Man reveals his three favourite beer cans after selling off his 10,300-strong collection

A man has been forced to sell the UK’s largest collection of beer cans for £25,000 after it got so big he needed an extension on his home.

Nick West, 65, had been gathering an impressive collection of unusual and rare cans for 42 years – amassing 10,300 of them at his peak.

The father-of-two from North Somerset initially made the ‘heartfelt’ decision to trim down his £25,000 collection to just 1,500.

But two years ago, Nick and his wife moved to Ledbury, Herefordshire from Langford, in North Somerset for a smaller home.

Moving into smaller digs meant Nick had to finally sell the remaining 1,497 cans because the couple had ‘no space left for them’.

And he has now been left with just three from his once booming collection.

Nick West has saved just three of his beloved cans (Picture: SWNS)

He sold the remaining cans to a couple of Italian dealers who travelled all the way from Italy to collect his precious collection.

He said: ‘It all started when I was 16 years old – I enjoyed collecting things like stamps but I had just become interested in drinking so married the two past times up.

‘I first started collecting cans in 1976 and was extremely passionate about it – so it was a massive wrench to see the last part of my lifetime’s work disappear out of the door. I found it tricky to let them go.’

When Nick had his impressive collection of 10,300 tinnies, he and his wife, Deborah, 64, had to build an extension on a previous home to make space for the cans.

They also later moved into a large five-bedroomed Victorian house so he could have them on display.

Though when they moved to a smaller house, he sold 6,000 of the cans for a sum of £13,500 which is helping to fund his retirement.

Nick sold his collection to an Italian collector (Picture: SWNS)

A further 1,800 cans were given to local museum Oakham Treasures in Portbury, Bristol – leaving him with just 1,500.

But Nick has since sold the rest of his collection to beer can dealers in Italy – so his special tinnies will find themselves in other collections around the world.

He explained: ‘We had some negotiations, as you do, and agreed a price – so they travelled over from Italy in a van and spent a few days here. We did the deal and they disappeared with the cans!’

Nick describes the three cans he chose to kept and why, as he explains: ‘The first is a Heineken 275ml (a half pint).

‘This was the first can in my collection and dates back to 13 July 1975. The second can is again 275ml Hull Brewery Nut Brown Ale: I kept this one because I really like the simplicity of the design – definitely a blast from the past.

‘The final can is a 330ml can Nick West Ruby Ale – I designed this myself to celebrate my 40 years of collecting in 2015.’

Nick had to build an extension on a previous home to house his cans (Picture: SWNS)

The oldest beer can in his collection dated back to 1936.

Nick’s wife, Deborah, bought him a book about beer can collecting which helped invigorate his passion for collecting.

One of the major reasons why Nick was forced to stop collecting was the boom in popularity of craft beer in cans.

For the first 40 years, he was collecting between 150 and 250 cans per year.

But after the rise in craft beers he was collecting up to 650 a year which became too much to handle.

Since then the popularity of canned craft beers has gone through the roof.

Nick estimates that there are over 1,000 new craft cans in the UK every year, making it impossible to keep up and re-affirming his decision to stop when he did.

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