The New Gas Pump Globe CD
I wanted to speak briefly about the new Gas Globe CD due out in a matter of a few weeks! It’s hard to believe the two volume set of gas globe books are now 13 years old! Though still a good reference and many great photos, they have become very outdated. The new CD is the culmination of many years of work by Wayne and me. We also must acknowledge the help from countless hobbyists who supplied photos, information and feedback since the project began. We thank you.
First of all, a few collectors have asked why this CD will not be available in a normal book format. Did you know eBooks are now outselling paper books? That seems hard to believe but it’s already happened. Some of the older collectors, especially, still do not either own a computer or know how to operate one. Believe me, Wayne and I spent many hours talking about this. But we decided the best format to represent this project was to have it in a CD format. The biggest disadvantage, of course, is not having a book where you can flip through the pages (in addition to not having access or knowing about computers). Had this book been printed, not only would it have been incredibly expensive--too expensive to sell—but it would also have been too massive. We estimated the printed version at least 500 pages in an 11” X 17” format. That’s a huge book! But you can take the CD to an Office Max, Staples or a copy shop and have them print you out a book. It’ll be big and expensive but for those without new technology you have this option.
With that said, this new CD will be a great advantage! You’ll be able to quickly access over 5,000 different gas globes, including company histories, full color photos (unless it’s an old black and white), with the touch of a key. In seconds you can find any globe! Say you find a gas globe that says “Artex.” You don’t know that’s an Amoco globe but that won’t matter anymore. Type in “ARTEX” and you’ll be taken in an instant to the Amoco section of the book! You should be able to access this from your smart phone, laptop, iPad, Kindle and other devices. No more going through the sometimes long process of cross references, maybe then eventually finding the gas globe in the independent section. Imagine being at a gas and oil show and that rare or unusual globe turns up. With your smart phone or iPad you can quickly access all the information you need about that piece you just found. As before, prices will be wholesale to retail with some changes though. Very rare gas globes, say, which sold for $50,000 five years ago and today they may be worth the same or half that amount, as an example only, will now be represented as $25,000 plus. This is a case by case basis. Sometimes so few of a certain globe sell that a current price is hard to determine. We can price any gas globe, but rare or unique ones can vary dramatically for various reasons and pricing them like this gives the seller and buyer flexibility as needed. Many rare globes are sold as singles and rarely sold as complete so again this gives the two parties room to negotiate.
Another hurdle we had to overcome was the rarity numbers. If you remember the categories were as follows: 1-Very common, 2-Common and fairly available, 3-Available but slightly more scarce, 4-Rare with few existing and harder to find, 5-Extremeley rare less than 10 known, 6-One known, 7-Only known in old photos, 8-One existed but was broken, and 9-Strong evidence suggests it exists.
These numbers will remain the same but we added a new number-6/5. Why? Wayne and I discussed the fact of the number of unique globes or “6s” that are split up. So how do you rate that? Is it two globes now or still one with two owners? So, we had to come up with a new category and hence the “6/5” rating. We will do our best to accurately categorize as many as these as possible.
Since the first books 13 years ago many one of a kind globes or “6s” are now “5s” and so on. We have many that were “7s”, only known in old photos that have since been discovered and so on.
This CD will also be the most comprehensive oil company historical perspective ever written. Wayne has filled in hundreds of oil company histories and updated hundreds more.
There will be very few globes of which we don’t have some representation. Even if the globe was from an old black and white photo taken 20 feet away back in the day at least we have that to start with. Down the road if we get a better photo, or you see a globe or have one not represented, we can then update those photos. Please let us know right away if you have a gas globe not in the book and we’ll make sure it’s in the next one for sure. This new CD will be the foundation for updates we can easily do every year or whenever we feel the need to add to the CD for any reason.
We hope you enjoy the new Gas Pump Globe CD.