Vintage neon signs

[Fading Fast]

...A few years back a warehouse find yielded dozens of unused Flexlume signs, including a total of seven of these Gulf models, all unused in the original crates....

What's a amazing is that this kind of thing still happens. New old stock Flexlume signs pops up here, original documents from WWII are found in a wall over there, an untouched house form 1940 is discovered somewhere else and a pocket book from the 1950s is found when...is torn down. It just keeps happening - amazing.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When you think about the fact that they're still digging up medieval English kings underneath parking lots, I guess we should expect to find the detrius of the recent past all around us. The sum total of all human civilization is basically just layers of dust and crust and debris steadily accumulating, year by year, around a rocky core.

Apparently the Flexlume company is still in business in Buffalo, but the glass signs are no longer manufactured. Many of them that did survive in the wild were updated with neon in the 1940s and 1950s, so there may actually be more out there than are noticeable at first glance. And late in the game they did make combination-type signs, using both the backlit glass letters and neon -- see the "Tip Top" sign in the above photo.

Going back even further, here's a new-old-stock electric sign from 1903. The mind boggles.

 

[3fingers]

I've seen enough things stashed in sheds, garages, attics and old warehouses to be convinced that if a thorough inventory of them all could be done many things that are currently considered rare would no longer be.

 

[Fading Fast]

I've seen enough things stashed in sheds, garages, attics and old warehouses to be convinced that if a thorough inventory of them all could be done many things that are currently considered rare would no longer be.

Agreed. I bet there are a few more Superman Action Comics #1 and first editions with dust jacket of "The Great Gatsby" that will spill out of somewhere. It would be fascinating to see how much supply the market could absorb. So, for example, say a bundle of 50 NOS Superman #1 was discovered in top condition in some old printing shop - what would that do to the market price?

 

[BobHufford]

So, for example, say a bundle of 50 NOS Superman #1 was discovered in top condition in some old printing shop - what would that do to the market price?

Ding it pretty good I would think. My wife's Grandad collected barbed-wire (yeah ... it's a thing). The pieces are normally sold in 18-inch lengths with some rare varieties selling for more than $500 a piece. He told us a story of a fellow that found a two-mile roll of some very desirable wire, but the fellow made the mistake of telling everyone how much he found (before selling off a few of the 18-inch lengths for top dollar). With the news the price plummeted.

 

[Fading Fast]

Ding it pretty good I would think. My wife's Grandad collected barbed-wire (yeah ... it's a thing). The pieces are normally sold in 18-inch lengths with some rare varieties selling for more than $500 a piece. He told us a story of a fellow that found a two-mile roll of some very desirable wire, but the fellow made the mistake of telling everyone how much he found (before selling off a few of the 18-inch lengths for top dollar). With the news the price plummeted.

Fantastic story. As a professional trader (it's what I do for a living) and with no disrespect to your wife's Grandad's friend (I'm guessing it's not how he made his living), that was a rookie mistake. Never reveal the size of your position to the market if you are selling and it's potentially market moving. Traders go to incredible lengths to keep this information private.

That said, I love that he collected barbed-wire. I had no idea, but can't say I'm surprised as I've learned over the years that almost everything that can be is collected.

I agree, a bundle of Superman #1s would implode that market, so - as with the barbed-wire - the seller would have to keep his position secret and only sell slowly (over years) and, probably, through surrogates to maximize his profit.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Original hoards of comics or other types of collectible magazines do turn up in forgotten distribution warehouses from time to time, and the main problem is that you end up with the big-money collectors start fighting over which copies are in the best condition. Nobody wants the ones at the top or the bottom of the bundle because there's cover damage, and nobody wants the ones that were crinkled or damaged from rust from the wire used to bind the bundle together, so you might end up with one copy that's in mint condition and forty-nine culls. I'd gladly take a cull copy myself, but that's just me.

Or some real high roller might buy the whole bundle and have it encased in plastic as a unit.

New old stock neon signs seem to turn up fairly often -- there's always a few on eBay at any given time. They're usually the mass produced beer signs you see hanging in bar and c-store windows everywhere, or the generic "Open" or "Pizza" or "Checks Cashed Here" type of things. But sometimes something more interesting will appear, and for some reason it's usually auto related.

