Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Best Oil & Gas Deal

I have found some good deals on oil and gas items at garage sales, classified ads and eBay. Just wondering what is your best deal you ever got on a petroliana item?

10 Gallon pipe organ with all original parts and glass for 1800-2100 can't remember. Thought I had a good deal on a Roman in New Nexico until I found out my Oregon Column buddy snatched it up:)

THE TIME SOME MECHANIC KID GOT ROOTIN' AROUND IN AN OLD DODGE DEALERSHIP ATTIC AND FOUND ABOUT 80 EMPTY PRACTICALLY MINT 1950'S METAL QUART OIL CANS. HIS G/F WAS ONE OF MY MODELS AND HE JUST GAVE THEM TO ME AND SAID ENJOY! MOST WERE VEEDOL, SEVERAL QUAKER STATE AND A FEW GULFS! CARDBOARD BOXES AS WELL.

A friend gave me all the pumps in a bulk plant storage yard he had bought thinking he had only bought the visibles @ auction.
13 complete pumps plus lots of parts. FerroMeter, 3 Wayne 851,
34 Tok., upper 1/2 of a Tok. 34, 36B Twin w/ Tops were the best ones. 5gal bucket of misc. brass product tags.

30yrs ago I was buying Wayne 60's for $50ea & complete visibles w/ glass for $100.
2 wks ago I got 2 roller nozzle for $150.
Could go on & on

I can think of a few. A Wayne 40 with face bezels for a buy it now on ebay for $300.00, a Eco Islander in great shape on craigslist for $425.00 and a pair of Wayne 40 face bezels for $150.00 at a gas bash. Every thing else was at value or higher.

PICTURES!

I stole these cans at an auction at a downtown garage. I was buying them for less then $20 a piece for the good ones and whole boxes of whiz cans for 10 bucks...



Some guy emails me out of the blue from new orleans that he has a standard sign for $200 bucks but it was painted over. This guy was blind as a bat and he used HUGE font in all his emails. I finally called him, struck a deal and this is what he sent:

My deal of a life time was around 90 pumps, 4 -6' Phillips signs w/poles, 6 old soda machines and numerous other items for $500. One of the pumps was a Wayne 71, a Tok. 34, American 500, several Wayne 70's, Bowser 565's, etc. Sure wish I could run across another deal like that one!
Tony

February 1988
100 Gas pump, many 36B
Loft full of signs
Over 50 oil dispensers
Over 30 cases of old Conoco oil & grease products
Car trunk full of smalls, give-a-ways
Only one globe
All for $700.00

August 1988
Trip to Mid-Ohio for two weeks (5 oil distributors):
22 gas pumps including one 34, one 850, 4 36Bs, misc others.
64 globe lens
NOS 34 & 36B faces
Over 100 pieces of ad glass
21 ECOs
Pile of NOS ECO parts
About 35 NOS 39 doors, still in factory boxes
Total cost about $600.

1990
14 Sinclair branded pumps
Free, owner told me to get them the hell out of there and don't forget the ones in the buildings, then he handed me a Sinclair globe.

1995
Mid-Ohio again:
80 ECOs
$1500

2005
Alabama
2 metal body Pure Pep Globes
Visible glass cylinder
$200

Just the highlights

Jack Sim

Like many others on this site, I could literally write a book about all the great deals (my first Wayne 800 for $100 comes to mind) but my most lucrative deal was the following:

I came across a local filbert farmer who had a short Tokheim 39 in his field. I asked about it, and five hours later (and four outbuildings at two different houses) I had bought 7 Model T's (brass touring, doctors coupes, TT, etc.), a G&B visible w/perfect blue tint, a Boyle Dayton gas cart, Zerolene porcelain flange sign, Aristo Motor Oil porcelain flange sign, and the short Tok. 39 that started it all for $16,000. All said and done, I sold the lot for $55,000 in about three weeks. Not a bad month at all.

When my son was about 11 we went on a trip to Idaho to pick up a globe that had been offered to me, my first globe. Had a little mazda pickup in which I bought new in 84 I believe, no radio to distract. Drove over and was picking up other things that we had found along the way as the headlines always read. My truck was full and the little four cylinder was pedal to the metal on the way back for the wind going home was pushing us hard on the freeway. A man had told me about a three light pump that he had and it was a rainbow gasoline visible pump at one time. He wanted alot of money to me at the time, and I told him I could not afford it but would like to come by just to take a picture. Driving up I saw my first Roman Column Gas pump, and said to my son we are going home with that pump. We spent two hours listening to the guy and having to watch his dog do tricks and walk up a ladder. We wasn't willing to sell me the pump for what he had asked. We finally went in the house and he asked his wife. I will never forget those words when he said, What do you think Ma ? Her response was " Its your gas pump Pa ". He then said OK and my money jumped out of my pocket. We unloaded my already full little Mazda and put this pump laying down with everything else ontop and around. Before we left took a picture of the pump, dog, farmer, and my son together. Had the photos blown up and Kept one myself and sent one to the Farmer.He was as proud of it and his dog as I was with my new Gas pump in which I still have today just as I bought it with the key still in the lock. Looking back now, it isn't the money at all, but looking at the picture and thinking about it is worth all the money in the world along with one of the best memories as a father. No rainbow globe though.

