‘It was love at first sight’: Vancouver man buys tin from New Hamburg, Ont. auction for historic price

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Vancouver collector bids big in New Hamburg, Ont. auction for rare tobacco tin

Tobacco tin found during renovations at Ontario home worth thousands

A tin can collector from Vancouver can’t believe he was the successful bidder on a rare tobacco tin in a New Hamburg, Ont. auction.

Glen Paruk is a lawyer but has been an avid tin collector for over almost 50 years, amassing several thousand collectables.

So when he came across the 3 Strike Cut Plug Pocket tobacco tin on an auction website, Paruk said he knew he had to have it.

“I previously owned an example of this tin but along the way, I was building a house and it became necessary to sell my earlier example.” He said that was roughly 30 years ago.

“This tin was a new find, not known in the collector community before it popped up on Miller & Miller Auctions and it was love at first sight,” he said.

The rare find came with a hefty price tag though, costing Paruk $55,000. That marked the highest selling tin in Canadian history. It is considered one of the last known examples of its type.

It stands vertically, has a flip lid, and features a baseball player with the Erie Tobacco Company Factory logo on his jersey.

The tin sold during an auction on Sunday but almost never made it to the block. According to Head of Sales at Miller & Miller Ben Lennox, the tin was discovered by the sellers while they were doing renovations and didn’t know what to do with it. They even considered donating it to Value Village.

“I understood they kept it in their house for about 15 years before they decided to part with it. Absolutely mind boggling to hear that story,” Paruk said.

While awaiting the tin’s arrival in the coming days, Paruk added he already has a spot in his display cabinet to show it off.

While not actively seeking any specific tins to round out his collection, Paruk said he’s always browsing for any pre-WWII Canadian tins with an interesting graphic.

“We’re talking about pre-1939 that has an interesting image, great colours and is in great condition,” he said.