 

[Fading Fast]

Has a bundle of anything nearly as famous as Superman #1 popped up? Considering the crazy pricing of that particular item, a bundle find of it (even with all the negatives you highlight a bundle usually has) would be a fantastically interesting event.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I don't believe so. There was very little warehousing of unsold magazines in the years just before and during the war -- usually they ended up pulping them due to the paper shortage. Pretty much all the major warehouse finds of magazines that I've heard about have been postwar stuff.

However, there's always other possibilities. Magazine distribution in the US during the Era was controlled by organized crime, and there's been documentation of various magazine-return scams, in which publications supposedly not sold and destroyed for credit were actually diverted to warehouses for illegal resale. DC comics, especially, was in the thick of this -- they owned a major interest in Independent Distributors, a mob-controlled distribution operation -- and I'd be surprised if a lot of their "unsold books" weren't diverted in this way. You never know what's behind the boarded-up windows of the next grimy old warehouse you pass.

 

[Fading Fast]

I don't believe so. There was very little warehousing of unsold magazines in the years just before and during the war -- usually they ended up pulping them due to the paper shortage. Pretty much all the major warehouse finds of magazines that I've heard about have been postwar stuff.

However, there's always other possibilities. Magazine distribution in the US during the Era was controlled by organized crime, and there's been documentation of various magazine-return scams, in which publications supposedly not sold and destroyed for credit were actually diverted to warehouses for illegal resale. DC comics, especially, was in the thick of this -- they owned a major interest in Independent Distributors, a mob-controlled distribution operation -- and I'd be surprised if a lot of their "unsold books" weren't diverted in this way. You never know what's behind the boarded-up windows of the next grimy old warehouse you pass.

Amtrak's Northeast corridor line could serve as a map to such warehouses. Not specific to magazines / comic books, but I've often thought there must be some still-to-be-made finds of some cool things in all those miles of superannuated warehouses and factories the train zips by (when Amtrak's having a good day).

 

[Ghostsoldier]

I heard they discovered an unexploded 1100 lb. German bomb at the London Airport earlier today....talk about NOS.

Rob

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[vitanola]

I don't believe so. There was very little warehousing of unsold magazines in the years just before and during the war -- usually they ended up pulping them due to the paper shortage. Pretty much all the major warehouse finds of magazines that I've heard about have been postwar stuff.

However, there's always other possibilities. Magazine distribution in the US during the Era was controlled by organized crime, and there's been documentation of various magazine-return scams, in which publications supposedly not sold and destroyed for credit were actually diverted to warehouses for illegal resale. DC comics, especially, was in the thick of this -- they owned a major interest in Independent Distributors, a mob-controlled distribution operation -- and I'd be surprised if a lot of their "unsold books" weren't diverted in this way. You never know what's behind the boarded-up windows of the next grimy old warehouse you pass.

In the mid-1970s a friend of mine discovered a large cache of cabinets for (otherwise rare) Talk-O-phone talking machines of the 1902-07 period. They were in a storage room in the cellar of a building which housed the Theo. A. Kundtz Co., a cabinet maker better known for building the cabinets for White Sewing machines. The same fellow ran down a large quantity of United States Talking Machine Company cylinder machine components.

Heck, in 1979 I came across a couple hundred blank Victor Talking Machine Company name plates in the estate of a principal of the Phila. Name Plate & Engraving Co., whilst another fellow I knew found fifty new, never used 1921 crystal radio sets in an old factory outside of Boston.

 

[KY Gentleman]

I used to drive the long way home from work some nights just to see this theater all lit up.


A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory. – unknown

 

[KY Gentleman]

A Macon Georgia landmark!


A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory. – unknown

 

[triple-d]

I used to drive the long way home from work some nights just to see this theater all lit up.


A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory. – unknown

I can relate KY.....sometimes when i'm in a Hotel that has a good night view of the City i'm in.....I turn off everything and just sit in the quiet and watch the lights and movement of the city.....

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[KY Gentleman]

A new sign but I liked it.

 

[BobHufford]

 

[Fading Fast]

Rob

The car's two-tone color is fantastic (in, IMHO, an ugly-pretty way). Also, did mom and dad choose the lower color to match their daughter's hair? I know parents who've done similar (to the outsider) kookie things.

You could see Don Draper from the early "Mad Men" episodes pulling into this place on a road trip. If "Betts" wasn't with him, Mrs. Short Pants would have been a Don target - the man absolutely had scruples, but none when it came to extra curricular marriage activity.