Nostalgic Petroliana Collectors

With gas prices jumping through the roof and drivers in some areas driving around for hours trying to find a gas station that even has gas, it’s difficult to imagine that anyone would be nostalgic about the good ole gas station. Petroliana are those collectible items associated with gas stations including advertisements, maps, old gas pumps and globes as well as oil cans and bottles. In recent years, Petroliana has been one of the fastest growing segments of collecting in the United States, as baby boomers nostalgically remember those times that were far less complicated and a gallon of gas cost less than a dollar. Now, there are tens of thousands of collectors and they are not just the boomers but their X and echo boomer generation offspring as well.

The nice thing about Petroliana, like a lot of other segments of collectibles, is that it goes across other segments of collecting. For example, a person collecting ephemera may collect Petroliana in the form of old street and city maps or a person who collects advertising memorabilia might collect Petroliana in the forms of old Esso or Texaco signs. And because there were so many different gas stations around the country, there is an abundance of collectibles to be had for the avid collector. You can find many collectibles at auctions, flea markets and antique shows as well as at yard and garage sales. If you are decorating in Petroliana and you can’t find an original of something you want, there are many reproduction pieces out there as well.

There are many websites dedicated to Petroliana and can help you to determine pricing and identify collectibles. One that I particularly like because it helps with picture identification is Gas Pump Index.