Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Large influx of minty porcelain signs? Legit?

Recently, I've noticed a large amount of near mint petroliana and other advertising signs with comic characters from the 1960's (Phill66-Jetsons; Conoco-Batman; Texaco-Donld Duck; Indian-half naked babe, etc.) which appear to be a NOS lot from somewhere. They are dated 1962, 63, 66, etc. Most are nearly all mint, with a small chip or 2, but nothing too detracting, The sellers don't seem to have 1 or eve 2 of these signs, but several of the same sign - each with their own distinctive porcelain chips on the edge or corners - nothing bad, but all slightly different. They don't have 1 or 2 mint signs, they are listing 20 different at a time on ebay. One guy is collectortime in Alphretta, GA. Prices aren't bad at low 100+ Does anyone know or have the scoop on these porcelain signs? They seem too cheap, and too nice for 50 yr.old porcelain signs. Your insight is appreciated.

Fantasy *****

yard art .. ...

Garbage that in 10 years will be vintage.

Rule #1, "what would the company have used this for?"

Copyright infringement on CONOCO, TEXACO, Disney, DC Comics and Hanna-Barbera . . .

All fake.

Later . . .

Jim

Getting kids to steal the Country Squire and fill up?

Yeah saw one sell at an auction where the auctioneer used weasel words to pass it off. Sold for near 500. To a young couple with a small child.

So, if these are all "fake" who made them, and when were they made? They are have inconsistent chips and fading. I recall buying an old "HI-PLANE TOBACCO" sign at an auction years ago and the guy had a stack of them....all mint. But, they were original. Just NOS and never used or sent to vendors. Anyone know where these "fake" porcelain sign stuff is coming from and when it was made?

Where are these signs coming from you ask? In some cases a lot of the garbage is coming from overseas - India for example. But the types of signs you posted are manufactured specifically as garage or yard art, or kitchen decor. Here's an example:

https://www.garageart.com/product-category/signs/porcelain-signs/

Dishonest ebay sellers will treat these types of signs so that they have an aged look (chips, rust, etc) and then sell them to inexperienced buyers.

The responses above represent decades of experience in this hobby. I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss their comments.

To any longtime collector, it wouldn't even cross our minds these were remotely old or genuine signs. It's all about gaining the knowledge that going to shows, seeing other collections, watching legit auction house sales and sales results, etc. brings to a collector. There are now more junk/repro signs on the market than genuine material, especially if you're dealing on Ebay....
Darin

I've been doing this a little over 4 years now. In four years, through careful research, I've only bought ONE fake sign (which Darin, you kindly made me aware of...remember the Mobil restroom pledge sign?) and I've managed to avoid the pitfalls by doing just what Darin said. Go to shows (preferably with a more experienced collector), hold genuine pieces in your hands to see and feel how they were made, buy only from reputable sellers or auction houses, and AVOID eBay for at least the first two years in this hobby so that you can avoid the most obvious fakes. If you do that, you are much less likely to get burned.

I sure do remember Brian.....Mobil restroom signs were never IR dated.
I felt good at the time I was able to help you as I think you posted it in BOTW and I could tell then you thought you had bought a good sign and wasn't aware it was a fake.
Darin

Dont feel bad Brian at one time we all screwed up once buying a repop.

Yeah John, luckily the seller was a stand-up guy and took it back so I wasn't out anything.