Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Petroliana Value Questions GMC Trucks Sales & Service 42" sign

Old Gas,

I'm hoping you can help me judge the authenticity and value of the pictured sign. It's 42" with no maker's mark. The porcelain finish seems a little thin to me and the spots of porcelain loss show more gray/silver than I'm used to seeing on authentic iron signs, where the spots are dark brown.

Any help you can provide is much appreciated.

Here are some other pictures as well. The sign came from India. Were these signs made in India back in the 1940s-50s? Maybe a slightly different way than they were made in the U.S.?

"The sign came from India.".....Uh oh....
I don't know anything about these particular signs, but that one line would tell me to stay far, far away from it.
Darin

Rich, I like Darin, would be very wary of any sign coming out of India...

I did find that; GM-Chevrolet assembled Cars, Truck and Busses in India from 1928 to 1954... But, I couldn't find any info that showed, that GMC Trucks were assembled or sold in India.. (from what I can find on the 'net)

Info comes from a Joint Operational Company named; The General Motors India Private Limited Company; Wikipedia Page....

http://www.oldgas.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=651212&gonew=1#UNREAD

Many, many fake signs are coming out of India; as Darin pointed out...

Fake! Color looks off and lettering looks wrong.

Demand your money back from the ebay seller and make sure THEY pay for return shipping. Leave appropriate feedback as well. Its the only way more people such as yourself will not get burned. Good luck

Got burned on a Cadillac sign like this 2 years ago on eBay. They look great in pictures, but get them up close and even a novice could tell the difference. Uneven spacing of letters, lines and edges aren't straight, and the tell-tale aging like knocking the porcelain off only around the edges. Oh yes and the backs are always slick white. eBay is being inundated with fakes. Not even worth fooling with them now. Unless I knew the seller and it's a reputable seller, I wouldn't touch it. IMO, some fakes (well marked that is) are ok for restored gas pumps, etc, but these other guys trying to pass them off as legit, then they are nothing but charlatans. And no dealer signs like this came from over there. We made everything here then.

Wow, most of us know India is a big scam, but I just researched this sign alone and India has sold approximately 11 42" GMC signs (different styles) to the US in just the last 3 months. And that's just ebay. At that rate 40+ signs coming into this country every year and probably increasing each year. 5 years and your talking 200 GMC signs we have to wade through to find a good one. And that's just this one GMC sign.

...Just to put a numbers perspective on it.

...all hypothetical, but probably not too far from reality.