Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana What was your first sign?

I don't have an exciting story to go with mine, but my first porcelain sign ever purchased was this HC Little sign. My first "gas & oil" porcelain sign was the Mobiloil Gargoyle oil rack sign. I took my dad to an auction and bought the Mobiloil sign years ago. We had a good time. Nothing too exciting but I still have both of them, and because they are my first signs, I will never sell them. They will be in an auction... someday... I may be watching, but I won't be there. LOL

Around 2001 Went to an auction because I saw an old Buick sign I thought would be cool with my 70 Buick. Walked into the room and was amazed at all the signs on the wall. Buick went for way more than I thought so as a conciliation prize I bought this Portage tire sign for $100. Ended up selling the Buick and have been into signs ever since. Refined my collecting to only gas, oil and auto related tins. Love this old Portage sign.

My First.

Good topic!

I still have one of my very first signs... was buying a oil can from a guy and he had a Chevy sign on his wall in his garage. Told him if he would ever sell, to let me know. A week later he sees that I'm selling a embossed plastic Esso sign and says he will trade the Chevy for it if I wanted to. I quickly ran over to his house and traded for it. About 2 months later, an ad shows up on Craigslist with a Chevy sign for sale... but no picture. I go to look at it and its another Super Service skin with very similar damage. I start talking to the seller about where he got it from, and he says me and a friend found it in a junk yard, and we both took one sign. So it turns out that his sign and the one I traded for were both originally together as one. So I had to have that one too! They hung on my wall for several years and in 2016 I finally got them cleaned up and put back on a can with neon. It still hangs in my garage and I love it.

First two pics are when I found them. Last picture is where it hangs now.

Cool story Bryce, those guys really cleaned up nice and looks great hanging up there. It must have been a lot fun getting that sign up there. Was the neon on when you hung them?

yeah, it was fun, and yeah the neon was on it when i hung it. i just used an electric scissor lift, me and another guy just lifted the whole sign on top of the scissor lift rails and then raised it into position where I already had the chains/hooks mounted.

Man you have more guts then I. Glass of any kind and I have a real bad history. Nice job.

My 1st sign and I still have it. I traded a guy a bunch of beer tap handles for this sign and 3 gas globes about 15 years ago. I wish I still had the globes...

I like that Socony shield, I have been looking for one!

After Matt posted his pump plate a light came on, this is one of my very first signs. When I started this train wreck I was focusing on pumps and these where on the pump the other two were missing. I found this around 1987 in a barn in upper Wisconsin. So it is definitely one of my first.

I bought this 42" sign in the early 80's, at the Long Beach swap meet. It still has the $80 price tag on it. Funny thing is, the guy had a similar sized Shell clamshell for sale for $100, but I could only afford one or the other. Given that I was working for Union Oil .....

I guess prices have changed a tad in the last 15-20 years haha

One of the first signs i picked up, not much info out there on siloo items, then
Later on picked up a can

This one of my first Petro signs. It came out of the Buick GMC dealership where I worked when they switched from Kendall to Pennzoil. The embossed"GT-1" half was painted over with the dealer name.