Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana Gas Station Trading Stamps

Gas Station Trading Stamps are a collectible that are often overlooked.
These trading stamps were given with the purchase of gas & oil only usually.
They are stamps that were given out most often by discount stations & sometimes just a single dealer, jobber, or distributor.
Dealer associations often opposed them & wanted legislation banning or limiting them.
From a 1961 Retail Gas Dealers News;
Opposing Trading Stamps
A 1916 US Supreme Court ruled that trading stamps could be regulated.
A 1959 Wyoming bill banning trading stamps was upheld by there State Supreme Court.
While 13 other states since 1937 have had there bills banding them overturned.
Even the Wyoming bill as did as others allowed stamps that merchants gave & redeemed themselves lawful.
So if a dealer or company gave there own stamps & redeemed them the legislation didn't apply.
Some states only allowed stamps to be redeemed for cash or products.
In 1955, fifty bills were introduced in 24 states attempting to penalize stamps in one way or another.
I have a collection of about 100 stamp books covering 75 different brands or locations.
Since I worked nearly 45 years for a jobber my collection started with ones I was familiar with.

Speedway 79 was founded by the Sucher Brothers in 1919 in Detroit, Mi. There 1st stations were combination coal yards- gas stations.
Sometime after Aurora was founded in the early 1930's, Aurora became half owner of Speedway until 1947 when Aurora became full owner.
Note the "Earl's" on one of the Speedway stamp books, Earl was a dealer at the newest Marathon station the jobber I worked for in late 1960's
He took over a Marathon station when his Speedway was closed down after the street it was on was changed to one-way.
Forgot to mention that when Marathon bought out Aurora in 1959, Aurora was a part owner of Gold Bell stamps
More to come.

Dave

Duro was a Detroit based tank car operation starting in the mid 1920's
Tulsa also a Detroit based discounter that was founded when one of the Sucher Brothers left Speedway & founded Tulsa in the mid 1950's.
Shortly after that Tulsa acquired the Duro stations & re branded them Tulsa

Best brand was created when Leonard Refineries bought the Cavalier brand of Flint & re branded Best in 1968.
The Lakeside Refineries of Kalamazoo had a small number company operated stations.
Interesting the address on this book later became a Crystal Flash station & today it is a Speedway.
PBS was a company that took over stations when self serve became legal in Michigan & the jobber I worked for couldn't keep dealers in the stations they owned because of lower margins.
White Fire was owned by Tank Car Stations Inc of Buffalo, NY.
Note the Jackson, MI location as I delivered that station in the late 1960's
This same location was branded Red Flash in the mid 1920's, Jolly Tar in 1929, White Fire from 1936 to 1943, Speedway 79 in the 1950's & finally Marathon in the 1960's.
Gastown was based in Cleveland, Ohio & had 90 stations, bought by Marathon in 1972.
Crystal Flash was Grand Rapids based operation related to the Indianapolis based fuel oil operation.
At the time of this stamp booklet they had 13 stations.
Stations bought by Marathon in the 1990's
OK Tire stores is national chain that some of there locations sold there Auto Float brand gas

Monarch was a tank car operation based in Bay City, MI with 5 stations & used a punch card rather than stamps
Red Head was based in Wooster, Ohio & bought by Ashland.
Wareco was based in Jacksonville, Illinois.
Zephyr was marketed by Naph-Sol Refining of Muskegon, MI & had stations in Michigan & Wisconsin.

Super Par based in South Bend, Indiana had 30 stations in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, & Iowa.
Pacer was related to Super Par & had stations Michigan,Illinois, Indiana, & Oklahoma.
Gem has a Kansas City, MO address.
Aller Oil of Fostoria, Ohio sold the Hy-Flash brand & had about 6 stations.
Derby Wichita, Kansas
Save Way,Merit, Giant based in Philadelphia, PA
Site based in St Louis, MO

Save Stations based in Roanoke, Virginia had 15 stations.
Red Bird marketed by Southern Independent Oil & Refining of Evansville, Indiana & had 11 stations.
Mars marketed by Marine Oil Co of St Louis, MO with 40 stations in 9 states.
Liberty Oil Co of Mt Vernon, Illinois, bought by Fina.
Sav-Mart Fina had stations in 4 cities in Illinois.
Detomic of Springfield, Illinois had 2 stations
Monarca marketed by Centrill Monarca Oil Co of Matton, Illinois & had 22 stations
Note the copy cat covers on Detomic & Monarca, a common practice.
Champion Service Stations of Springfield, Illinois & had 2 stations

