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Jim can correct me, but I believe I have the lowest member number here on Old Gas. I was one of the first to join this great site. I have tried to contribute as much as I can, because I love literature. Well...about 20 years ago I wrote what I believe was a three part article about how I hot in this hobby and what happened during the next six months. Someone asked me about this lately and I cannot find it, if it is still available. Maybe, somewhere in the OG vault, it still exists.

If you can find it, please let me know, I would like to add to it and repost it. Please send me address at: jhsim@petrocollect.com

In advance,

Jack Sim


Author, 1st & 2nd editions of Gas Pump ID book, 3rd edition is now available at www.gaspumpbible.com
Air Meter ID book also available
Please use For Sale forums to sell

Please - NO offers to Buy or Sell in this forum category

Statements such as, "I'm thinking about selling this." are considered an offer to sell.
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I'm member # 11 I'm not sure member numbers really mean anything to anyone other than Jim.

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Last edited by sandman325; Tue Oct 29 2019 11:27 AM.

Collecting most things related to Cities Service, Galena Oil, Hi-Speed Gas, Sunoco & Richfield.
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Want to thank you and all the other veterans for your contributions and putting up with all the newbie questions . When I first started collecting pumps a few years back I had tons of questions . You , Dick Bennett , Scobie , Craig Osbeck , Kevin Frith , Phil McCauley , Matt Alvarez , J .Yocum ,Advertologist and many others who patiently provided answers and solutions for me and others .As I studied and followed auction and sale prices and purchased many books and cds I gained knowledge . All of these aids helped in my growth . But the first hand knowledge from those that have been there and done it as they say have been of enormous help too a great many people . Sharing your vast knowledge is what will keep this hobby flourishing and bring new collectors into the hobby. So keep on sharing , I know it’s tiresome and a burden but it is vital to the continuation of this great disease/ hobby . A shout out to all the above and any that I missed. Keep this site strong and the best it can be . Number one in my humble opinion.Last but not least a shout out to the creator manager of this site for providing a place to for us congregate and share and learn . JIM POTTS


Wanted TEXACO related items & SUNOCO related items .Signs -Globes et'c. Oil Cans - Grease cans .
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Thanks for the kind words, Bob. It is true that the people who take the time to answer questions are the foundation of our online community. Thanks so much to all who have shared some of their knowledge and experience over the years.

Jack,
To find an old post, you can click on your name in a post header and choose "Show Forum Posts" from the drop-down menu. For a really old post, click on the highest page number in the lower right corner of a page listing your old posts. This only goes back to November 2000. Posts before that used a different software and are no longer archived here.
Here are the oldest posts by Jack Sim:
http://www.oldgas.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=userposts&id=57&view=posts&page=260

Or
You can use the internal forum search instead of the Google Custom search form. Click on the word "Search" on the forum menu bar. Use the "By Display Name" box to put in your user display name. Pick a date range to fit your post along with a useful keyword. The internal forum search function has been greatly improved in the last upgrade to be more user friendly and to yield more relevant results. Jack, try searching for "back in the 80s" to find 4 threads by you in 2003 about collecting decades ago.

Member numbers are not a scientific way to determine length of membership. We had a database crash over 15 years ago where some member numbers were reassigned when the database was rebuilt. To get a time-based look at long term membership, click on "User List" on the forum menu bar near the top of this page. On the member list, click on the word "Joined" on the far right of the list header bar. That will display a chronological list of membership except for those who were reassigned after the 2004 database rebuild. I'm near Dick Bennett close to the bottom of page # 40:
http://www.oldgas.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showmembers&sb=9&like=-1&page=40
The "Joined" dates are correct for members with reassigned numbers, but they are scattered through the list according to their number, not the date. *sigh*


Jim "Oldgas" Potts
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Originally Posted by buzzy56
Want to thank you and all the other veterans for your contributions and putting up with all the newbie questions . When I first started collecting pumps a few years back I had tons of questions . You , Dick Bennett , Scobie , Craig Osbeck , Kevin Frith , Phil McCauley , Matt Alvarez , J .Yocum ,Advertologist and many others who patiently provided answers and solutions for me and others .As I studied and followed auction and sale prices and purchased many books and cds I gained knowledge . All of these aids helped in my growth . But the first hand knowledge from those that have been there and done it as they say have been of enormous help too a great many people . Sharing your vast knowledge is what will keep this hobby flourishing and bring new collectors into the hobby. So keep on sharing , I know it’s tiresome and a burden but it is vital to the continuation of this great disease/ hobby . A shout out to all the above and any that I missed. Keep this site strong and the best it can be . Number one in my humble opinion.Last but not least a shout out to the creator manager of this site for providing a place to for us congregate and share and learn . JIM POTTS



WOW !!!! EXTREMELY WELL SAID BOB !!!! I don’t think many could have said it better.

This site truly is extremely helpful with all of the knowledge. One thing that kind of puts a damper on this hobby is the people on Facebook who are new or misinformed and think they know answers, and then post wrong information as fact.

