I hear ya racemad55, you hit the nail on the head !!! I agree with you...... These are just old metal gas pumps, not status symbols. Hell, let's just inflate EVERYTHING and nobody can afford to buy anything. I know good is good, and rare is rare, but there is a reality to what is rare and what is "good enough" to bring crazy money. A Tok 36B is not any $1200 in half-*** condition - sure you may have seen one at a show for $1000, but it just sat there unless it was really clean and all together. It just sat and nobody bought it and it got packed up and taken back to where ever it came from...... People are funny, (humans are the biggest freak of nature that has ever happened in the history of time), if they have one of something or they have something that they are trying to sell, then it's worth an arm and a leg. But, if they are looking to buy it they want it as cheap as they can get it !!!! That's just how it is. Then of course there are the wealthy "money slingers" that want these old pumps and signs just as status symbols and something to do because there so bored with the everyday life that they have that they are willing to pay triple, quadruple, 5 times the amount that the item is really worth. "Look at me , Look at me !!!" The last Columbus auction is proof of that....... I smell a fish (Trading Paper). Give me a frickin' break !!!!! Then the "big shots" get bored with the collecting after spending about a half a million, a million or so and sell all there stuff at some "BIG" auction somewhere to some more dumbasses - and it's just becomes a repetative cycle of more dumbasses. It boils down to the "hobbie" has become a business that plays on people's emotions and desires. It grew to big to fast and it got exploited. Back to that human nature freak thing again....... It's crazy, but it is somewhat predictable...... That pump unless it is clean and nice, and all there, rust-out free, not pitted, is only worth $550-$650. Plain and simple. The pump kinda sucks anyway......... I'm bored, I think I'll go burn some money.
