Most Valuable Vintage Advertising Signs

If you’ve ever seen an episode of the History channel reality show “American Pickers,” you know the antique-salvaging hosts are crazy for vintage advertising signs. And with good reason. When a rare, porcelain 1920s’ gas station sign can fetch in excess of $150,000 at auction, you’ve got a highly lucrative collecting hobby on your hands.       

Credit the “mantique” phenomenon, which eschews grandma’s prized collection of frilly tea cups in favor of relics fit for man-cave decor; think vintage toys, sports memorabilia, booze accessories and, of course, advertising signs. By far, the most active and expensive sign-collecting sub-genres are automobilia and petroliana. But there’s also a healthy number of hobbyists who focus on so-called “country store” signage — ads for soda, beer, tobacco and food.  

In general, pre-World War II porcelain-enamel signs are most coveted. Yet collectors are willing to pay serious coin for metal, neon and paper signs if it’s an iconic brand and/or the artwork is particularly pleasing to the eye, like the $70,000 Mobil Oil winged-Pegasus sign pictured above. To illustrate this nostalgic collectors’ niche, we’ve rounded up 14 other vintage marketing messages spanning some eight decades of advertising history. 

These are the most valuable vintage advertising signs.

Among petroliana’s most popular advertising mascots, “DINO” the green dinosaur first appeared on Sinclair gas station signage and oil cans in 1930. Fiberglass statues of the green Apatosauras (yes, it’s different than a Brontosaurus) began popping up at Sinclair stations in the early ’60s and are still a hit on social media.

Antique porcelain signs featuring DINO can fetch anywhere between $800 to $3,000, depending on rarity, size and condition.

It’s not just car guys forking over big bucks for petroleum advertising. If the piece is right, aviation buffs will pay sky-high prices for vintage airplane fuel signs. At a 2016 auction, bidding on a near-mint condition, 4-foot-diameter porcelain sign for the Smith-o-Lene brand soared to $134,200. If your wallet’s light, metal reproduction signs can be had on Amazon for about $20.

The world of high-dollar Coca-Cola signs largely centers on early 20th-century metal and porcelain signs. Far less likely to survive the ravages of time are paper signs from the late 1800s, placing them atop the Coke sign-collecting pyramid.

Printed around 1896 by the J. Ottmann Litho. Co. of New York, this 30- x 40-inch paper beauty not only declares Coke delicious and refreshing, it also claims the soft drink “Cures Headache” and “Relieves Exhaustion” — all for a nickel.

This particular sign, believed to be the sole copy left in existence, once hung above the soda fountain of a theater in New York City’s Times Square. Destined for the trash bin, the sign was rescued by the theater’s janitor and, in the 1970s, wound up in the hands of Coke über-collector Allan Pettreti. In 2011, he sold it at auction for $105,000.

French company Claude Neon first introduced neon gas signs to the United States in 1923. By the time neon’s popularity peaked in the ’40s and ’50s, glowing glass tubes were being bent to spell out signage lettering on everything from motels and movie theaters to car dealerships. 

Among today’s most sought-after porcelain/neon relics are 1940s-era Cadillac dealership signs bearing the motto “Standard Of The World” and topped with the luxury car’s crest logo. In neon-working order, these 4-foot by 6-foot Streamline Moderne-style beauties have commanded auction prices between $10,000 and $28,750, depending on whether the sign is one- or two-sided.