Hello,
I'm not a collector of service station memorabilia and had no idea 24 hours ago that I may have something with more than nostalgia value. Back in my bachelor days for 15 years or so I used to have this hanging in my bathroom. But, once I got married several years ago it was immediately relegated to being stored out in the garage (fortunately we live in the desert).
Yesterday I was flipping through a two year old "Sports Car Market" price guide and glanced at a page devoted to "Automobilia". There was a paragraph on restroom signs with a quote of "Prices range from less than $100 for a simple painted tin 'Rest Room' sign, to more than $1500 for the rare Service Station Pledge signs that state an intent to keep things clean and presentable. Prices keep escalating so you should have followed my advice a few years ago and bought a few. However, even today's prices are likely to seem cheap in 2006." --Carl Bornstead
The sign that I have is identical to this one I found for auction at Barret-Jackson:
http://www.barrett-jackson.com/appslist/details/automobilia.asp?In_AuctionID=222&In_LotNumber=5828 (click on the small thumbnail picture on the right for a better view)
I did a quick ebay search of completed auctions and found a similar Mobilgas sign that sold for over $750 recently, said to be in "Excellent condition", although it looked below that in my opinion. Mine does show several thin, shallow scratches (only a couple touch any of the text), but it's really in very good condition. There is no rust/corrosion, chipped/missing paint, or anything other than very minor blemishes and I'd be surprised if it was ever displayed in an actual Texaco station based on the condition.
First, is the $700 range a good conservative market value or might it be closer to the $1500 value stated in Sports Car Market? I know value is determined by what someone is willing to pay, but I'm just hoping for a realistic ballpark figure and not asking for wildly optimistic speculation. Also, is the consensus that ebay is the right place to sell if I'm looking for a fair value and would like to sell in the next couple weeks?
Thanks for your kind feedback as this is my first post to your forums.
-Gary
