What petroliana collecting actually involves

Most of the hobby is walking and looking. You work the rows of a swap meet, a flea market or an antique mall on foot, pick up anything with an oil company logo, and read it: the maker's line along the bottom of a sign, the seam on a can, the date code in a map margin. A typical outing lasts an hour or two and often ends with one small purchase or none. Back home you match the piece to a price guide, check what the same thing sold for lately, wipe it down and find it a spot. Collections usually settle around one brand, one kind of object, or the companies that sold gas in your own state.

A wooden shelf holding large round Mobil and Shell oil cans beside smaller red rectangular tins — Round and rectangular oil cans on a shelf

An old stone general store with a round Texaco star sign on its gable and a red gas pump on the porch

02

Pick a corner of the hobby to start in

Four ways in, one to begin with

Oil CansThe classic entry point. One-quart cans stack on a shelf, carry the same artwork as the big signs, and common ones cost $10 to $30. Scarce brands and early graphics climb into the hundreds.

Start here

Buy one common one-quart can from the 1950s or 1960s at an antique mall, where they usually run $10 to $30. Check its seam, top and bottom against the dating clues below before you pay more for anything older.

SignsThe showpieces. Porcelain enamel and painted tin signs bring the highest prices in the hobby and are also the most reproduced things in it, so this is the corner that most rewards homework.

Start here

Handle a real porcelain sign before you shop for one. At a swap meet or antique mall, run a fingertip across the edge between two colors and look into a chip, then do the same on a new reproduction so you know both by feel.

Road Maps And PaperThe cheapest way in. Stations handed out free maps from the 1920s into the 1970s, most cost a few dollars today, and a hundred of them fit in a shoebox.

Start here

Buy three oil company maps of your home state from three different decades. Date each one from its cover art and the small code in the margin, then put them in sleeves.

Dating Rand McNally and Gousha maps

Globes and pumpsThe deep end. The lit glass globes that topped gas pumps start in the hundreds of dollars and go far higher, and a restored pump needs floor space and a way to move 300 pounds. Most people come to these after a few years.

Start here

Look before you budget. Search a sold-price archive for one globe you like and note what the lenses, the body and a restored example each bring, then go see globes and pumps in person at a swap meet.

Open a corner to see its first step. Oil Cans, Signs and Road Maps And Paper each add their own gear to the kit. Globes and pumps need nothing beyond the base kit to begin with.

03

How to date a piece and spot a reproduction

Feel a porcelain sign.

Each color on an original was fired as its own layer of glass, so on most older signs a fingertip catches a slight step where two colors meet. A reproduction is usually dead flat.

Look into a chip.

Real porcelain chips show the color layers stacked like tree rings, with dark steel at the bottom and rust that has crept under the edges. Painted-on rust and chips that are all one color are warning signs.

Read the bottom edge.

Many signs carry the sign maker's name and city in small letters there, and some add a date. Look the maker up before trusting it, since copies print these lines too.

Check the seam on a quart can.

Metal quart cans became the standard in the 1930s. A soldered side seam points to an early can, and a cardboard body with metal ends dates from about 1960 or later. Plastic bottles took over in the 1980s.

Put the picture under a loupe.

Old cans and tin signs were printed in solid areas of color. A fine, even grid of dots across the whole image points to a modern photographic copy.

Measure a globe lens.

From the 1930s through the 1950s the usual globe was a body with a 13.5 inch glass lens on each side. Lenses are reproduced far more often than bodies, so an old body proves nothing about the lenses in it.

Learn the word "fantasy".

Plenty of new signs carry real old logos on a design the company never issued. If a piece is in no reference book and no auction archive, assume it is one of these.

A red and white triangular Conoco sign on a pole beside a brick building, pine trees behind — A triangular Conoco sign on its pole

Blue and orange rectangular motor oil tins and enamel signs laid out on a yellow cloth

04

Your first month, step by step

Tick these off as you go

05

Cleaning, storing and showing it off

Start dry.

Dust with a soft cloth first, and move to a damp cloth with a drop of dish soap only on porcelain and glass. Keep water off paper labels and out of can seams.

Leave the wear alone.

Scratches, dents and faded paint are part of what a buyer checks to confirm age. Repainting a sign or can usually cuts its value, and it cannot be undone.

Keep cans dry.

Rust starts at the rims and seams, so store cans in the house or a dry garage, off bare concrete, with a thin coat of wax over printed tin.

Hang signs from studs.

Use every mounting hole the sign has, cushion each screw with a soft washer, and stop tightening when the sign stops moving.

