Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana Good Lesson - Keep Your Chin Up

In the realm of pump hunting I hit dry spells just as I think every one of my fellow oldgas.com-ers do. It seems I can go a month and find nothing and then right out of the blue a tip pops up and, to quote Dirty Harry, it "makes my day!" I was in line at a restaurant (Outback) this past weekend and was chatting with the people just ahead of me. They noticed when I pulled into the parking lot I had an old oil rack on the back of my truck. The lady asked me what in the world that was. I told her I collected old service station stuff. She told me of a family that had a couple of gas pumps they used in their family business 25 years ago when they were kids. She told me their name and gave me directions where they lived. I stopped by there today and saw a Gilbarco 1002 behind the house. I knocked on the door and tactfully explained that I was a "local guy" that collected old gas pumps and I paid good money for old pumps. The fellow told me that the Gilbarco was still in service but he had another pump in his barn that he doesn't use any more. He took me to see it and it was a standard M&S model 80 with descent (rated 6 1/2) Fire Chief porcelain signs still on it. The pump was a cherry, I have 4 of these and this put my 4 to shame, so far as the overall condition. Knowing that the 2 signs were worth a total of approx $150.00, I offered him $200.00 for the pump. He almost swallowed his tongue and told me "hell yea, for $200.00 it's yours right now!" This is by no means the best pump I own but it takes many drops of water to fill up a bucket. I thought I'd share this tidbit to those who become discouraged at the scarcity of what we all seek. You never know, a 20 minute wait at a restaurant is not always wasted time. Sincerely, Neal Dunn gpf

Neal - That's sorta the way I got 2 M&S 80 finally this past summer. I posted a sign done up like an old WANTED ad from the 1800's in local hardware stores. That was four years ago. A local woman called me one night and said she had two pumps in her cellar as her home was a farm house years ago. So I went and looked
One was a generic and the other was a mobilgas special script top. Not knowing a whole lot about script tops, I knew it was worth more. both pumps were difficult to see and looked rather rough.
I offered $650 for both...that was in 1999.
Not hearing anything for two years I found her number and gave her a call. We spoke of what price she wanted. She said $1000 for both. I still was not satisfied with this and let it sit for another 2 years.
This past july (now a bit more seasoned and knowledgeable of the script top) I called again and inquired about the pumps. She said that she still had them.
I went and looked again and asked if the price was still $500 per pump. She said "yes" if it's cash. The following weekend I loaded them up and paid and took 'em home. Four years in the making....but I consider myself lucky that she didn't sell
them to another in that amount of time.
I wonder how a Mobilgas Special script top ended up on a farm? Someone suggested that it was taken out of commercial service, refurbished and then
given a second life service on the farm??? I am currently restoring the script top and the other 80 is behind my sisters house by her garage giving her light at night! I currently have 3 80's. sold one (my 4th) also over past summer to a guy that was checking out a tag sale near my house and saw it outside my garage.
So it does pay to talk to folks and to post
Wanted ads in highly visible places.

Happy Collecting in the year 2004

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