Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion How many years collecting?

Here is one everyone can participate in.

How many years in the hobby?

If you have a memorable moment and would like to share post it in this thread.

Years collecting? single choice
	1-2 years
	3-4 years
	5-6 years
	7-8 years
	9-10 years
	11-12 years
	13-14 years
	15-16 years
	17-18 years
	19-20 years
	21+ years
Votes accepted starting: Sat Aug 08 2009 09:55 AM You must vote before you can view the results of this poll.

I have many that are of a cool globe i got or the pump i found on a farm. But the best is when i began to start collecting gas globes and got hooked up with Bob Drake. Bob gave me lots of help! He invited me to a party at his house the night before Peotone and i had a blast meeting other collectors and eating some of Karens (Bob's wife) good cooking! Been going to Bob's house for some time now and enjoy it every year! It's as much fun as going to the show. LOL

I decided this year friday night before the Hoosier show to have some friends over and grill some burgers. Aftewards we all went to Rick Bonenburger's (host of Hoosier show) to see a great collection. I am going to do the same thing next year but will do something a little differant. I don't want to have to cook again because i would rather spend time chatting. LOL

i had always wanted a pump to put in my drive,as i was into old cars.my son kennys four wheeler was stolen and a year and a half later we got a call that it had been found in prestonsburg ky.told me that we could come and get it after the investagation was over.so ken and i went out,and we were in hill country,beleive me.the guy who was storing the wheeler had a junkyard on the side of a mountain,so after picking up the wheeler i asked if he had any pumps laying around.heres what i found.it was these pumps that led me to find oldgas,and got me hooked!.its now been about 6 years and there is no turning back

In 1978 while on vacation to Mo. & Ok. I wanted a visible pump & what better pace to find one than in the Mid West! After driving for many many miles in both states looking, everything I found was Not For Sale.
Stopped at a small antique store in Gotebo Ok., Bingo, there was a RUSH stovepipe w/ BELL Ethyl globe semi restored for $450. Bought it & found out the owner of pump was Kyle Moore's uncle Bruce.

It was in the summer of 1970 that my Dad "loaned me out" to help a neighbor farmer bale hay. Laying in the weeds along an old building on the neighbor's farm was an almost 100% complete Fry 5 gallon visible. I asked what he was going to do with it. He said that it was going to the scrap man next week, but if I wanted it, I could have it. That was the beginning of my pump collecting. The completely restored old Fry now sits in the corner of foyer at our home, 39 years later!

I always though it would be cool to have an old gas pump. In 1995 one of my good friend was doing body and paint work on pumps for his land lord, so I asked him if I could do some work on them in trade for one. My friends landlord said ok so I bodyworked two Bennett 541s in trade for one. I was hooked before I even got the 541 in my possession. I bought two Wayne 70s and a Bowser 575. My interest has gone up and down because of my other hobbies but I currantly have 26 pumps had about 27 other pumps. I know thats nothing compare to some of you guys. I still own that first 541 and it has been in the house ever sense it was restored.

I transfered into Sacramento as a tanker driver for Shell in 1972,a friend asked me to look for a Shell globe.Delivering a load of gasoline to a bulk plant in Patterson Ca.i saw a globe on the counter,bought it for $20.00 and passed it on to my friend.Thats when i became interested and started scouting out other bulk plants for signs etc.I found a globe in Willows Ca.and gave it to my son for his 14th.birthday.He is about to turn 49 and the globe is on a pump in his garage.

Jarvis as i recall you didnt cook your wife cooked the burgers you brought the chips. lol I did have a good time at your house though and hope you do it again next year

I STARTED IN 1985 APPROX. I HAD JUST PURCHASED TWO HUGE 1930'S PORC COCA-COLA SIGNS AT CARLISLE AND STILL HAD ABOUT $150 BURNING A HOLE IN MY POCKET. SINCE I HAD A PASS TO BE IN-FIELD WITH MY TRUCK TO GET SAID SIGNS FROM THE SELLER, WHEN I WAS LEAVING TO PULL OUT OF THE NEAREST GATE I SPOTTED A 42" D/S 1930 PORC TEXACO SIGN FOR $85 IN QUITE A DECENT COND.
I LOADED IT UP AND THEN CALLED IT QUITS! I HAVE BEEN A N.Y. STATE LICENSE PLATE COLLECTOR FOR MANY YEARS PRIOR AND HAVE BEEN COLLECTING GAS STATION BRANDED MAPS SINCE I WAS A KID. TRIPS TO CARLISLE BASICALLY MADE THE PETRO HOBBY SNOBALL TO WHERE I AM TODAY!