Keep color out of the sun.

Red and orange inks on cans, tin signs and map covers fade fastest, and a south-facing window can bleach a can in a few summers.

Store maps folded the way they came, one to a sleeve, standing upright in a box like index cards.

Refolding along new lines is what tears them.

A dark green Sinclair sign with white letters and a red border, screwed to a white wall above a window — A Sinclair sign fixed to a wall

06

What trips beginners up

Buying a sign first. It is the most expensive and most faked category, and a first-year mistake there costs hundreds. A season of cans and maps trains your eye for a lot less.
Trusting the word "vintage". Sellers use it for last year's decorator signs. Ask directly whether the piece is original, and get the answer in writing when buying online.
Paying book prices. Guide values are often years old and assume top condition. A can with a dent and a rusty rim brings a fraction of the listed figure.
Opening or emptying a full can. Collectors pay more for cans that are still sealed, and one opened from the bottom displays as if it were full. A can opened from the top has lost value for good.
Collecting everything. Fifty unrelated pieces fill a garage without making a display. One brand or one state gives the collection a shape and makes you the person sellers call.
Forgetting freight. A pump or a six foot sign bought at a distant auction has to be crated and trucked home, which can cost as much as the piece.

07

Lead, old fuel and the law

!

Assume old paint contains lead.

That covers painted signs, pumps and cans made before 1978. Do not sand, grind or wire-brush them dry indoors, wash your hands after handling flaking pieces, and keep them out of reach of small children.

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Treat full cans as what they are

Containers of old motor oil. Store them upright where a leak will not reach a drain. If one has to be emptied, take the oil to an auto parts store or a household hazardous waste site, never the trash or the ground.

!

Never cut, grind, weld or heat a pump or tank that has held gasoline until a professional has cleaned it.

Vapor trapped inside can ignite years after the last fill.

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Respect the weight and the edges.

Rusted tin cuts, so keep a tetanus shot current. Get help lifting pumps and large signs, and never hang a porcelain sign from drywall anchors alone.

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Take nothing from an abandoned station.

The signs, pumps and cans still belong to the property owner, and removing them is trespassing and theft. Ask the owner and get a bill of sale.

Official guidance on lead

EPA: Lead Free federal guidance on handling and cleaning up around old lead paint

A red and white Mobilgas pump with a round glass globe on top showing a red winged horse — A Mobilgas pump with its globe

08

Where to learn more

The collector forums are where identification questions get answered, usually within a day and often by people who have handled the exact piece. Post clear photos of the front, the back and the edges. The hobby's monthly magazine covers new finds, reproduction alerts and the show calendar, and the big summer swap meet in Iowa puts thousands of pieces in one place if you want to see the full range in a single weekend. Map collectors have their own association, with free guides to the date codes publishers printed in map margins.

The magazine, the swap meet and the map club

Folded highway maps and travel brochures with illustrated covers in a display case — Folded highway maps and travel brochures

09

Why the kit is this small

Nothing on this list is a collectible. The one essential is a price and identification guide, because every buying decision starts with knowing what a piece is. The loupe and the UV flashlight are the two checks that catch most reproductions and repairs, and one avoided mistake pays for both. Cloths cover the only cleaning most pieces should get. The rest depends on your corner of the hobby: gloves and conservation wax for oil cans, a stud finder and soft washers for hanging signs, sleeves for road maps. Add those when the first pieces arrive, not before.

10

Stock the service bay

Compare the options on each line, then set your grades and check out from the service bay panel. Clicking a card selects it there, and clicking the selected card again takes that line out. The price guide, the loupe, the UV flashlight and the cloths start in the kit. The can, sign and map gear joins when you switch on the add-on it belongs to.

Gas station collectibles identification and price guide

Essential · Reference

Shows hundreds of genuine signs, cans, globes and pumps by brand with photos, so you can match what is in your hand to a real piece and learn which brands are scarce and which turn up everywhere.

budget

Service Station Collectibles (A Schiffer Book for Collectors)

5.0(1)

$17.09

Petroliana Collecting

What petroliana collecting actually involves

Pick a corner of the hobby to start in

How to date a piece and spot a reproduction

Your first month, step by step

Cleaning, storing and showing it off

What trips beginners up

Lead, old fuel and the law

Where to learn more

Why the kit is this small

Stock the service bay

Gas station collectibles identification and price guide

10x loupe with light

365nm UV flashlight

Lint-free microfiber cloths

Disposable nitrile gloves

Microcrystalline wax polish

Stud finder

Nylon flat washer assortment

Clear sleeves for folded maps