Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Can these ridiculous prices hold?

I've only been collecting petroliana for about 8 years. In the short time that I have been in it, prices have gone through the roof! I find myself walking away at many auctions with nothing. I see hundreds of dumb prices on e-Bay also where the sellers re-list time after time and can't sell. But some must sell or they wouldn't keep doing it right? Ridiculous pricing has come to this site as well. For the old-timers......have you ever seen a period where prices re-adjusted downwards?

I don't see prices going down. There are too many baby boomers interested in this stuff, and the supply will continue to be squeezed.

I find it very difficult to buy at auctions anymore unless it's something you really have to have.. and I'm away past that stage in collecting.. I think high prices are great, used to be at auctions you saw all old grey hair bald guys like myself at auctions now half the crowd are in the 40-50's... all the hype and high prices are driving collecting gas and oil straight up . Last auction I was too 2 weeks ago,there were 150 online ( Proxibid ) bidders and about 75 in the room at the auction,,,and you can bet the online bidders are NOT 70 and over... LOL,,,

PS. I don't think it's the "Baby Boomers" buyin the stuff anymore in quantity,, look at Anthony and Joseph Koban, ( 23 and 26),, and there are a lot of young guns like them driving the market.

I find these times EXCITING !!!!! Gets my blood flowing, LOL, LOL, LOL,,,

i was reading thru some CTO magazines from the 90s and I must have read 3 or more articles written about 'crazy prices'

i read PCM every month and there is always at least 1 mentioning of 'crazy prices'

I see no difference, its something that will always be a topic of discussion regardless what prices are realized.

I remember when Wayne 60's were 300.00.. LOL

and when a Texaco fire chief/sky chief sign were $50.00

I know in the last year or so I have had interest in a few key pieces on ebay. I set my snipe bid at what I thought was the "Crazy had to have it price"...and many many times I was 2nd..sometimes 3rd!

2 Gallon cans are no different than any other spectrum in the hobby. Things go in cycles. Back in the late 90s, along with quarts, 2 gallon prices were heating up bad, simply because of 3 or 4 well known 2 gallon guys, wanting all the strange cans,bid on any example that turned up. Now, it is the same thing. Me and about 5 others guys always bid against each other on any weird 2 gallon on eBay. It is the same people. We are all just simply trying to build large 2 gallon displays, and the supply of unusual 2 gallons is not big enough.Cans that could be bought for a $100 back the 90s, crept down to half that in the years since, and are now $150 or more! Sure its the same on all fronts of the hobby.

I remember in the late 80's prices went kinda crazy on larger, more visual stuff.
The reason then was because the Japanese economy was booming and so was their desire for American nostalgia.
They would come like locust to shows and stores buying jukebox's, coke machines, barber poles, gas pumps and late 50's convertibles, driving up the prices.
Prices came down a bit when that was over, but that was just one factor of the ebb and flow of the antique/collectible market.
I have no doubt the BJ action will have a small impact on prices for a bit, but when sellers realize that isn't the norm, they'll settle down a bit.
But rest assured, prices will be higher in a few years than they are now, unless the (unmarked) reproductions put a serious hurt on it.

I can remember coming home and finding cans on the porch,some with a note,"heard you were collecting these". We used to send each other signs,smalls,pump parts etc free for the shipping. I went around back to my old customers and picked up everything free, pumps,cans, signs,all of it.It was only a hobby and not worth any money. Then the antique stores picked on it and "the hobby" became a business to a lot of people. It's not like it used to be guys. I have a porcelain S$H stamp sign someone on the east coast sent me free. Gas Pump Johnnie sent me a Cities Service lollipop sign free,found the base for it 2 miles from home, free. The good old days.

To answer the original questions, YES prices have spiked before and then came down again. These days its more about the money than collecting and I guarantee that prices will mellow out again soon and even come back to reality.
Too bad for the folks spending the big dollars now thinking prices will keep going up and up.

Just look at what home prices did.

When Romans were $2500.00 or less and displays pumps were $2000.00 or less. Harbor signs, 2500.00

homes are a commodity ,, gas and oil ***** is for extra money ,which a lot of people don't have , but never will have., but there's enough guys with that will keep it going.. I've been in this stuff since the 80's , that's 35 years and I have never seen it go south, not one time.. some stuff has leveled , like common oil bottles, Texaco Fire Chief pump plates,, but in general, it's gone north.
When I first started buying Texaco Fire Chief 18x12 pump signs, they were $18.00...

When was that????

Steve:

In a distant galaxy, a long long time ago
there were Jedi collectors who
collected O&G back in
good old days for
for next to
nothing


Dang I missed that era. Woulda been nice!