The uneducated collectors who voice their opinion on FB are skewing the correct history and misleading future collectors. (And I’m not saying everyone on FB, is doing that, because a lot of us here are on there as well and it doesn’t happen horribly often). But what I am saying is that most people here on OldGas don’t voice their opinion unless they know for a fact that the information they are giving is genuine and correct. I can’t tell you how many times I’m on FB looking at a question and someone gives an incorrect answer and then ten people reply, “oh ok cool” or “thanks” or “that makes sense” when the info is incorrect.

That’s what makes this site so great. All of the genuinely, knowledgeable collectors on here. And all the great info, reference material and photos.

So to all of those collectors on here that have helped me throughout the years, I say thank you. (And I know when someone asks a question, several other collectors are probably wondering the same thing.)

Keep this site the best it can be,
Steve

Last edited by Speedracer; Tue Oct 29 2019 02:14 PM.

-Steve B. (WTB: 48" Flying A button, 48" black/org Phillips 66, White Star, and Chevrolet Signs. Also looking for a Wayne 866. Send a PM. Thanks.)
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Hey Jack,
Thanks for asking for the old posts. Thank you Rob for doing the research and posting the links. I spent the morning reading Jack’s posts and drooling over such “finds”. I have cut and pasted all the articles in sequence for you Jack and anyone else who may want to read them or save them. Thanks again Jack for sharing these with us.
Steve

Contributed by Jack Sim:

I came into this hobby from the old car hobby. I had a number of Model T Fords over the years (and a few other cars, 1930 Studebaker, 1923 Dodge)and I always wanted a gas pump to go with the cars. I did have the opportunity to go to a shop that was closing. I went with my boss and he spied a visible pump (it turned out to be a Wayne 515) that looked pretty good so he grabbed it. He left me a visible pump that didn't look too good (glass cylinder gone, etc) but I purchased it anyway. It turned out to be a rare St. Louis visible. I was hooked.
A few months later an Mobil oil jobber was moving to make way for a big shopping center, and it was only three blocks from my home so I went over there and asked him if I could look over the place for anything he didn't want. He told me to take anything I wanted. I came home with a box filled with NOS Mobil ad glass, a Bowser Siamese and about 5 Tokheim 300 pumps. All for just the taking.

Now I was really hooked. I got on a Saturday morning yard sale program on the radio and said I wanted to purchase any old gas pump anyone had.
I got a call, and after needeling the guy I found out he had 100 gas pumps in about 4 different building and they were all for sale. Actually everying in the place that he didn't want was for sale. The place was about a 100 miles outside of St. Louis, but we made the trip every Saturday morning for about 3 weeks, negociating with the owner. On the third trip, he agreed to sell everything he didn't want for $700.00.
After I handed the cash over to him we hit the loft pulling out all the NOS signs. He was a Marathon jobber, but had been a Conoco jobber before. We pulled down boxes of NOS signs, there were cases after cases of Conoco grease and oils that he had never sold. We put as much as we could in my wife's brand new Camry (it was draging the ground in the rear) and headed home.

For I don't know how many Saturdays we made the 100 mile trip in my truck to retrive gas pumps. Originally he wanted the pumps and motors so we were gutting them there and then taking the pumps home. By mid afternood we were so dirty and smelled of old gas we couldn't go anywhere but a drive-in to get anything to eat.
Gutting these pumps got a little old, so we started taking them home with the guts in them and not bothering to take the guts back.
Along with the 100 pumps we got boxes of smalls, Conoco pole holders, and one day the owner came over and handed me globe from a very small jobber in Southern Illinois and said I could have it. Still today, I open a old box and find things I got out of these buildings.
This was all during the late winter and early spring that we were moving all these pumps. About this time I heard about a petroleum show that was being held in Des Moines, so I decided to restore a pump and take it up there with all the signs, etc, we had and see what we could do.
I will continue this story tommorow.
Jack Sim

First to answer the Pumpman 2 question, yes it was $700.00 for everything.

Actually the decision to restore a pump was made on one of the first trips to pick up some pumps. I didn't know sh.. about pumps and couldn't find a book telling me about them so I just went on what I felt was a nice looking pump. Outside of one of the buildings was a pump that was completely rusted, every square inch of it from bottom to top. It just looked like a good project, and besides there was this glass door in the bottom. We (meaning my wife and myself) loaded it up and took it back to St. Louis. Little did I know I had picked out a Wayne 60 showcase pump.
I worked months on this pump, filling every pit and sanding, sanding and more sanding. There was hardly a mark left in it when I finished putting the red and white paint on it. I used a nice red, but didn't brand the pump.
We went out and purchased a beat-up $100.00 camper trailer with a pop-up top, gutted it and made it into a vending trailer where we could sit under the cover and sell our stuff.

