the Brewery Collectible page on
Facebook asking if any members were close by
Shueyville and would be available for a mission.
Now of course asking and alerting fellow
collectors of beer items for sale can quickly
backfire but then again no one else
understands the passion which us collectors
have for this stuff. Shortly after posting a young
couple who had previously purchased a sign
from me and visited my place a couple times
previously responded that they were just 10
minutes away in Cedar Rapids. Quickly calling and explaining my predicament Jesse Anderson said sure he could send his wife down
to the sale and attempt to corral the sign. Sale stated it started at noon with numbers at 11:30 on Thursday that week. Luckily Jessie
had attended this style of sale before and understood what was needed to be successful. I explained that he would be very well
compensated for his troubles as well. The day before the sale Jesse calls and said he was more nervous about this sale than I was
(which I found hard to believe) and was going to take a half day off from work and attend the sale himself with a good buddy along as
reinforcement. He had already done his homework and called ahead to find out what room the sign was in so that he could go right to
it the day of the sale. Thursday dawned bright and cold and he mentioned he was glad he had ice fishing gear along as it may get cold
waiting. At 8:00 got a text he was heading out and about ½ hour later a call asking again if he had the correct address. Explaining that
there wasn t a single soul there yet made me wonder too. After double checking the address and calling the guy running the sale our
location was confirmed. Wow. My spirits were flying high at this point and I patiently waited for his results. Needless to say, being the
first one in and armed with the facts where the sign was the key and it was successfully purchased. When we were initially talking he
had asked me how big the sign was and thinking it was similar to the motion snow drift Hamm s signs I had I told him about 12 long.
Shortly after getting the sign to his truck he called and says Man you were way off in your size estimate. This sucker is about 4 feet
long! Wow. So far no one else has mentioned having or seeing this bad boy so I m thinking I pulled off a good one. Talking to the guy
running the sale it seems the stuff belonged to a former Hamm s Beer distributor and this was all that was left after grandkids and
family picked it all over. If they left this imagine what they must have taken. Probably best I don t know that answer to that question.
TH Bear
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