Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Where Does All This Information Come From?

Obviously, some metal work and repainting could remove any date of manufacture.

IMHO it's not right that they duplicated the original down to every minor detail...

youngbuck...you were making quite the case at the top of this thread for complete and full disclosure when dispensing information to fellow members.

So...the question that begs to be answered...when making these pumps are you permanently marking these pumps as such...you know...the whole complete and full disclosure thing?

We mark them in 2 spots and put the word reproduction all over the site. Also, from the outside everything is identical, but when you open up the head unit, you can tell it's not an orginal beacuse there are no provisions for a computer. Looking inside the head will instantly notify a collector that it is a reproduction. 100% without a doubt.

This thread has gotten way off topic. Feel free to PM me about the pump or start a new topic.

Welcome to Old-Gas and how the thread takes a turn to new directions!!
Just understand we are all very protective of our hobby because it's a big part of our lives and we want it to continue after were long gone. The word reproduction sometimes carries the same as a 4 letter word in this hobby. Having reproduction parts to restore a pump works but when the whole item is, that makes us a whole lotta nervous.

Hang in there as you will take your hits on here but it sounds like you understand the reproduction theory.

Good luck with your pump sales but IMO for that price most of the true collectors would use that money towards a real one!!!

I nominate this post for Oldgas thread of the year. It delivers on so many levels.

To get this back to a more humorous note regarding using material without citing references..

There was a long time mystery about what happened to the Paraland gasoline brand. Phillips Petroleum had bought Quaker Oil in the late 1940s and used the Paraland brand as a secret secondary brand offered to select jobbers. They had denied ownership in a FTC hearing in 1965, stating that they were no longer involved in the Paraland brand, divesting itself when they got in trouble over "unfair competitive practices." Notes of the hearing were public knowledge, but no one knew where they went, as I remembered Paraland stations in Greensboro in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and Walt Wimer knew of them from all through the 1950s and 1960s and even had a photo of a Paraland station from that era. But what happened to them?

Walt had occasion to visit the Phillips museum in the 1990s and asked the archivist about Paraland. They promised to research the question and get back to them. Several weeks later he received in the mail all they could find about Paraland, the incomplete history I had written, Xeroxed from our first globe book. With no other explanation. The researchers in the hobby had essentially circled back on ourselves. It was actually quite funny, that they had no better tools than we did. (BTW, Phillips sold the Paraland brand to Greensboro jobber Hardin Oil in 1964, who used it as his jobber brand into the mid-1970s. I discovered this when I called Buck Hardin, a customer of mine at the time, and asked what he remembered about the Paraland stations here in the 1960s. This appears in all of the later books.)

To echo what Jack said, I do this for the thrill of the hunt for information. I collect information and pictures and learn from them. And its a hoot to see your stuff in print. Before Joanne and I were married, we took our assorted kids and went to Washington as guests of the Smithsonian, where I was consulting for them on a project. While I was doing what I was there for, she found that the basement bookstore in the Smithsonian was selling several of our books. That, folks, really impresses a girl!
A note to prospective authors: your royalty checks that come every six months...most will not buy supper for you and your family. Write because you enjoy it! I took a stand nearly 30 years ago to make a difference in this hobby. I like to think that I have.

Definitely experience. That is the key.

youngbuck

Take notice the time I posted my long whatever. I was ready for this. DB used to kid me all the time about my passion to play darts competively. Playing darts three nights per week at the age of 79 might be amazing but I have never come up with a better excuse to drink beer. Yes I had a few beers before I responded above.
My first response to your post about me and the others. I don't think Wayne, Scott B., ever had a mentor, I know I didn't. It was a decision each of us made. Wayne to collect oil company literature, Scott to collect everything known about globes, in my case I choose gas pumps and air meters. My decision is the same as I made in 1949 at the age of 14, that I would be the first person from the Sim family to graduate from college. I didn't graduate until I was 28, a little thing like the Korean Conflict delayed me a little bit.
Accumulating and restoring gas pumps from the 70s & 80s is not a contribution to this hobby. If that sort of thing was true, then I should win first prize having restored over 350 ECO air meters, plus I don't know how many other air meters I have restored. This only contributed to me paying the bills of old age, I did not contribute to the hobby.
I would like to interject something. I am not into signs, but I did have a book written about signs. The author went to a collection of signs, took pictures and wrote a book. Does this make him an expert on signs? I could do the same thing tomorrow, I could take pictures of all the tail lights on the cars in my neighborhood, would I then become the expert on this subject?
I don't like the word "expert." I don't feel I am a expert about anything. I would like to believe that Wayne and Scott feel as I do, we just all have the literature to back up anything we say.
Many times I feel I should add to a post about someone's question, then I realize, no, don't hit that submit button, it will probably only show everyone my ignorance on the subject.

youngbuck, I also will ask you to look at my personal information. Next to Jim, I probably have the lowest member number of anyone at the present time on this site. DB used to kid me about this. We both signed up at approximately the same time, I don't know which one of us was first, but Jim rearranged everything and I got the number 57, DBs was a little above mine. Now look at how many posts I have made, less that 5000 in 14 years. I take pride in never saying "nice sign," "nice find," "nice, nice, nice." I post information and I sell things here. Why, because I would rather spend the time working on the next book I am writing.

I wish you well in your making reproductions that will probably be resold as originals someday. Many times I have gone out to the garage, looked at all the spare ECO parts I have, thinking I could make dummies out of this, then...I decided to just find some other original item I could restore.

My next book probably won't be out until the spring, send me your email address and I will put you on the list of potential buyers.

Jack Sim

That's great that you're marking them, thanks for the reply.

I read Petroleum Collectors magazine, Check the Oil magazine, Journal of Antiques on a monthly basis. Antique Weekly every week, this chat line almost daily. Buy all kinds of books and old auction catalogs.

I have been going to auctions since I was about six. Have been to thousands of them over the past 45 plus years, travel extensively, check out museum's, antique shops, flea markets, yard sales. Go to every show I can, from gas shows, car shows, antique shows, bikes, stamps, bottles, paper etc. I have been invited to see many fantastic private collections big and small.

You learn so much by talking with people. One day I learned more in a few hours about glass insulators then most people would care to know by listening to a conversation among two friends that collected.

Years of experience and being involved is how you gain knowledge. I learn something new everyday. The other day it was about what kind of pot to make pickles in, and I don't even like pickles !