After driving all night we arrived in Des Moines at about 6:00 a.m. in the morning. I believe this was the second Iowa Gas and thay were still going through growing pains. Not having spaces we were just told to park over there. I pulled over to the spaces and started backing the trailer in when a crowd gathered. The pump was laying down inside the truck bed.
The first guy up asked what I wanted for the pump. While driving there, my wife and I had discussed what we were going to sell the pump for and decided we wouldn't take less than $1000.00 for it.
Now keep in mind the engine is still running on the truck and I was trying to disconnect the trailer when I told the guy that I wanted a grand. I'll never forget the conversation: He said he would give me $800.00 for it and I said no, this early in the show the price was firm. He asked if it was as nice on the other side as it was on the side you could see. I assured him it was and he handed me 10 $100.00 bills.
I walked over to my wife, flashed the money, told her the story and said "Isn't this a wonderfull country."
After getting everything set up I took off looking for similiar items that people had for sale just so I could get some idea what to ask for our stuff.

Needless to say, we sold a lot of stuff as many of the items were well underpriced, but considering what we had paid for all of it we were in heaven.
I should have mentioned this earlier, but at the time my wife was a deep in this hobby as I was. Many a pump she helped gut, many a dirty box of signs she carried out to the car and most of the sales at the Iowa spaces were made by her. She never said you will have to wait for Jack to get back, she went ahead and sold the stuff.
The one story she always likes to tell about Des Moines was when a couple of guys came over and asked about some wall hangers for signs. These were NOS, 2 in a box and would support just about any hanging sign. With hardly anything priced ahead of time, everyone had to ask what we wanted for the stuff. When asked about the hangers she said $35.00 expecting $35.00 for the box of two. The guy handed her $70.00 and thanked her for selling them so reasonable. We were learning fast.

One more thing about the pump, I asked the buyer if I could keep the pump in front of our display to attract attention. He said no problem, he would pick it up late that afternoon. It did attract attention, and when CTO reviewed the show in the next issue, my pump was the only one they had take a picture of.
With a pocket of cash we took off for St. Louis the next afternoon. We had to get back early enough to get some sleep, repack and take off in the car for Dayton, Ohio. My wife works for the government and she was to attend a two-week school at the Wright-Pat Air Force base there.
We got there Sunday evening, and were put up in a nice room in the Officers Quarters. Monday morning she found out she could take to bus to class, so I had the car and two weeks to look for petroleum stuff.
That story will continue tomorrow.

After Iowa Gas in Des Moines and a quick trip home to St. Louis we were off to Dayton, Ohio. Monday morning my wife was off to class on the bus and I had the car and 12 days to look for petroleum items.
I left the Air Force base at the nearest gate and found myself in Fairfield.
Now where would you start looking, well I looked for a gas station and spotted a tanker truck dropping product at a Marathon station. I never talked to the station operator, I talked with the tanker driver. I told him I collect petroleum items (gas pumps, signs, globes, etc.) and asked him if he knew of any jobbers where I might find some old stuff.
He named off about 6 or 7 places all within a 75 mile radius of Dayton, but mostly to the north and east.
The first place I picked was a farm coop in Urbana that had stations and found about 14 Tokheim 39s and 300s and a couple of Wayne 80s. He wouldn't sell me the Erie clockface he had in the building, he said he planned to restore it when he retired. My going rate for this type of pumps was $15.00 and he accepted to offer. I told him I would be back soon.
Driving around old Highway 40 which is just north of I-70 in this area I found a couple of great old antique stores filled mostly with nostaligic items. My wife and I went there that evening and purchased a few boxes of stuff (very little petroleum related, but great old stuff).

It's hard to remember which days I visited which jobber but for the next few days it went like this.
In Springfield, Ohio I purchased a square Tokheim 850 and a couple of 39s. In Plain City, Ohio, a Tokheim 34 and one other pump. I even took time to visit with Ben Staub at his business. This little meeting has led to an over 15 year friendship. Ben and his son Steve run the Ohio Gas swap meet outside of Dayton.
All told I purchased 19 gas pumps, a bunch of signs, nozzles, no globes but a lot of ad glass from various companies and god knows what all. We kept bringing so much of it up to our room in the officers quarters that it started looking like a warehouse. Something had to go. On Friday we shipped 9 boxes of stuff back to St. Louis by UPS.
I happened to have a copy of Hemmings with me and noticed that there was going to be a auto swap meet in Troy, Ohio, only about 15 miles away, on Sunday. We happened to have an old tarp in the trunk so we loaded up a bunch of nozzles, ad glass and other small items to see if we could sell some of it.

We didn't sell a thing, but a guy came along and asked if I purchased things like this. After a quick answer of YES!!!! he gave me directions to his place in Lima, Ohio about 70 miles away.
Monday morning found me in Lima and when he slid the door open to his building I thought I was in heaven.
Against the wall were box after box, each with a NOS Tokheim 39 or 300 door and even a box or two with a NOS side in it. Marathon signs were all over the place and 20+ ECO air meters. On the shelves were NOS Tokheim 34 and 36B faces, NOS ECO reset handles and behind one bench about 500 NOS Marathon ad glass (I still have about 100+ of these in a drawer). All over the shelves were NOS gas pump parts as he repaired pumps for Marathon. There was so much stuff it was hard to remember it all.
Now for the fun part, how much?
He told me to make a pile outside, of the things I wanted, so I made one that would fit in the car. He took a look at it and said $40.00. I paid, packed and headed back telling him I would be back the next day. Before leaving I asked him if he had any old literature (sales or repair manuals on pumps etc.) that he didn't want. He said he did have some at home and would bring it the next day.
Tuesday morning found me back again. I asked about the literature and he said it was in the back seat of his car. Not knowing what to expect I went to the car only to find the complete back seat fill from one side of the car to the other with literature. This is what actually got me started in what materialized into the gas pump book. Again I asked how much, he said $40.00.