Harper's Oil Co Springfield, Illinois had 6 stations & recently sold out.
Hicksatomic of Aurora, Illinois had 20 stations & 18 propane bulk plants.
Wides of Murphysboro, Illinois
Wake Up J.A.Hogshire Indianapolis, Indiana in 30 cities with 20 in Indy.
Star Centralia, Illinois
Wisco Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Simonson Cut Rate Gas Inc. Grand Forks, SD still in business with 17 stations
Red Fox of Fort Wayne, Indiana bought by Linco in 1928

Clark of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Owens of Bloomington, Illinois bought out by Clark
Big Top Stations of Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin 4 locations with different brands of gas.
Burr's Gas House of Massachusetts with 9 stations

All these stamp books as well as several others were copyrighted by R.L.Jacoby & sold by Liberty Sales System of Chicago, Illinois.
They made a special book & stamp for each of there customers possibility to comply with various regulations.
Back Eagle of Milwaukee, Wisconsin it lists 6 stations but Black Eagle had around 50 stations with most bought by Phillips 66 in the 1950's
Merriam's Sunoco of Pulaski, NY. This is the only single station stamp book I have.
Liberty Oil Co of Pottsville, PA & they sold Richfield products.
T.O Howard's Bell with stations in 3 Texas cities

These also are made by R.L.Jacoby, Liberty Sales System
Eastern Penn Oil Inc of York, Pennsylvania & had 4 station that sold Conoco & Blue Moon gas.
Powerine of Denver, Colorado. They gave blue stamps for oil & red stamps for gas purchases.
Penna Independent Oil Co of Allentown, Pennsylvania with 26 stations & sold Fleet Wing products
Sinclair dealers of Macon, Georgia.

Consolidated of Oshkosh, Wisconsin had 70 stations bought by Marathon in 1972.
Western of Minneapolis, MN bought by Conoco with 62 stations
Superamerica of St Paul, MN
Ziegler Tire & Supply of Canton, Ohio with 4 locations. Stamps were given for cash gas purchases only.

Trackside Gasoline Stations of Birmingham, Alabama.
Spur of Nashville, Tennessee
Direct of Nashville, Tennessee
Bonanza of Ogden, Utah
R & S of Des Moines, Iowa had 6 stations
Smith Oil Co of Cedar Rapids, Iowa had 12 stations
Kean Bros of Chicago, Illinois had 14 stations
Jet of Florida
Kayo F.P.Kendall Co of Chattanooga, Tennessee

The 3 Erickson companies
Erickson Oil Co. of Stevens Point, Wisconsin & had 18 stations
Erickson Oil Products Co of Hudson, Wisconsin & had 36 stations
Erickson Petroleum Corp. of Minneapolis, MN with over 160 stations change to marketing the Holiday brand in 1962
With 3 Erickson companies it would seem some stamps would end up in the wrong book.
Using the addresses from these booklets I could find only one city where 2 different Erickson's had a station.
I have heard that the Minneapolis company bought the Stevens Point company.
Note that some of these booklets are billfolds & the customer didn't have to lick'm & stick'm, just put them in the billfold.
Also note another copy cat cover with Big Top & Holiday using nearly identical covers.

Bonded Oil of Springfield, Ohio bought by Marathon in 1975
Gasteria Bonded of Indianapolis, Indiana had 34 stations
Bonded chips from the Bonded Oil & used instead of stamps.
There exists an envelope to save these chips in.
Regal of San Jose, California
World Oil Co of Carson, California & I think they are still in business.
Beacon Jetflo of Hanford, California.
There exists identical stamp books from Bonded & Gasteria Bonded.

Bulko of Chicago, Illinois had 140 stations in Illinois & Wisconsin, bought by Gulf in 1968.
Great Stations Inc of Oak Lawn, Illinois
J & L Oil Co.of Vernon Hills, Illinois & had 45 stations
Chief / Road Chief of Chicago, Illinois & had 45 stations.
Note the identical station address list on the Chief & J &L.
Chief / Road Chief was one of the many brands marketed by the Small Bros over the years.