I didn't have a clue that old neon signs were worth that much but I sure got an education on how much Ford neon signs are worth. My Sister In Law wanted me to pick up the Ford neon sign in this video for because she wanted my Brother to have it but I knew she didn't want to go anywhere near as much as it went for. I thought a couple of hundred would catch it and I found out how wrong I was. They are in the video after the early 60's Ford truck instrument panel, the NOS 1965 Mercury fender, that went cheap by the way, and a pair of Model T Ford fenders.
nice to have original stuff but reproduction might be the way to go. i made this a bunch of years back, had a sign guy bend the neon, then mounted and wired it. i think it was under $500 .
i No big surprise in that auction video. Original Ford neon signs command a good price (supply vs demand). Here are a couple of Mulholland Sign Company neons that came from Fred Sayre Motors in Ripley, WV. that were given to me (FREE) many, many years ago by Mr. Sayre. The one pic shows the large 2-sided sign hanging above the showroom with a new 1951 Ford on the carrier. The sign was removed from service in the mid-60's when replaced by a newer version. The smaller sign hung in the show room window. Both signs currently hold places of honor in my garage, The Hot Rod Grille. I also have the Mercury sign from the same dealer, but currently have it in storage. Jim
It goes for $2100 for those who don't want to sit through the video. If that was an original one the price was cheap. These days, there's a lot bigger market for stuff like this than project cars. Easier to sell, at least.
I would have thought that the Mercury sign would have brought the least but the last Ford sign was the cheapest. I'm not sure if it's because it was last and there were only a few buyers bidding on some of this stuff?
I don't know but these guys were the fastest auctioneers I have ever seen. I think the deal was that they had thousands of Ford parts to get through and they'd made up their minds they were going to do what I think should have been a 2 day auction in 1 day. Some of these parts I would have liked to bid on but instead of offering them individually first they sold them as a group. Example being those 1955 Ford parking light buckets that were in beautiful shape. I would have loved to have bid on 1 right and 1 left but I didn't need and didn't want to pay for a group of 10 of them so I just sat there and watched them sell. I would have liked to bid on 1 of the 1955 Ford grills but there was a stack of them and I knew these guys would only offer them as a group so I left before they sold. I'd been there since before 10 AM and I left after 4 PM and they still had a lot to sell. There were other things I would have bid on but I didn't need a whole bunch of them. I'm used to a lot slower auctioneers. I've been to countless auctions and usually they're not run this way. They even announced at the first that they intended to sell 4 items a minute. I made over a 400 mile round trip to go to this auction. It was interesting but if I see an auction that I'd like to go to that have these guys running it I think I'll just stay home.
If you're an auctioneer,,, Selling and upping the bidding on a 35.00 part takes the same effort and time as a $350.00 part or a $3500 part. Would you like to work for $1.00 an Hr, $10.00 an Hr or $100 an Hr? How about yelling HUPP! every 2 seconds for $2.00 jumps? Vs $200 jumps.
Probably because they know they're about to get screwed by fast-talking auctioneers who accept non-existent bids in all the noise and frenzy. I've been there and seen it happen way too many times to be accidental.
And then... https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/...dillac-standard-of-the-world-neon-sign/706224 This GM sign was offered to us at $12,000, the Mercury sign behind it at $18,000. Some of this stuff is a head scratcher at times. Walking around Hershey makes one wish for a genuine "Way Back" machine like Mr. Peabody had.
Just a heads up here, most people don't really have a clue as to why good neon signs or even original neon signs command a high price. Its simple, there is a lot of work that goes into them, and the fine art of blowing glass tube, and the even more finer art of proper vacuum equipment and the experience it takes to get the gasses all calibrated correctly, is a skill that isn't being taught anymore, and the realm of cheap LED's has really not helped the industry at all. Here in the PNW we have some excellent old timers that are still doing it the old school way. I am lucky to have a great piece that the original price was at $2500.00, and believe it or not, it was my wife that went nuts for it and said we have to have that. We were good customers of his on another piece, he came down to $2000.00 and said he would take payments, we gave him $800.00 down and we made payments of $100.00 per month till we got it paid off. The original can was a found object, its only neon on one side, it has the matching painted side on the back. The glass came from Venice Italy to this piece, its 5 feet wide by 5 ft tall and we have it our front window now. No regrets for paying for good high quality from a reputable neon artist/craftsman. So to have it turned into a double sided neon, you can add another $2500.00. Don't be fooled by cheap LED or shoddy workmanship when it comes to great neon. You get good value for your money when you deal with a real talented artist, that totally understands the complexity of making a great neon sign.
Cool pic. I adore neon. While in college, I had a selection of photo signs. I wrote a lot of scientific research about them. Of course, it was not easy but this topic is very interesting. I think it could be the impetus for writing a dissertation. Of course, I needed help and got it from Essayshark after reading their review on the site and had the opportunity to work with professionals in writing my work. It's great that there are still people who are interested in it and enjoy it. Special thanks to everyone for sharing photos so generously. This is great.
Big tractor auction here years ago, large neon dealer sign sold for around 20 grand. Buyer's placed it in the back of a semi trailer, not secured in any way, just "temporarily" ya know. Had to move the truck a few feet for someone else to get out, and...CRASH
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