Knowing that I wouldn't be able to take all the stuff he had, back to the AF base I made piles, and put the stuff in a place where it would all be when I came back for the gas pumps that all around the area. Each time I made a pile he would say $40.00. This was easy, all I needed was a pocket full of twenties.
Knowing I would have to come back and pick up the pumps I decided that Wednesday and Thursday would best be spent gutting the pumps. I didn't even have a screw driver with me so it was off to Sears. I bought the basic tools and in two days I gutted 19 pumps by myself. I didn't need any help, but I did have to borrow a few tools I forgot.
Friday was an open day, but I did have the name of one more jobber on the south side of Dayton. There is a highway that runs east to west below Dayton that goes through Eaton near the Indiana border.
I started out at the first jobber buying a few little things (I do remember buying another ECO air meter somewhere) and asking him where the next jobber could be found. It seemed that every town on this road had a jobber, didn't find much until I got to Eaton.

After telling the jobber in Eaton about my quest he showed me an array of nice clock face pumps that were stored in the back of his building. They weren't for sale (again he was going to restore them when he retired) but he did say I could have anything off his junk pumps that were out along the fence. Luckly I had the tools with me and I went to work. I was pulling faces, bezels, handles, just about anything that I could remove from them. He didn't want anything for them, just take what I wanted. It was getting dark and I was still working so he told me to lock the gate when I was finished. Before he walked away I told him that I wasn't going to take anything off of a Tokheim 36B he had there. This was one of the nicest unrestored 36B I had ever seen and I thought it would be a crime to remove anything. I told him I would try and get back to this part of the country soon and if the pump was still there I would purchase it (it took 2 years before I was back, the pump was still there, nothing was removed and I purchased it for $50.00 and he even used the fork lift to put it in my truck).

Saturday we loaded up the Camry, the back end was dragging the ground and my wife was complaining about what I was doing to her new car. We even stopped in Cincinnati and picked up her daughter and our grand-son. She still laughs at making room for them in the back seat with all the stuff we had.
Two weeks later it was back to Dayton with my son, a truck and a empty trailer.
That story tomorrow.

Two weeks after being in Dayton, my son and I were on our way back to pick up the pumps. What we thought we could do in one day turned in two days. First of all, at Urbana the Coop had found another pump they wanted to get rid of so we had to wait for them to go out to some field to get it. We picked up the other pumps, but by the time we got to Lima the owner had left for home. We took a Motel and met him there the next morning.
He started out telling us he had found more Marathon signs so now we were starting to fill up the truck. We put all the doors, signs and other large itmes in the bed of the truck and the pumps in the trailer. About the time we were finishing up loading he informed me that he did have a pump he wanted to get rid of. A short ride to another building and behind it was a Tokheim 36B, very rusty, but all there. We loaded it without gutting it.
Back to his building for one last look. This time I looked up at the highest shelf in the building and spotted about 8 boxes marked "Cincinnati Advertising."

Realizing they were globe lenses I asked him what they were and what he was going to do with them. Besides a few that said just "Kerosene," they were Marathon Mile-Maker and SUPER M. There was also a few Marathon Number 1 and 2 Diesel lens.
He said he was buying globe bodies, putting the lenses in them and selling them for $25.00. I figured he was paying about $11.00 for the bodies so he was getting $7.00 out of each lens. I offered him $8.00 per lens and he wouldn't have to go to the trouble the get bodies anymore. He took the deal so we counted the lenses. There were 64 lenes, enough to make 32 globes. It was time to get back to St. Louis.
This story took place over about a 6-7 month period, and while I felt extremely lucky I still had that feeling that I had come into the hobby late and all the good stuff was gone. If I could do this in the late 80s can you imagine the stories Scott Anderson could tell you about the 70s when he got in the hobby. I don't even want to speculate on what stuff was going for then.

I am going to end this with one more short story that happened about a year later.
At a auto swap meet, here in St. Louis, I met up with about three other petroleum collectors (I know Ron Kunklemann was there but I can't remember who the other two were). The discussion got around to finding stuff in the St. Louis. The three of them all felt that there wasn't much to be had. I didn't speak it out loud, but made a mental challange to myself that I would go out the next morning (Monday) and see if I could find some pumps or just about anyting worth bragging about.