I've always been into hot rods & old cars.Went to the dump in the late 1980's saw a old Anco wiper blade display cabinet laying there.Picked it up to take home.Thought it would look great in the garage with my cars.The obsession began.It really has started picking up speed now that both the kids are grown & moved out.

I've been an auto body tech since 1968. I saved some signs from work and picked up a few things from antique stores. But I didn't consider myself a petro collector. I was publishing a print newsletter about antiques and in 1995 I interviewed Ron Throckmorton, the noted motor oil bottle collector. His outstanding collection, knowledge and passion really got me thinking. I collected other things, but I thought, "What am I doing? My heart is really in car related stuff." I loved Ron's old gas pumps and signs. He suggested that I attend the petroliana swap meet in Columbia, Mo. in January. That was the turning point when I focused on petroliana. I started this Web site in February 1996 and it's been non-stop ever since.

2 months.

I was always looking for Woco Pep items that I didn't have, so I was looking on Oldgas to see what different collectors in surrounding states to Alabama were collecting when I noticed that a fellow in Georgia had been restoring a 1936 Woco Pep station.

I contacted him to see if he had any extra Woco items that he would sell and to my surprise he had a neon Woco sign he was planning to list on Ebay the next week. I asked for price and when he answered back it was such a good price that I could hardly hit the keys on my keyboard because of being so nervous. Emailed him back and set up the next Saturday to pick it up. So far, this is the only one known to exist. It was in a little rough shape but being made from sheetmetal and then painted instead of being porcelain, it's a wonder that it had not been scrapped years before. Very thankful to get it....Dale

I started while still wearing diapers, that stuff stank so I've been collecting better stuff since....tt

Oldgoaly
took me a minute but I think I got it?

Been into Mustangs since early 80's but I didn't start to think it would be cool to have an old pump outside the garage until 97/98. Saw the ads for pumps in the car magazines and started to collect price info etc. Also started to search the web and found Oldgas...lurked for a while and became a member in y2k.
Bought a couple of pumps that were already sand blasted and primed, with new rubber etc for a good price in 99, and got the ball rolling. Decided to go with Mobil because of the cool Pegasus.
Gotten a new pump every now and then, my latest one is a Gilbarco 396 - rust free, just alot of paint.

I kind of fell into it by accident, really. I used to collect toy vehicles of all kinds.....what ever caught my eye but no real passion or knowlege. After buying an old china closet for diplaying in, I got the idea to add some small cans and things to add some charachter to the display. As I started focusing on finding interesting smalls, I started to notice other things and it started to take hold. I don't even buy the vehicles anymore. I'm focused like never before and truely enjoy all aspects of this hobby. I have always been a collector of things, but really never found that real interest. I only wish I could've started all this much sooner than I did. After finding Oldgas, my knowlege base gained momentum as well as contacts.

My most memorable moment was the day I inquired about an extremely rare (although I was in the dark at that time) Chevrolet oiler and I got an email from a gentleman wanting to trade for it. It was problably the single most influential moment in my collecting "career". It really sealed my interest in Petro. Other people REALLY do this and REALLY take it seious. My kind a people! I've made several good friends since along with some great memories.

Started collecting around 1992. Every time I smell old gas brings back a flood of memories. A good time was when I would go to Richfield Ohio for 2 weeks then back home for a week for work. Any minute I had over there I was gone driving and sniffing (i think I can smell old gas)Cut the support pipes on a National Simplex and rammed it in the trunk of a rental car at Pat Gillies? met Bob Hall and a bunch of other people who's names I have forgot. Drove into Michigan down to Virginia into Kentucky, Pennsylvania and New York.Saw a lot of differant collections. This lasted for 2 years off and on.My wife has always said she was a single parent and I didnt know why untill I started thinking about this.When I got home I would be off driving around here (Spokane) looking for pumps. I apologized to her this morning because she really was alone alot with the young kids working herself.

i started around 1989 as a picker for other people and got hooked on soda machine
which i still have alot of and then i figure i keep the gas pump that were neat to me
so now they are multiply in the last few years iam glad i save the ones i like they seems to be poplar pumps

I still have the first oil can I "picked up" as a kid during the early 60's(the Oilzum can). Collected,traded and sold most of my items during the early 80's. Didn't start collecting and displaying items again until the late 90's. Driving from Sears Point to PIR and SIR across to Daytona and Sebring a couple times each season, it was unbelivable how much "stuff" we used to pickup and trade for repairs on the cars or for other "stuff" we traded off. I would have a pretty nice collection if I just knew that it was going to be worth something and not given and traded it all away. No wait, that's not true, I just would have gotten rid of it all anyway, lol.

