Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Question about loan or purchased Station signage

This is a general question but I actually am turning to the mobil collectors specifically but would be an interesting general discussion as well. I just purchased Pegasus's gargoyle artic lubster. In the small print on the bottom it says "This sign is the property of the Vacuum Oil Company and is loaned only on the condition that the user guarantees to dispense from the container to which it is attached only genuine Gargoyle Mobiloil of the grade indicated" Yet I have a lot of gargoyle paperwork and on one receipt there is a charge for: 1 Mobiloil Pump *Artic* marker. The receipt is dated 5/26 so it would seem to me either the station if indeed he bought it owns it or they changed their policy somewhere in between thinking of the text on the bottom of the sign and the date of my invoice. There is a contradiction between the two. What do others think as for an explanation? In a related topic I have another invoice where it says the lids and caps to oil bottles are on loan but the bottles and racks are to be bought. This backs up an earlier letter I have stating the same criteria. Interesting stuff about bought vs loaned.

Here is a photo of the receipt. Hope its legible for you all.



If this discussion were to go general what other signs were bought by stations versus those belonging to the company which I'm sure were reclaimed during changing styles of signage. John

Funny that you bring this up! Today I was cleaning a Goodyear sign looking at some small print thinking it maybe a date or sign company who made it. It said "Property of Goodyear Company" Hmmmm I wonder if they care if I hang it in my workshop? Bet if they could make a bunch of money somehow, they would be all over it. Take care! tt

John, hopefully this isn't "off point". I was lucky enough to find this Shell Oil 1929 Service Station Lease. The station was located outside of Portland OR, so in my backyard. The lease was for 5 years and included all buildings,improvements, gasoline and lubricating oil dispensing equipment. It also included any thing added to the station within that 5 year period.

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URL=http://img264.imageshack.us/i/bottomofshell1929servic.jpg/][/URL]

So at least on this lease, Shell owned everything or that's the way I read it.

Wow Interesting information. Thanks. John

Thats cool & interesting

This all had to do with efforts by the company to prevent dealers from substituting lower price, lower quality oil for the higher priced, higher quality Mobiloil from a tank with Mobiloil signage. It's the same reason they developed the "Fil-Pruf" diamond-shaped bottles which could only be filled with a special attachment on the tanks. Even though the dealer may have purchased the sign, I'm guessing something in the dealer's contract allowed the company to retrieve the signs if the dealer was found to have "substituted" products and had his dealership terminated. Apparently this was a big problem during the days that re-fillable bottles were used to sell oil, and was ended when everyone switched to selling oil in disposable cans.

Of course, another possability is that the "small print" was added just to help reassure the public they were getting the real stuff.....a bluff, so to speak.

OK I did some more reading of my invoices. Seems its a matter of writing. I found another receipt which says on one line: "1 Mobiloil pump and does not mention any signage for a charge of $6.50 so I guess in the previous receipt the charge was for just the pump not the sign. Since the sign was on a seperate line with no charge associated with it - it was indeed a loaned item. John

Bob interesting in that I would be hesitant to make capital improvements to a building that I didn't own, but at least in the old days that must have meant that they continued with the environmental liabilities (not that they even realized there were those - because in another thread I too when working at a gas station as a kid and young adult was told to wash the floor down every evening with about a quart of gasoline on the oil spots). Not being in the gas retail industry, however I believe that has all changed today and most stations are independently owned. Course double walled (as I believe they are) tanks with leak detection helps) John