Driving my truck I headed across the Missouri River bridge into our neighboring county, St. Charles County. I had never really been up into the old part of the City of St. Charles so I headed there. After driving for about 1/2 hour I spotted the tell tale tanks next to a railroad line. It was an oil jobber and there were a couple of building there. On the ground I spotted about 4 Bennett computer pumps and a Bennett oil can cabinet. There was even another Bennett pump laying outside the fense next to the sidewalk. I asked where the office was and headed there.
Now, I never ask if something is for sale, I always ask "What are you going to do with that ....., out at the bulk plant. When I asked the owner this he said, "You want them dam things, well get them the hell out of there, and by the way when you are picking them up tell the guys there to give you the pumps that are in the building."
Then he said wait a minute. He went into a closet behind his desk, came out with a Sinclair globe, handed it to me and said, "Here take this too."

These stories kind of end here. We never really kept count, but we estimated we had about 200 pumps over a 5 year period. Most of them were stripped for parts but I never made much money. I was selling tall 39 doors for $10.00 and people were complaining about the price. The other thing was that I used to send many of the items out and have the people send me the money after they got the parts. I thought I was being a nice guy, but about 25% of them never paid me for the parts.

I tried to start a business like Vic's or Scott Anderson's but I didn't have the capital and found myself running in so many different directions I forgot where I had been. I really liked the air meters, so a decision was made to get rid of everything else and concentrate on air meters.
I was down to about 75 pumps when I made a deal with an old friend from Las Vegas. He came east with a big truck and the pumps went to Vegas.

I still find a thing or two from a gas pump out in the garage, but I really only have one complete pump left, an old 1913 Bowser curb pump that I forgot when he picked up the others.
While I don't have as many questions to answer here as I used to (the book answers most of the questions now), I do go on line everyday and read what is going on. It's great to see there are still people getting into the hobby.
My wife and I or my grandson and I will be attending the following shows this year: Columbia, Missouri; Evansville, Ohio; Ohio Gas; CTO Convention in Columbus; Iowa Gas; Fall Carlisle and Hershey. How about coming by an saying hello. I always take the pictures of the new pumps that I have found with me if you want to look through it. They will be in the revision.

One more thing, many thanks to Jim Potts for providing us with this great forum and "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night."

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Originally Posted by Stephenwarren30
Hey Jack,
Thanks for asking for the old posts. Thank you Rob for doing the research and posting the links. I spent the morning reading Jack’s posts and drooling over such “finds”. I have cut and pasted all the articles in sequence for you Jack and anyone else who may want to read them or save them. Thanks again Jack for sharing these with us.
Steve

Contributed by Jack Sim:

I came into this hobby from the old car hobby. I had a number of Model T Fords over the years (and a few other cars, 1930 Studebaker, 1923 Dodge)and I always wanted a gas pump to go with the cars. I did have the opportunity to go to a shop that was closing. I went with my boss and he spied a visible pump (it turned out to be a Wayne 515) that looked pretty good so he grabbed it. He left me a visible pump that didn't look too good (glass cylinder gone, etc) but I purchased it anyway. It turned out to be a rare St. Louis visible. I was hooked.
A few months later an Mobil oil jobber was moving to make way for a big shopping center, and it was only three blocks from my home so I went over there and asked him if I could look over the place for anything he didn't want. He told me to take anything I wanted. I came home with a box filled with NOS Mobil ad glass, a Bowser Siamese and about 5 Tokheim 300 pumps. All for just the taking.

Now I was really hooked. I got on a Saturday morning yard sale program on the radio and said I wanted to purchase any old gas pump anyone had.
I got a call, and after needeling the guy I found out he had 100 gas pumps in about 4 different building and they were all for sale. Actually everying in the place that he didn't want was for sale. The place was about a 100 miles outside of St. Louis, but we made the trip every Saturday morning for about 3 weeks, negociating with the owner. On the third trip, he agreed to sell everything he didn't want for $700.00.
After I handed the cash over to him we hit the loft pulling out all the NOS signs. He was a Marathon jobber, but had been a Conoco jobber before. We pulled down boxes of NOS signs, there were cases after cases of Conoco grease and oils that he had never sold. We put as much as we could in my wife's brand new Camry (it was draging the ground in the rear) and headed home.

For I don't know how many Saturdays we made the 100 mile trip in my truck to retrive gas pumps. Originally he wanted the pumps and motors so we were gutting them there and then taking the pumps home. By mid afternood we were so dirty and smelled of old gas we couldn't go anywhere but a drive-in to get anything to eat.
Gutting these pumps got a little old, so we started taking them home with the guts in them and not bothering to take the guts back.
Along with the 100 pumps we got boxes of smalls, Conoco pole holders, and one day the owner came over and handed me globe from a very small jobber in Southern Illinois and said I could have it. Still today, I open a old box and find things I got out of these buildings.
This was all during the late winter and early spring that we were moving all these pumps. About this time I heard about a petroleum show that was being held in Des Moines, so I decided to restore a pump and take it up there with all the signs, etc, we had and see what we could do.
I will continue this story tommorow.
Jack Sim

First to answer the Pumpman 2 question, yes it was $700.00 for everything.