Still waiting for my moment,unless you consider June 9th,1973 in our basement,when Vicki Delgado gave me mono for free.

One that I remember was a crown rotator at an auction for five bucks.

Mine would have to be my near-mint Red Crown thermometer with working tube that my brother found for me while doing his gas/oil delivery route. He saw it in the guy's barn and asked him if he would sell it. He said, "Yeah, but I won't take any less than $300 for it. Some of those signs are worth $500 you know." After seeing it I think my pen was smoking writing the check, lol! It didn't hurt that later that week after my brother told his boss's Dad about the thermometer find that he gave me a Red Crown globe to go with it. The Dad had started the fuel company in the 50's and had kept the crown but wanted me to have it. It was a heck of a deal all the way around, especially for a new collector. This was when I first started collecting gas/oil about 3 years ago.
Darin


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About 5 years ago, a guy from Oregon calls me at Vic's Place and says he has a globe lens with a stop light on it, says signal, and he needs $1500. I ask him for pictures, he says no can do. I'm thinking maybe repo, maybe damaged PLUS hows he gonna get it to me without breaking it. I was pretty flush at the time, so I gambled and overnighted him $1500 Postal Money order. I get the lens, and turns out to be a Signal Products which later sells at my auction for $21,000. There are many, many homeruns in my career, but that was my GRAND SLAM!

Wayne 50A show case in a scrap pile to be crushed. Richard

GREAT stories!

Lets see that pump Craig!

years ago when i first started this collecting thing,my son kens 4 wheeler was stolen from our driveway.a year later i got a call from the lake county sheriff,and he says"guess what?we found your sons wheeler.its in prestonsburg ky!!"well holy smokes!!so me and ken drive out,and were directed to a junk yard where it was stored.a guy named jackie bartlett.now the storage charge was supposed to be 35 bucks,but when i got there,ol jackie says(now this is real hill country here)"wal,i'm gonna do you a favor and only charge you $75.00 for the storage"so i'm out in the middle of nowhere,want my wheeler,and this guy aint gonna budge.i pay him the 75 bucks.then i ask him if he has any old gas pumps laying around.he sure did.got these for 75 bucks.
along with a third body.had a few others since,but 1 of my favorite stories

Seth :
About 3 years before that lens came to you the original owner was in my very first shop to help his daughter pick up a pair of doors. He saw my stuff and told me about this signal globe that he had and where the old station was. Never gave me his number but said that he would call, like I have never heard that before. He would not give me his at the time, but just said that he would not forget me. Guess what !!

I bought the oilzum thermometer you see as my signature icon on the left for $30!!! Not my greatest find, but certainly makes for the best story!!! I bought it from "for sale forum" on the other chanel about 2 years ago. One of the biggest petro dealers in the country advertised it as a repop for sale for $30!!! It's almost dead mint, which may confuse someone who isn't familiar with the thermometer!! Just goes to show you, you can't possibly know everything about everything!!!! Love the stories. Wish I was collecting this stuff 20 years ago, when everything seems like a deal compared to today's priCes.

Hi Guys,

Great stories and great deals.I've got a few here and there where I really got some good deals.

However, in terms of value to my collection,I consider the best deal I ever made was when I found and acquired the neon spinner clock with crown that was on the outside of the first Deep Rock station here in ABQ.I don't know what it's worth but to me it doesn't matter;it's still the centerpiece of my Deep Rock collection.

One day my girlfriend came home with an old Shell sign. She was at a veternarian office taking our dog for a walk out back. She seen the sign facing outwards leaning up against the back of the bulding amongst scrap and weeds. She asked the owner, who came outside and said take it (with a confused look as to why she wanted it) It is 3'x6' and is heavy. I confirmed the vets office was once an old gas station, and has changed hands a half dozen times. The incredible part is it sat there for decades (50+ yrs?), and here in Eastern Ontario EVERYTHING seems picked over long ago.

I cannot find much about it. Some say it is WWII era when alcohol based fuel replaced gasoline due to the war, others have said it may be as early as 1920s?

Rough, but definately cool. Good candidate for restoration.

I'd leave as is. Re-done signs look pretty, but it's hard to recover your money on most that look Fake [too pretty] after being re-done.
jm2c