i was in a antique store in 1987 looking for primitive wood pieces when i spotted a small texaco handy oiler,,i bought it thinking it was a neat old can and then the obsession took over me!! maybe i need another one so i started looking at a hemmings book then i saw a ad for pc and check the oil magazines..i started getting them and i got into the network with guys like:: NORM PENNIE--DON RALEIGH--BOB PEPPING-BOB LOWRY,,LOOKING FOR HANDY OILERS MAINLY..then i saw my first flying -A- LOGO and i was really hooked and its been a obsession ever since..went to my first IOWA GAS in 2000 and was so over taken by it i went nuts and bought 73 oilers not even thinking about all the other cool stuff there..i`ve since settled down in buying and trying to get nice original pieces i have over 1,000 handy oilers--250 pieces of tidewater -associated oil co-- 4 other oil co`s,thermometers from seed-n-feed and oil co`s and seed dealer signs..i`m around 1500 pices in my collection... so i`m obsessed to say the least..when i found the old gas site a few yrs ago,,i`ve learned a lot from all the old gassers and enjoy it very much!!! i`m always on the hunt to find that special piece to add to my collection!!...on a ending note I always remember my wife asking me when i bought my first oiler,, what in the hell do you need that piece of junk for???? txs alan

It's all Wes' fault!!!

oh sure!!blame your husband!!!!LMAO

Veedol_AL1

You purchased 73 oilers at IG in 2000, was that the year I set up in a hotel room and sold my 600+ handy oil collection? Can't find the pictures to get the dates and I can't remember what I did yesterday.

Jack Sim

jack--i think it was ..i remember buying a bunch in one room.. i bought a bunch from don raleigh also...i had no clue about the old gas site at that point..i was like a kid in a candy store and out of control!!! alan

Let's hear some more stories.

Here's one my wife and I like to laugh about. We took a family trip to Yellowstone.Did pretty good and had the back of the van full: Oil cart and a bunch of displays with the parts still on them and the wife and kids were happy also. We were suposed to be camping to save money but ended up in Bozeman Montana and the motels were too expensive so someone gave us a GREAT tip. A cheap motel in Whitehall. We drove what seemed like half the night to save $20.00 from the Bestwestern price.First room had a pack of coyoties next to us bouncing off the walls and some old handycaped lady left out in the pickup yelling at the people in the room. I went to complain and the old bag running the place told me to call the cops. I said just give us another room. So we are all tucked in and beat when all the sudden one of the kids lets a LOUD fart. My wife asked who did it and every one denied it.Well it was the trucker on the other side of the cardboard that was called a wall, that had a blow out. The next morning there was a strong smell of propane and my wife was afraid the room was going to blow up. After airing the room out she had to pay one of the kids a quarter to stand there and hold the curling iron in because it kept falling out of the outlet. All so we could save $20.00 and drive half the night to do it. THE CHIEF MOTEL what a memory

About 21 years A guy called me and said that he had a Wayne three light visible pump that was a Rainbow gasoline pump. He wanted an amount that at the time was very high for me and I couldn't afford it. I told him that I was making a trip to Idaho to pick up some other items and on the way back would stop to get a picture of it. When on my way back loaded, and with my 1984 Mazda pickup with no radio and my son that was 8 years old we came upon this. Told my son when I saw this pump that somehow we were going home with this. Introduced myself and son to the gentleman and his dog and wife, and I will make sure that I included the dog. We spent two and a half hours watching this dog do tricks, walking up a ladder and other things. Finally he went inside to ask his wife if he could sell the pump to me at the price that he asked. Her responce was " Honey its your gas pump" and that seemed to sway him. The money jumped out of my pocket and the deal was done. We got pictures of the gas pump, man, my son, and of course the beagle dog which was the entertainmemt of this whole thing. Unloaded a Mazda with four gas pumps already in it and layed all down flat because my little four banger truck could not go over 45 with everything standing up. I still have the pump unrestored with the original key, no globe though, pictures in which I can try to scan, my son who is now almost 29, and no Mazda. Great time and story that we both remember. Thanks for listening.

When my parents bought our family farm back in 1973, patching holes in the barn floor were two of the Sinclair Aircraft rounds. Luckily even then my Dad had the foresight to get them off the floor and on the wall of our shop. So as a kid, I remember hitting the signs with my fist, making them sound like a big "gong". My Dad worked at a Sinclair station back in the mid 60's, so when I went shopping for Dad for something for his Birthday, I'd generally grab something gas/oil to decorate the shop.
About 2 years ago, I decided "WHY am I buying all this stuff just for Dad!?". I had always liked the Petroliana, but always bought it with him in mind. So here I am 2 years later, with hundreds of Mobil items in my collection now. I had always liked the Pegasus design, feeling it was and is an iconic sign of Americana. I am one of the young ones of the hobby at 33 years old, but I think when you grow up with the stuff, you might have an extra appreciation for it.
By the way, Dad still has one of the Aircraft signs. He traded one years ago for a enamel paint job on his '49 Ford 2 door. I hope to have the sign one day, not because of it's value, but for the memories I have attached to it of growing up with it, and a hobby that I have shared with my Dad.
Have a good day all,
Darin

