When I first started collecting, it didn't take long to figure out that I needed to pick a brand to follow instead of leaping all over the board! I picked Cities Service for a number of reasons and it has truly been a fun and exciting journey with a company I have come to admire a lot.
The sheer size of the company was amazing and the amount of advertising items is staggering and at the same time intriguing! Their use of art deco design was right up there with the best of them.
One aspect of collecting a company is the collection of their gas globes and would seem like an easy task until you realize the scope of your project. Cities Service was involved in the earliest formation of the gas & oil industry in this country and therefore the list of known available gas globes becomes very long! Especially when you are trying to collect the vast majority of them. If you start getting into the affiliates too, the list becomes even longer, as Cities had quite a few known affiliates and several that we suspect, but don't know for sure, until an advertising piece shows up and proclaims the fact! So it is with gas pump globes!
Its quite easy when you first start out because there are always several of the more widely produced examples of their globes floating around for sale. Mid way into the journey, things seem to get a bit tougher, as the more expensive globes start coming available and you realize the cost of the journey that you have chosen! At this point there are 2 roads available too. You can opt for the very best to be found, or take the cast offs from other collectors looking to upgrade, until you can, in turn, update yourself! Either way works perfectly well, just that one road is faster and more expensive.
The last phase of the journey is when you have a lot of the globes that are available, and you start searching for those elusive items seen in pictures and the only known examples are squirreled away in high end collections. You keep hoping to stumble upon one of these great pieces by accident and save yourself the enormous cost of buying one of these great pieces? That day never comes and if by chance it DOES, you must quietly push it aside and count yourself as one lucky SOB, because it just doesn't happen and you need to continue the journey!
The journey slows down dramatically at this point, either because of financial reasons, or because of simple availability! Even when you can afford it, some of these globes are simply NOT going to become available! This is a very tough point in the journey, because it becomes a major road block and threatens to block you at every turn!
THERE IS HOPE! All of us are human and our collections will be passed on at some time in the future. When one of the enormously valuable collections gets placed on the auction block, you must be ready and in a position to purchase the missing pieces in your journey.
Here is where sales of collections with the quality of the Kyle Moore collection comes in. I truly wish it had been held together for all the world to enjoy, but it was not meant to be and we all needed to be ready to purchase those illusive items we needed in order to continue our journeys!
My interest was in 2 globes that Kyle had, that were key pieces in my globe collection. The first was lot 409 and is a small OPE Koolmotor globe that is in a 9+ condition and very very rare! I knew that one would cost me, but not a clue how much? The other was lot 735, a OPE Penna gasoline globe that was a known affiliate to Cities Service. I felt this one might be a bit cheaper because of the unknown factor and might slip thru the radar!
To make a long story shorter-- I sold a big bunch of stuff and gathered all the available cash I could and set out to figure out how to accomplish the feat! I'm very lucky in that I have a lot of true friends within the hobby and was able to call upon one that would be attending the sale and was willing to help me out. This friend did the bidding for me(I was on the phone) paid for my purchases, and got them transferred to someone that would transport them back to the Midwest! I think this person did me a huge favor, and probably saved me at least $1500 in costs associated with attending! I spent a lot on these 2 globes, but had a lot of cash in reserve in case they cost a lot more than my expectations, but I wasn't about to let these key pieces slip thru my fingers!
SUCCESS!
There is a long road ahead though, as this is only the beginning of the difficult globes to obtain! I don't really believe I will live long enough to see all of them sitting in my possession, but its the journey that makes the trip worth it, and with the friends I have accumulated along the way, it won't make any difference if I succeed or not, the journey was worth it!
Here is a picture of the 2 globes from the Kyle Moore collection and another I was fortunate enough to obtain from another Old Gasser that is a friend of mine. When this one piece clover came into his possession, he immediately phoned me and we made the deal!
My sincere thanks to all that have made my collection what it is today, and especially to those involved in this latest transaction! I couldn't do it without the help of my friends! You guys are the greatest!
NOW--on to the next globe!!!!
