Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Online Auctions, eBay Craigslist Petroliana has ebay become a wasteland or is it me???

I remember not to long ago you could get on ebay and actually look at signs, cans, globes and all things good. Now a days it seems like all that is listed in the gas & oil category are hess trucks, magazine ads, maps, repro signs, and the most common cans there are.

you used to have only 7-10,000 items in the gas & oil category now there are 81,000 there with about 1000 of those being good items mixed in. It makes it almost impossible to look at unless you search for specific items.

Thanks for listening now back to regularly scheduled programming...

Tom, I am on that soap box too. I agree !

TOM,
YOUR RIGHT,i use collectors weekly it cuts down on some of that.click signs or petro.
rock

I agree as well. I find that anymore on my Mobil searches I get so zoned out looking through magazine ads and repro signs that I would probably not even see a "good" item, lol. I remember the old days of listings really only being decent collectible items, reproductions were the exception, now it's the complete opposite as you point out. I think it would be hard to build a collection now days only buying off Ebay, and that's where I built the bulk of my collection 8-10 years ago.

YES! Even for a collector that focuses more on road/highway signs it has become horrible! All those fake US shields. What gets me is how folks can think that a little over a 11 mile stretch of US 66 in Kansas could produce DOZENS of "original authentic pawn shop close out" signs within a few months.

I'm glad I'm not the only one this drives crazy! I was just thinking this the other day how no qulity or rare item end up on ebay anymore. It's blinding sifting through 75,000 repops. But as long as they are making money..

I agree with the all of the above BUT it is a good source to educate oneself about the repos. So I still get saved searches but I am quick to go through it.
I hate to even mention FB but I maybe gravitating there sooner rather than later.

I have resisted Facebook for years but now find myself spending more time there than Ebay. Perhaps I am ignorant on how to search for something but I am beginning to really dislike searching for "vintage Chevrolet sign" or many other things and getting hundreds of things that have nothing to do with the item I am searching for. Buy most of my gas and oil now on this site or Facebook.

still nothing better than the shows and auctions. cant beat holding the item in your hands before purchasing, or the excitement of bidding on something at a live auction

I agree with that and attend several around the country throughout the year but ebay/facebook are convenient.

What facebook groups does everyone use? I have used porcelain sign trader and Gas globes. What others are there?

This, believe it or not, is a partial screen shot of a search for "Sunoco".
And that is just part of the ***** that comes up.

You guys need to refine your e-bay searches. You can set them up to automatically leave out certain items such as magnets, ads, whatever. I have three searches I use. Sign, oil can and gas pump. It pretty well covers what I am interested in. I run through a 24 hour period and that's it= shut down and go find something else to do.
I think if I had to make a complaint it would be about the collectibles market in general. To me it has lost it's appeal and that is not just gas & oil. Too much fake and fantasy stuff to try and determine if it is indeed fake or fantasy. Pricing has become a joke. The asking prices (or starting prices on e-bay) have become ridiculous and the pickers or dreamers have pretty well ruined it. Because of it, I find myself more and more losing interest in it all.
I don't want to start any arguments and don't need any more bashing than i already get. Just my two cents.

No doubt that there are too many repro and low interest items on eBay. You have to make your searches more sophisticated to exclude the junk as best you can.

Take a look at the searches that I provide on the "Auctions" link near the top of this page. Not perfect, but it filters out much of the low interest stuff. Using those links to bid helps to keep this forum running.

Thanks!

Searching for Marathon Oil items is dauntless. Marathon is a term related to so many things. I have serveral searchs with a very long list of exclusions. Took me awhile to set up. But worth it. I have found numerous items at a cheap price because the item was so vaguely listed and not in oil and gas.

Chuck

Free listings is a bad idea IMO, but I'm not a share holder in eBay.