how old are you ? - vote - .. ...

poll too run thru end of Jan. 31st

My sons Not on here but he’s 17 and collects oil cans and signs . Loves it

My nephew is 15 now and has been collecting gas and oil for several years already. He has a very good Phillips 66 quart can collection.

Hi, Randy. I just submitted my info. A question: When the "polls have closed", would you be able to give us a little historical perspective? Can you compare this year's Old Gas user age info with that from a couple of years ago (or more)? Even knowing how many respondents you have this year, compared to prior years would tell us something. I believe having some comparable data from the past could make your excellent project even more meaningful. Thanks for considering this. John

Here's a link to the age poll from a year ago, including results from 11 years ago and a link to that older poll. Interesting!

https://www.oldgas.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=759640

for comparison: .. ...

2011 - 11 years ago -

2021 - last year -

Thank you for taking the time to post this info, Jim and Randy. Even the total number of replies received in the various years is interesting. John

Interesting stats....it mostly looks like everyone collecting 10 years ago still is. They just got 10 years older. The only concerning stat is that the "under 40" crowd went from 30% in 2011 to 12% in 2021. A couple of reasons for that could be 1) there may be fewer young people getting into the hobby or 2) the demographic on Oldgas is shifting because more young people are using Facebook as their social media app for Petroliana rather than Oldgas. I kind of think it's more of the latter than the former. Oldgas is truly starting to live up to it's name!

3) economics .. ...

#2 by a landslide... Brian is correct...and not just young people using facebook and instagram....old guys too

I think it's like in the old car hobby. Most people seem to like what they grew up with. You can buy a Model A now for about the same price as in the 70's, due to lack of demand. "Old cars" today seems to be muscle cars. Many of the younger folks have never seen oil in a jar with a screw-on spout and few have seen a metal (or even cardboard) can that you had to open by inserting a metal spout into. Most folks today have only unscrewed a plastic lid from a plastic container. To them, oil is something only handled by a 10 minute oil change place.

Thats my situation. Mid 30s and have collected a bit over the last 15 years. But at this stage have a family started and time/money just isn't there for making big purchases. As it is, I have been at restoring my pump for over 2 years now and cost is a big factor (although surprisingly finding someone to do the paint work I can't do also is a stumbling block). I'd love that nice vintage 50/60s clamshell Shell sign or an oil can rack, etc but I don't have the $500+ I need to buy in on those things.
That said as I age, I fully expect to collect more, take time to go to swap meets and sales (as he gets old enough, probably take my son along too!) and in general just put more money and time behind the hobby. My hope is that there will be enough of us to keep the tradition on here going!

I feel like the prices this stuff is bringing has a lot to do with the ages of collectors. I love this stuff but I cant spend the crazy money. But it doesnt cost anything to look.

26 and loving OldGas!

I'm 48 and my twin boys are 14...both are interested and love to work on projects with me, but one is a spender and the other a saver, so only the spender has a few cans of his own.

Here is the same post on Facebook, from May 2021 (so not too old)…..