Actually the decision to restore a pump was made on one of the first trips to pick up some pumps. I didn't know sh.. about pumps and couldn't find a book telling me about them so I just went on what I felt was a nice looking pump. Outside of one of the buildings was a pump that was completely rusted, every square inch of it from bottom to top. It just looked like a good project, and besides there was this glass door in the bottom. We (meaning my wife and myself) loaded it up and took it back to St. Louis. Little did I know I had picked out a Wayne 60 showcase pump.
I worked months on this pump, filling every pit and sanding, sanding and more sanding. There was hardly a mark left in it when I finished putting the red and white paint on it. I used a nice red, but didn't brand the pump.
We went out and purchased a beat-up $100.00 camper trailer with a pop-up top, gutted it and made it into a vending trailer where we could sit under the cover and sell our stuff.

After driving all night we arrived in Des Moines at about 6:00 a.m. in the morning. I believe this was the second Iowa Gas and thay were still going through growing pains. Not having spaces we were just told to park over there. I pulled over to the spaces and started backing the trailer in when a crowd gathered. The pump was laying down inside the truck bed.
The first guy up asked what I wanted for the pump. While driving there, my wife and I had discussed what we were going to sell the pump for and decided we wouldn't take less than $1000.00 for it.
Now keep in mind the engine is still running on the truck and I was trying to disconnect the trailer when I told the guy that I wanted a grand. I'll never forget the conversation: He said he would give me $800.00 for it and I said no, this early in the show the price was firm. He asked if it was as nice on the other side as it was on the side you could see. I assured him it was and he handed me 10 $100.00 bills.
I walked over to my wife, flashed the money, told her the story and said "Isn't this a wonderfull country."
After getting everything set up I took off looking for similiar items that people had for sale just so I could get some idea what to ask for our stuff.

Needless to say, we sold a lot of stuff as many of the items were well underpriced, but considering what we had paid for all of it we were in heaven.
I should have mentioned this earlier, but at the time my wife was a deep in this hobby as I was. Many a pump she helped gut, many a dirty box of signs she carried out to the car and most of the sales at the Iowa spaces were made by her. She never said you will have to wait for Jack to get back, she went ahead and sold the stuff.
The one story she always likes to tell about Des Moines was when a couple of guys came over and asked about some wall hangers for signs. These were NOS, 2 in a box and would support just about any hanging sign. With hardly anything priced ahead of time, everyone had to ask what we wanted for the stuff. When asked about the hangers she said $35.00 expecting $35.00 for the box of two. The guy handed her $70.00 and thanked her for selling them so reasonable. We were learning fast.

One more thing about the pump, I asked the buyer if I could keep the pump in front of our display to attract attention. He said no problem, he would pick it up late that afternoon. It did attract attention, and when CTO reviewed the show in the next issue, my pump was the only one they had take a picture of.
With a pocket of cash we took off for St. Louis the next afternoon. We had to get back early enough to get some sleep, repack and take off in the car for Dayton, Ohio. My wife works for the government and she was to attend a two-week school at the Wright-Pat Air Force base there.
We got there Sunday evening, and were put up in a nice room in the Officers Quarters. Monday morning she found out she could take to bus to class, so I had the car and two weeks to look for petroleum stuff.
That story will continue tomorrow.

After Iowa Gas in Des Moines and a quick trip home to St. Louis we were off to Dayton, Ohio. Monday morning my wife was off to class on the bus and I had the car and 12 days to look for petroleum items.
I left the Air Force base at the nearest gate and found myself in Fairfield.
Now where would you start looking, well I looked for a gas station and spotted a tanker truck dropping product at a Marathon station. I never talked to the station operator, I talked with the tanker driver. I told him I collect petroleum items (gas pumps, signs, globes, etc.) and asked him if he knew of any jobbers where I might find some old stuff.
He named off about 6 or 7 places all within a 75 mile radius of Dayton, but mostly to the north and east.
The first place I picked was a farm coop in Urbana that had stations and found about 14 Tokheim 39s and 300s and a couple of Wayne 80s. He wouldn't sell me the Erie clockface he had in the building, he said he planned to restore it when he retired. My going rate for this type of pumps was $15.00 and he accepted to offer. I told him I would be back soon.
Driving around old Highway 40 which is just north of I-70 in this area I found a couple of great old antique stores filled mostly with nostaligic items. My wife and I went there that evening and purchased a few boxes of stuff (very little petroleum related, but great old stuff).

It's hard to remember which days I visited which jobber but for the next few days it went like this.
In Springfield, Ohio I purchased a square Tokheim 850 and a couple of 39s. In Plain City, Ohio, a Tokheim 34 and one other pump. I even took time to visit with Ben Staub at his business. This little meeting has led to an over 15 year friendship. Ben and his son Steve run the Ohio Gas swap meet outside of Dayton.
All told I purchased 19 gas pumps, a bunch of signs, nozzles, no globes but a lot of ad glass from various companies and god knows what all. We kept bringing so much of it up to our room in the officers quarters that it started looking like a warehouse. Something had to go. On Friday we shipped 9 boxes of stuff back to St. Louis by UPS.
I happened to have a copy of Hemmings with me and noticed that there was going to be a auto swap meet in Troy, Ohio, only about 15 miles away, on Sunday. We happened to have an old tarp in the trunk so we loaded up a bunch of nozzles, ad glass and other small items to see if we could sell some of it.

