Used Vintage Cars Blog

When most people think of used vintage cars, what comes to mind is usually basic information that’s not particularly interesting or beneficial. But there’s a lot more to used vintage cars than just the basics. Vintage collectors come in different flavors; collecting anything from vintage stamps, postcards, and coins to used vintage cars, trains, planes, and even vintage aero-automobiles.

Gary Giberson is no exception to vintage collectors, however he belongs to a once rare, and now booming group of petroliana collectors.  Petroliana collections consist of gas station memorabilia. 

Here’s his story:

Mr. Giberson, 73, bought a handsome two-tone 1931 Ford Model A roadster nine years ago and immediately felt the need to accessorize it. He paid $4,200 for a red Fry visible gasoline pump so statuesque it is nicknamed the Mae West. 

To add to his passion for petroliana collecting, he’s also the mayor of this rural town of 1,000 residents about 15 miles north of Atlantic City. He first thought he would put the pump next to his garage. But he also had a chance to buy a Glascock Coca-Cola cooler, an old-time gas station staple. “It went on and on from there,” Mr. Giberson said, smiling. The building is covered with old signs and has vintage items like a hand oil pump. Along the way, Mr. Giberson has picked up, mostly through eBay, a tire display rack, rows of tires, oil bottles, an old-time fire extinguisher, a Packard thermometer and a proof tank, which authorities used to determine if a gallon of gas really was a gallon.
 
He figures he has spent at least $20,000 on his petroliana and fixing up his fleet of old cars, which also includes a 1931 American Austin two-seater and a 1931 Ford Model A pickup truck. He said he could sell the Mae West pump for three times what he spent and a faded metal sign for Mobil oil for about five times the $300 he paid for it at a swap meet three years ago. But that, he said, is not why he collects petroliana.

Here’s his justification for his extreme passion for petroliana collecting.

“You know why people like stepping back in time?” he said. “Those times were fun. People love history, and they love to step back into it.”

Whether you’re a used vintage cars collector or petroliana collector, remembering to integrate the love for history is not only more fun, but definitely quite admirable.
 
 

More on this article can be found at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/automobiles/collectibles/05PETRO.html?ref=automobiles