Neat story! sure would be nice to hear more. EVERY ONE HAS A STORY

Back in the early 70's I was allowed to skip school for Hershey. I remember one year we took a 70 Cutlass wagon and set up on the grass (only one field then). Put a rectangle porcelain Chevrolet sign in the car and then the boxes of car parts on top of it. Set up the stuff and slept in the car. Sign didn't sell that year or the next.

Last year when we were knocking down the old barn, I found the sign. It still had the masking tape "price tag" on it- $40.00.

1990 at Allentown automobilia show, guy had full NOS case of Hess handy oilers. Bought a few for 5. each, kept one for the collection and turned the others around quick for 10. each.

Another vendor had a round porcelain Oilzum sign, a little weathered but still nice enough to put over your mantle. Couldn't get 100. for it. Think of that one every time I go through Allentown.

My name is Travis and I am a pump addict…

LOL


Travis
Topeka, Kansas

Always wanted a Visible pump like the one I saw on the Waltons series.
In 1994 I was in Vegas at an antique mall and met a dealer "Bob Grant" goes by veGAS BOB at the mall. His booth had some nice petro stuff but no pumps. After chatting with him he told me he had pumps at home for sale. I followed him home and he sold me a unrestored G&B visible and an Erie 50s pump. This started the whole pump crazyness for me. I restored both pumps and still own them plus 300 more!!! I am pumped up now. LOL

My father told me about working at his brother's Sinclair station in Murphy, NC making $8 a week working from when he got out of school til midnight 7 days a week. Then he gave me a Mae West that turned out to be an original Sinclair pump and from then I was hooked. I would like to have more gas related stuff but it's become so expensive and being out of work for a year hasn't helped but I'm still chugging along looking for that elusive barn find!

Dad saw a wall mount air meter not in use at an old gas station turned repair shop. Stopped and asked a few times over a couple years time if it was for sale, no was always the reply from the foreigner owner. One day driving past he saw the meter was gone off the wall, and the outside of the building was freshly painted. He went in and inquired about the meter, guy said yeah I just threw it away. Dad walked over to the dumpster, there it was.

I was 19 , I needed a job, I got a job, rebuilding nozzles...1981...
I think that had a lot to do with it.

Travis you wimp... I been doing this for years and ain't hooked yet.....Denial !!!!...isn't that a river in Africa????

I like Jim Potts have been doing the body work route since at least 1967. I have collected old gasoline paraphanaila since mabye 1961. I started with the maps as my folks never objected to them . Ed Shaver

Driving down a road in NYS I've been on many times before. Heading back to Jersey hungover from partying at a swap meet. I tell my friend turn around, I just saw a cut corner Colonial ethyl sign on the inside of an open door of a run down shed. We pull into the drive and he said how did you spot that? A lady comes out with a Rottweiler and I ask if Cujo is ok and does she want to sell the sign. She says she'll get her husband and he comes outside. After looking at the sign (it's super clean) and agreeing on a price, he says he'll take it down and grabs a claw hammer. I say no thats ok I got it and take it down. I ask if there are any other signs around and he comes up with a feed sign that was so rusty you couldn't read it. I thank them and pass on that one.

When I was a kid, maybe 12 or 13, I used to go to the beach on vacation with my parents in NC. Once we hit VA from MD we'd drive primarily country roads and there were still a fair amount of old stores, stations, etc with old pumps, signs etc that had been long since out of service. I always thought that was really neat and had always been into old stuff even as a 1st grader. Other kids were playing with GI Joe or He-Man, I was into old civil war stuff and looking for old soda bottles in the woods. Anyways, along one of these roads we used to travel was this store packed to the gills with old pumps, signs, and other great junk and finally I convinced my parents to stop there. It turned out to be Wayne Story's place (not that I knew him at the time). I looked through all his stuff and as bad as I wanted a gas pump there was no room in the car. But there was room for the 36" nice double sided 1930s Texaco Gasoline/Motor Oil sign. I had money with me that I'd made shoveling driveways in the winter and doing other odd stuff, Wayne gave me a price of $75 and the sign was mine (and is still mine). I'm 28 now and I've been friends with him ever since. I got my first pumps a year or so later, a GB 96 and a M&S 70. Still have those pumps. I've got 13 or so now, along with 8 soda machines, signs, cans, you name it. I like it all, which is sometimes a problem!