Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Recommend any good petroliana books?

Just wondering if anybody could recommend a good book or two on petroliana collecting? I was at Barnes & Noble the other day and the only book they had was the "Encyclopedia of Petroliana." Lots of nice pictures but no real info such as spotting fakes, dating items, etc. Are there any good books out there or is it all online? Thanks.

p.s. I know there is a book on collecting Sohio. Anybody know how good/informative it is?

YES, Our own Jack Sim has "AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO GAS PUMPS" iDENTIFICATION AND PRICE GUIDE. It is the bible of pumps and prices and almost always a picture. 'DONT LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT'!

The Globe books by Benjamin and Henderson are great. The pricing is outdated but there is alot of very good info in them.

Gas Pumps Sim is good but the prices listed for many of the pumps are unrealistic (high!!!). The pump book has great info in it too. Just shop around a little before buying pumps. You'll likely do better than book price.

The Esso book by McIntyre is the best single brand guide I've seen. It has more useful info like dates than any of the other books.

The Mobil book by Henderson and Benjamin is good too.


There are two good general petroliana guides. One is Gasoline Treasures by Bruner. The other is Gas Station Memorabilia by Summers and Priddy. None of the general petro books has much info on history, etc. Mostly pics and maybe a little info. That gives you and idea of whats out there.

If you're collecting Sohio you should get the Sohio book by Miller and Sonewald. You'll get a good idea of what's available for you to collect.

I don't know of any price guide that has accurate pricing. Many of the older books were written before ebay made common items out of things we thought were hard to find. Some of the old prices are actually high! Pricing on the desirable stuff has skyrocketed since the books have been written.

These are just my opinions. I've got books that I think are worthless that other guys think are great. I've got a bunch of petro guides and the most informative are the 2 globe books.

One more thing. Buy your books from Amazon through this web site. The commissions help support this site. You'll save a couple bucks too.
Bob

I personally like just looking at old pictures. And John Margoiles' "Gas Station Memories" is great. I'm not sure if I got the spelling of the name or the exact title, but you should be able to find it on that.

The book I couldn't live without is Henderson and Benjamin's Guide to Gasoline Logos. Although its only black and white, the information is invaluable--you can practically date any old gas sign and read a brief synopsis of that company's history.

Rick Pease's Tour With Texaco is an excellent book as well if you're a Texaco collector.

The book I would NOT recommend is Henderson and Benjamin's Mobil Collector's and Price Guide. There are hardly and photos (a must have for any price guide) and the descriptions are confusing and poorly organized.

Hope that helps--

That's what I meant when I said: I've got books that I think are worthless that other guys think are great.

I guess it just depends on wether you want to look at pictures, or if you want info like dates used, descriptions, etc. To me the Gas Station Memories book isn't very good, but Benjamin and Henderson's Mobil book is good.

Most of the petro guides have great pictures, but that isn't the only thing I'm looking for in reference material.
Bob