Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion What are the best books?

Hello all!

I want to buy a book for oil cans or signs. I am more in the market for cans, is there a book for cans? I just want to know the value and stuff for the cans so I don't have to look on ebay or ask on here.

Thanks
Noah

There is no book that will help you for values. All books are good for IMO is for referencing an item of interest and finding out what items are real and fake, and variation. The market, be it Ebay, auction houses, or oldgas, will determine what it sells for. An item is only worth as much as you are willing to pay for it and when the buyer and seller are happy.

Books are great for pictures and i have many books.

Wayne Henderson and Scott Benjamin, put out excellent books for reference.
Remember that most of these were printed years ago and the market has changed so those prices are worth nothing to me.

The fine art of collecting $ displaying Petroliana.

This book has a little bit of every thing in it. That has to do with the hobby. There are some books that are all about oil cans available . I think if you click on the book store above, it will show a lot of books that are for sale and you can order.

Noah, as Dan said, the books are great as a visual reference. But, as a value guide, one would have to continuously update any book...

Quite a few who own these books, do their own updating... I used to do that but, I couldn't keep up... Too many "small auctions" are now selling more and more "gas and oil" items...

I have a general idea of what an item should go for and I then decide if I "feel froggy".... LOL

There is a book store here on the site. The resources there are the ones you want but like the books like computers go out of date pretty quick. With most ofthe values in the books if you can buy it today for less than the book values it your ok. But the market changes none stop.

Noah:
Speaking as the guy who has written more about petroleum collectibles than anyone else, I can confirm all that everyone has said so far. A value book is simply impossible. So many items are one of a kind, prices are based on appearance instead of rarity, and even if two people can agree on a price, that price is out of date in the three weeks between completion of a book layout and finished product. Several of our books are over 20 years old. We have numerous reference books coming out over the next several years, including a sign book based on the function and layout of the globe e-book, but the pricing will be out of date by the time I hit print. Watch the sales and auctions (not ebay, too easy to rig) and never pay more than you are comfortable with for any particular item.

Wayne Henderson

Noah,
I'm sure like me, you have seen the veterans around here tell people to buy the books. I resisted for a while because they aren't exactly cheap at give or take $30. But now that I have three can books, I am in them daily! I started with the "Collecting Oil Cans", then "More Oil Cans for the collector" and then "American Oil Cans". All three books fall short on certain brands so ultimately you have to have all three. But like everyone says, pricing is all over the place relative to what things go for. I use them mainly for dating and identifying.
I'm sure if you pick any one of these three to start you will be happy, and before long you will have all three of them.

Good luck,
Steve

The Best Oil Can book is "American Oil Cans" by Tom Allen, but Values are way off today's going prices. You can get it in the Book Store here on Oldgas.

also when you come time to buy your book. take some time to shop around. You never know you might even find the book locally. I bought for example at an antique mall Jack Sim illustrated guide to gas pumps 2nd edition for 33bucks when amazon sells the book for 95.00+.

I would also like to know for the oil can books. Do any of them tell you how to tell about a real verses a repo or what to look for?

Repo cans have Vinyl/ paper labels/ water release decals on them. Original metal cans have the graphics lithographed onto the cans. I am Not aware of any Repop cans that have been lithographed.

IMO this is not necessarily true. It is a great and very necessary book if your going to look into oil cans. And I love the info in the front on seams, lids and such. But it has no Shell section. No Gulf. No Sinclair. No Pure. The Mobil section is very weak through the 40's to 60's and there are no 50's at all. Great Gargoyle section though. Great Sunoco. Great Pennzoil.

One strange thing is between all three books, there is only one Quaker State can shown. And it's a 1920 1 gallon. So good luck trying to find info on Quaker State cans. Unless there is some other books that I have yet to find.

You really need to have all three books. Just my 2 cents.