Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Restored signs can be a problem!

I purchased this 14 by 14 sinclair door plate on ebay about 2 weeks ago and I was really excited as I was opening the package, until I started a close up inspection! Something on the corner first made me take a good look at the overall condition of the sign and then try to find any blemishes!
One corner had a strange taper to the finish and yet had no color loss in the area and I had never seen anything quite like that before and a red light went on somewhere! The shelving was great and the Sinclair ID was there on the bottom right hand corner, so what was there to worry about? I held it up and let the light reflect off the face of the sign and there was a spot that looked suspiciously like it contained filler! I could faintly see the outline of the area and if I looked close, I could see that the finish was not completely smooth like porcelain would be.
OK---I immediately suspected a restored sign but didn't want to try paint remover because of the damage it would cause, so I took a very sharp "O" ring pick and pushed the point against the surface in a suspect area! I about dropped when the point penetrated the surface! I then went to the grommets and used the point of the pick to try and lift the edges of the grommets and they were stuck to the sign from the clearcoat that was obviously present! I pryed a little one one of them and when it came loose, it was without a doubt stuck in place from clearcoat!
Now I was devastated! How could I be that blind as to not see the problems in the original ad? I went to my computer and carefully looked at the ad and realized that anyone would have been fooled by the pictures! The sign was so well done that it had to be held in your hands to see the defects, and even then, a lot of people would have hung it on the wall! NOW WHAT!
I called the seller and was relieved to find out that she would accept return of the sign and that she was totally unaware of the condition that I described to her! It was very obvious, after our discussion, that she was totally unaware when she bought the sign herself!
This is the problem that is going to be cropping up in the future from these restored signs! The person that had it restored is aware of the condition but what happens at their estate sale when someone else has to market these things? Some will make it into the mainstream for many years before some old coot like me notices something that isn't quite right! Its making the ebay marketplace a scary place to venture and we'd better be on our toes when buying these expensive little signs!
Picture 1--Sign as received
Picture 2--Suspect corner
Picture 3--Sinclair ID & suspect grommet
Picture 4--Suspect area in middle of "H"
Ebay# 110883411685
See what you think!---I was lucky!

What part of Cities Service was SINCLAIR involved in?

LOL!!


Looks like the red color around the ID at the bottom is a half a shade off but a pretty good job of color matching.

It was a VERY good job of restoration and would have fooled me 5 years ago! Gotta thank "Old Gas" for the knowledge I do have though, and it stopped a big mistake in this instance!

Boy! I sure am glad you talked em into ending the auction early! I woulda ended up with that sucker! Was the other sign restored too?

A good reason to go to the shows and talk to the seller and handle the items in person.

I didn't talk them into anything! If you look at the bottom area of questions and answers, he had posted the amount he would take for both signs and I simply offered to take the deal!
I was just fotunate that they were honest people or I'd have been left hanging!
I've always wanted one of those signs too! Darn it!

Was the other one any good? That's the one I needed. And as usual I checked my eBay and pooooooffff it had vanished as usual! Lol! Emailed seller numerous times and no reply! Lol!

Kevin, my brother has a very nice original HC sign he may sell. Are you going to the Columbus show?