We didn't sell a thing, but a guy came along and asked if I purchased things like this. After a quick answer of YES!!!! he gave me directions to his place in Lima, Ohio about 70 miles away.
Monday morning found me in Lima and when he slid the door open to his building I thought I was in heaven.
Against the wall were box after box, each with a NOS Tokheim 39 or 300 door and even a box or two with a NOS side in it. Marathon signs were all over the place and 20+ ECO air meters. On the shelves were NOS Tokheim 34 and 36B faces, NOS ECO reset handles and behind one bench about 500 NOS Marathon ad glass (I still have about 100+ of these in a drawer). All over the shelves were NOS gas pump parts as he repaired pumps for Marathon. There was so much stuff it was hard to remember it all.
Now for the fun part, how much?
He told me to make a pile outside, of the things I wanted, so I made one that would fit in the car. He took a look at it and said $40.00. I paid, packed and headed back telling him I would be back the next day. Before leaving I asked him if he had any old literature (sales or repair manuals on pumps etc.) that he didn't want. He said he did have some at home and would bring it the next day.
Tuesday morning found me back again. I asked about the literature and he said it was in the back seat of his car. Not knowing what to expect I went to the car only to find the complete back seat fill from one side of the car to the other with literature. This is what actually got me started in what materialized into the gas pump book. Again I asked how much, he said $40.00.

Knowing that I wouldn't be able to take all the stuff he had, back to the AF base I made piles, and put the stuff in a place where it would all be when I came back for the gas pumps that all around the area. Each time I made a pile he would say $40.00. This was easy, all I needed was a pocket full of twenties.
Knowing I would have to come back and pick up the pumps I decided that Wednesday and Thursday would best be spent gutting the pumps. I didn't even have a screw driver with me so it was off to Sears. I bought the basic tools and in two days I gutted 19 pumps by myself. I didn't need any help, but I did have to borrow a few tools I forgot.
Friday was an open day, but I did have the name of one more jobber on the south side of Dayton. There is a highway that runs east to west below Dayton that goes through Eaton near the Indiana border.
I started out at the first jobber buying a few little things (I do remember buying another ECO air meter somewhere) and asking him where the next jobber could be found. It seemed that every town on this road had a jobber, didn't find much until I got to Eaton.

After telling the jobber in Eaton about my quest he showed me an array of nice clock face pumps that were stored in the back of his building. They weren't for sale (again he was going to restore them when he retired) but he did say I could have anything off his junk pumps that were out along the fence. Luckly I had the tools with me and I went to work. I was pulling faces, bezels, handles, just about anything that I could remove from them. He didn't want anything for them, just take what I wanted. It was getting dark and I was still working so he told me to lock the gate when I was finished. Before he walked away I told him that I wasn't going to take anything off of a Tokheim 36B he had there. This was one of the nicest unrestored 36B I had ever seen and I thought it would be a crime to remove anything. I told him I would try and get back to this part of the country soon and if the pump was still there I would purchase it (it took 2 years before I was back, the pump was still there, nothing was removed and I purchased it for $50.00 and he even used the fork lift to put it in my truck).

Saturday we loaded up the Camry, the back end was dragging the ground and my wife was complaining about what I was doing to her new car. We even stopped in Cincinnati and picked up her daughter and our grand-son. She still laughs at making room for them in the back seat with all the stuff we had.
Two weeks later it was back to Dayton with my son, a truck and a empty trailer.
That story tomorrow.

Two weeks after being in Dayton, my son and I were on our way back to pick up the pumps. What we thought we could do in one day turned in two days. First of all, at Urbana the Coop had found another pump they wanted to get rid of so we had to wait for them to go out to some field to get it. We picked up the other pumps, but by the time we got to Lima the owner had left for home. We took a Motel and met him there the next morning.
He started out telling us he had found more Marathon signs so now we were starting to fill up the truck. We put all the doors, signs and other large itmes in the bed of the truck and the pumps in the trailer. About the time we were finishing up loading he informed me that he did have a pump he wanted to get rid of. A short ride to another building and behind it was a Tokheim 36B, very rusty, but all there. We loaded it without gutting it.
Back to his building for one last look. This time I looked up at the highest shelf in the building and spotted about 8 boxes marked "Cincinnati Advertising."

Realizing they were globe lenses I asked him what they were and what he was going to do with them. Besides a few that said just "Kerosene," they were Marathon Mile-Maker and SUPER M. There was also a few Marathon Number 1 and 2 Diesel lens.
He said he was buying globe bodies, putting the lenses in them and selling them for $25.00. I figured he was paying about $11.00 for the bodies so he was getting $7.00 out of each lens. I offered him $8.00 per lens and he wouldn't have to go to the trouble the get bodies anymore. He took the deal so we counted the lenses. There were 64 lenes, enough to make 32 globes. It was time to get back to St. Louis.
This story took place over about a 6-7 month period, and while I felt extremely lucky I still had that feeling that I had come into the hobby late and all the good stuff was gone. If I could do this in the late 80s can you imagine the stories Scott Anderson could tell you about the 70s when he got in the hobby. I don't even want to speculate on what stuff was going for then.

