Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Gas Collecting Books

If you were to reccomend the best book on collecting Gas Station related items, what would it be??

Wife's CHECK BOOK!

I'd save your money and educate yourself thru auction results and ebay sold items, attend shows and talk to others. Many of the books contradict each other and can get you in trouble if you follow those prices.

good one DB and i agree. It really depends on what you are wanting to collect. Lets make it easy and say globes if thats the case then buy both the globe books that Scott Benjamin and Wayne Henderson wrote. If its pumps then it would be the gas pumps identification price guide by Jack Sim. All can be bought here on the site in the bookstore. Hope that helps

AS FAR AS I KNOW THERE ARE NO CURRENT PRICE GUIDES GIVING CURRENT VALUES. EVERYTHING OUT THERE IS 3-4+ YEARS OLD.

FROM WHAT I'VE READ ON HERE, CANS, SIGNS AND PUMPS ARE STRONG. BUT GLOBES ARE SOFT....DEF A BUYERS MARKET ON GLOBES.

One of the newest books is copy right 2005

And it Warman's Gas Station collectibles good pictures identification and price guide a little bit of every thing related service station related, Just gives you a good idea what to look for. But there are mistakes in these books also. Best advice like KZ1000 said :

Now that is funny!!! And the truth!!!

i am just looking for one that shows the Pumps, signs, and items from the different oil companies

Thanks!

Since I first started writing about petroleum collectibles almost 25 years ago I have advised our publishers NOT to put any pricing in any kind of collectibles books. Several reasons; number one, the pricing is obsolete before the ink is dry; number two, it is often only the writers opinion; and number three, there are all kinds of temptations to distort pricing to your own outcome. We never voluntarily put pricing in our books, but the publishers insisted on them, believing that the books would not sell unless they were price guides. On our self published books, Guide to Gasoline Logos and Guide to Gas Pump Restoration, we had much more lattitude and both were written as historical reference documents. Both cover their specific subject matter well.
But to answer your question, I agree with the others. Watch ebay for pricing, and for reference, the best books are our globe books from 1998 (badly out of date, with replacement digital version in the works) and Jack Sim's pump book. The logo book and our pump restoration book are good options, as well, but long out of print.

Wayne Henderson
PCM Publishing
Kernersville, NC

Heard there is a Value book due out in August w/ pictures/descriptions.

i really want that guide to gas pump restoration book. any idea when it will be out on cd?

Truthfully, there is no difinitive "Best book ". I like Wayne here have been in this hobby back in the early 1960's collecting what appealed to me . Course too, when I got in , people were still giving stuff away . I never heard about someone really taking Petolina seriously until I met the late Mitch Stenzler of Webbers in early 1980. By that time , I already had enough to do a book of my own . However , due to conflicts with publishers , the material is stil safely stored in a secure location . My idea was to do a Political Science text which I may do so still....... Ed Shaver

I think every person who is thinking of buying or selling a gas pump should have Jack Sim's Illustrated Guide to Gas Pumps. It can help you avoid selling too cheap or buying too high, saving more than the cost of the book in the process. It can also help identify pump models so you are on the same page as a parts vendor or a pump seller who is far away. Don't leave home without it!

Since you have dealt with publishers..do you think the publishers honestly believe the books wouldn't sell or would you say it's a ploy to put a self imposed shelf life on it thereby making it neccessary to go back and write/print another book which = more profit for them?

I guess I've always wondered why price guides are pushed so heavily in the publishing world..you see it in other collectable fields as well.

Thanks for your contributions to the hobby.

I collect Sinclair and have about 10 gas pumps. I have about 25 books on the hobby. I do not collect Texaco but I have the book, helps to be aware of what is out there and hopefully keep you out of trouble with repos and fantasy items. I got a lot off of eBay. Plus they are interesting to page through on a rainy day

It's good to have catalogs from the vendors to as it shows a lot of the repo signs/globes. Also check the vendor sites for other items that are being made and not listed in catalogs.