That's the question I always have. I don't really wonder about the money aspect, plenty of people have crazy amounts of disposable income. But, even if you have more money than you can spend it doesn't mean that the stuff is there too spend it on. I'm constantly on the lookout for things like this and I never find anything.
It is pretty simple really, go to every swap meet and flea market you can. Stop at every garage sale you see, go to every antique store and scour eBay for 25 years. Buy everything you think is cool. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Here is a can that I have had for twenty plus years. Also a picture my mother painted of the can onto a Coke menu board.
This sign hung in Gunter's Hardware store for many years, and remained with the building after the old man died and the store closed. I purchased the sign- a homemade affair from cardboard and wooden cutout letters. The sign was filthy dirty, and letters were warped and broken, and the backing had numerous tears. It got a full frame-off restoration.
The only thing I have is a Dr. Grabow pipe display card I pulled out of the trash at a old tobacco shop, I added my dad's old pipes. HRP
This is my 1955 Ford Dealer's Color Demonstrator. These were available for purchase by dealers to hang on their showroom walls. The pallet cost $12.95 and the cars were $10.95/dozen, or the entire package was $22.95.
In the late 1980s Bob's Big Boy restaurants sold 4" action figures of the Big Boy at the check-out registers. There were four varieties of the Big Boy surfing, roller skating, playing baseball and driving a race car. This is a counter display showing the varieties available. Examples of each are attached with Velcro. While collecting the Big Boy toys, we covered more than thirty stores in the LA area, and this is the only counter display we found.
The unwritten rule of collecting is that you will rarely find the stuff you are looking for, but you will invariably find stuff you don't collect, but others do!
Boy do those counter displays bring back some memories.The key chain and sunglasses type were seen everywhere from drug stores to movie snack bars to gas stations and even s a few car dealerships and just about anywhere else that you could think of. Good luck.Have fun.Be safe. Leo