I am going to end this with one more short story that happened about a year later.
At a auto swap meet, here in St. Louis, I met up with about three other petroleum collectors (I know Ron Kunklemann was there but I can't remember who the other two were). The discussion got around to finding stuff in the St. Louis. The three of them all felt that there wasn't much to be had. I didn't speak it out loud, but made a mental challange to myself that I would go out the next morning (Monday) and see if I could find some pumps or just about anyting worth bragging about.

Driving my truck I headed across the Missouri River bridge into our neighboring county, St. Charles County. I had never really been up into the old part of the City of St. Charles so I headed there. After driving for about 1/2 hour I spotted the tell tale tanks next to a railroad line. It was an oil jobber and there were a couple of building there. On the ground I spotted about 4 Bennett computer pumps and a Bennett oil can cabinet. There was even another Bennett pump laying outside the fense next to the sidewalk. I asked where the office was and headed there.
Now, I never ask if something is for sale, I always ask "What are you going to do with that ....., out at the bulk plant. When I asked the owner this he said, "You want them dam things, well get them the hell out of there, and by the way when you are picking them up tell the guys there to give you the pumps that are in the building."
Then he said wait a minute. He went into a closet behind his desk, came out with a Sinclair globe, handed it to me and said, "Here take this too."

These stories kind of end here. We never really kept count, but we estimated we had about 200 pumps over a 5 year period. Most of them were stripped for parts but I never made much money. I was selling tall 39 doors for $10.00 and people were complaining about the price. The other thing was that I used to send many of the items out and have the people send me the money after they got the parts. I thought I was being a nice guy, but about 25% of them never paid me for the parts.

I tried to start a business like Vic's or Scott Anderson's but I didn't have the capital and found myself running in so many different directions I forgot where I had been. I really liked the air meters, so a decision was made to get rid of everything else and concentrate on air meters.
I was down to about 75 pumps when I made a deal with an old friend from Las Vegas. He came east with a big truck and the pumps went to Vegas.

I still find a thing or two from a gas pump out in the garage, but I really only have one complete pump left, an old 1913 Bowser curb pump that I forgot when he picked up the others.
While I don't have as many questions to answer here as I used to (the book answers most of the questions now), I do go on line everyday and read what is going on. It's great to see there are still people getting into the hobby.
My wife and I or my grandson and I will be attending the following shows this year: Columbia, Missouri; Evansville, Ohio; Ohio Gas; CTO Convention in Columbus; Iowa Gas; Fall Carlisle and Hershey. How about coming by an saying hello. I always take the pictures of the new pumps that I have found with me if you want to look through it. They will be in the revision.

One more thing, many thanks to Jim Potts for providing us with this great forum and "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night."



Really cool hearing old stories of the hobby like this, thanks to everyone for pulling them up and Jack for writing them back then 👍


Looking for Michelin items + NJ oil company related items (Mohawk, Guardian, Whiz, etc) + animal-related petroliana + Gargoyle/Shell/Sinclair items
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J
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J
Joined: Nov 2000
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Steve and Chad,

Thank you very much for posting this. I was wondering when I wrote all this, and it actually surprised to find it was 2003. I had been thinking about this long story and wondering if I could add anything to this, but reading it, it just about covers what it was like at that time. I might add this, Iowa Gas was a lot of fun back then, I don't mean that it isn't still fun, it was different. Everything you looked at was something new. I also remember the 3rd convention at Iowa around 1990 when Ron or John would greet us as we pulled in and asked us how much room did we need, and they would say, take that area over there. Until I slowed down a few years ago I attended every Iowa Gas and CTO up until about seven or eight years ago.

I do have one more thing that might surprise all of you. That guy who came from Las Vegas was Rick Dale, who became famous on the TV show American Restoration. He and I had met at a swap meet at Auburn, Indiana where we shared spaces. We became friends at that time. You might not know this but the producer of his show, was Left Field Productions out of Canada. They are also the producers of the Pickers show. Well, Rick gave them my name and told them if they ever need any info on gas pump to just contact me. Well, over the years I have contributed the information that one of them stands in front of a green screen and recites what I have sent them. No money is involved, but at the end of the show they do list my name as a contributor. I flies by so fast I still have yet to see my name. But, when I am standing at a bar having a beer, it does give me something to brag about.

I'm not going anywhere, but I will express a little thoughts. I feel the hobby has changed quite a bit. Back around 1990 all we talked about was gas pumps, now it is globes and signs. At that time there was also a lot of "smalls" for sale, but they seem to have slowed down. Today, also collectors are branching out collecting items such as tire changers, car jacks, service station cabinets. Many things we never gave a thought to. I don't have a problem with all this, I just wonder what will be next big collectible.

Time to end all this, and I hoped you all enjoyed the great time I had for a few years.

Jack Sim


Author, 1st & 2nd editions of Gas Pump ID book, 3rd edition is now available at www.gaspumpbible.com
Air Meter ID book also available

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