Collecting the Sox: Food

I’m not going to lie to you. Food might not be the easiest Red Sox thing to collect. It has one major difference from, say, a baseball. Food can spoil. Food could be eaten instead. It brings along a few challenges to the table. How do you keep a Wade Boggs candy bar? A carton of Dice-cream? You just need to be able to be flexible.

For things that spoil, you’ll need to stick with simply the packaging. I suppose you could invest in a freezer with glass doors like they have at the supermarket. That way, food could be kept fresh, and still be displayed. But, practicality becomes an issue there. So, you’ll have to stick with the box or wrapper. A nice side benefit of saving the package is that you still get to eat the food. If you buy a box of Wheaties, and only keep the box, you still get to eat the cereal. This is great for the collecting budget. It’s literally simply saving trash. Pretty cool. And, the options are pretty much endless. There are cereal boxes, soda cans, soda bottles, cracker boxes, ice cream cartons, candy bar wrappers, salsa jars, and more. If they’re clean, they can make for a nice display in any Red Sox room.

To go all out, though, you need the full containers. It’s a little extra push if the carton still has the food inside. Plus, in the case of a nuclear attack, your Red Sox room doubles as a bomb shelter with a food supply. It’s a little more striking to see the complete, intact item sitting on the shelf. Obviously, by going this route you’ve eliminated ice cream bars and chocolate from you collection. Plus, you now need to buy extra food, just to put away. Lots of foods won’t spoil on you if you hang onto them. Cereal may attract animals, but in a sealed bag you should be ok. Soda cans and bottle should be fine as long as they’re sealed. I wouldn’t drink them after ten years, but they’ll look nice. Wine, and salsa will keep quite nicely. Really, the options are everywhere.

The nice thing about food collectibles is that they’re easy to get. You’re at the grocery store anyway; just pick up a few extra items. Naturally, it helps if you live in the Boston region. The supply of “Reverse the Curse” ice cream was probably limited in Arizona. But, there are ways around those limitations too. Cereal boxes are pretty easy to find on eBay. I bet it wouldn’t take long to find a complete set of unopened Pedro Martinez salsa (hot-medium-mild) if that was what you really wanted.

Who has a favorite food collectable?