# Cleaned The sign



## Just Dig it (May 22, 2007)

Should i touch it up with paint? Or Leave It Be
 Baseball is To Show Size.


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## cowseatmaize (May 22, 2007)

I'd leave be or get a professional to restore it. The double dot would pre 51 I think. I don't know when they were a nickle.


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## bottlenutboy (May 22, 2007)

i would leave it be....you can always touch it up later but if you do it now and find out you ruined it....your just up the creek


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## bikegoon (May 22, 2007)

I see ones like that in the antique stores around here selling for one very pretty penny.

 Sweet sign!


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## DiggerBryan (May 22, 2007)

Leave it be...for sure!!


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## GuntherHess (May 22, 2007)

the bigger-better... wasnt that Pepsi's original marketing gimmick? For the same nickel you got a much bigger bottle of soda?


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## capsoda (May 23, 2007)

How big is the sign? After WW2 Pepsi was in the crapper and they made smaller signs because of a low cash flow problem. They offered Coke the company for $1 per share of stock and the Coke folks just laughed. They figured pepsi was done for so why should they waste money on them. They should have taken the deal.
 Pepsi had recovered by 1950 and sone became the #2 drink in America.


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## LC (May 23, 2007)

From what I read below, looks like Pepsi was five cents during the thirties, and possibly up to around 1950. I can remember eight cents with two cents deposit. Does that make me old ??!!

During the early reorganization of the company, Guth had a Loft Company chemist change the syrup formula of Pepsi to one "more to his liking", and he negotiated a contract with the Mavis Bottling Company of Long Island City to bottle Pepsi in a six ounce bottle. An early advertisement by the Loft Candy Company in *1932* claimed that 3,500,000 drinks of Pepsi Cola were served at its soda fountains in its 138 candy stores. However, sales in its six ounce bottles were flat and going nowhere. 
In a desperation move to increase sales in bottles, Guth decided to introduce a 12 ounce bottle of Pepsi Cola with a neck wrapped in tin foil. He wrongly concluded that the public would accept this "bigger drink" at a "bigger price", which was double the volume of the then-popular five cent , six ounce drink.
Disheartened by his lack of success in promoting Pepsi-Cola, Guth approached his old enemy, the Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, with an offer to sell. Coca-Cola declined to even offer a bid. With no potential buyers, Guth went back to his customers with the newly-created 12 ounce bottle, but only charged the standard five cent price, and soda drinkers found the first good reason to make a massive shift to Pepsi. A contract for the new 12 ounce bottle was given to Joseph LaPides of Baltimore, Maryland in *1933*. With sales booming, Guth decided to purchase the Mavis Bottling Company and set up his own bottling operation. In *1935*, the Pepsi-Cola Company was moved to the Mavis Bottling location at 47-51 33rd Street, Long Island City, New York. 

 The information above came from the following link. It gives a good account of the history of Pepsi-Cola.

http://www.gono.com/museum2003/museum%20collect%20info/briefhistoryofpepsicola.htm


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## logueb (May 23, 2007)

Sodas were 5 cents well into the 50s.  I can remember, and I guess that makes me old.  When they went up to 6 cent, a lot of the old timers were grumpy about having to fork over the extra penny and swore that if they went up again they would quit drinking sodas.  Well, they went up and of course everbody continued to drink sodas.  Coke began offering the larger bottles 12 oz (I believe) and they were 10 cents.  So you had a choice of a large or small Coke. Of course there were complaints that the larger Cokes were not as good as the small ones, were watered down, etc.


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## Just Dig it (May 23, 2007)

46 1/2 x 32 inches  the  46  i would imagine was  50 at one point  before  someone  cut it


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## Just Dig it (May 23, 2007)

im thinking of hocking it on ebay
 but it  is  rusted  but  its  not  structural damage
 Not Sure  what i should do


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## LC (May 23, 2007)

It is truly a shame this sign has deteriorated as bad as it has. I would say it is probably from the thirties. I believe that signs are one of the hottest comodities there is at the moment. I can sell almost any sign pretty quickly, porcelain signs, more so than metal ones, depending what they are. And the main thing  for a quick sell of course is condition. 
Below is a Pepsi flange sign I have from the forties. Someone flattened the flange out for some reason. As you can see, this one is not in the best shape either. If I could get to a press with a flattening die, I could make this look pretty good, still it has some paint loss. I will also reform the flange first chance I get.  I have sold some signs that were in pretty bad condition as well, if they were a sign that is quite hard to come by. And of course everyone has their own opinion as to what condition of a sign is.


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## capsoda (May 23, 2007)

> When they went up to 6 cent, a lot of the old timers were grumpy about having to fork over the extra penny


 
 I remember the 6 cent cokes. The sticker on the machines said "put in one penny and then one nickel". That was because if you put in the nickel first you would have found that you got the Coke for the nickel.


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## LC (May 23, 2007)

A Pepsi or Coke, and a bag of peanuts were one of my most enjoyable things to have when I was a kid. Always put the peanuts into the bottle, and ate them as I would take a drink of soda pop.


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## LC (May 23, 2007)

The house I grew up in was a good old Sears Roebuck house, that my Great Grandfather put together in 1927, as well as a 12 by 20 outbuilding. About twelve years ago the roof on the outbuilding needed to be replaced, so I went and got the needed materials it took to do the job. The shingles that were on the roof had deteriorated pretty bad, so they had to be removed before putting on the new ones. I found the sign in the picture below under the old shingles when I tore them off the roof. I could see no reason for the piece of metal to have been put on being the wood on the roof was all in good condition. I am guessing the sign to be possibly from the forties. The only thing I could think of was that who ever roofed the building, put this sign on there for someone to find years later when another roof was needed. Theory sounds good anyway. I know when I built my wood shop a few years back, I put quite a few of the older crown top sodas in the walls as well as other items, for someone to find hopefully many years from now. Hopefully, they will get the same kind of a thrill I got when I found the sign on the roof under the shingles.I plan on making a frame for the sign at some point in time to stiffen it up for hanging on a wall.[/align]


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## capsoda (May 24, 2007)

Hey LC, That is a great story and a great find. Did you put a note in one of those bottles with the date?


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## LC (May 24, 2007)

I sure did Warren, seemed appropriate to do so. I just wish I could see the reaction of the person who finds them in years to come..


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## California Dream N (May 24, 2007)

We recently did a patio remodel/renovation that included replacing the siding on the wall. (This wall is the back wall of our garage).Before the siding was put up we placed a full opened bottle of Miller Lite beer, the front page of the morning paper and a handful of 2007 coins in the wall with a note telling who placed the contents in the wall and why. In our area a full bottle of alcohol is placed in the wall to keep the spirits happy and for good luck.. Is this only done in California?


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## LC (May 24, 2007)

Well, myself, I have never heard of that, but its a great theory. I could never put a full bottle of alcohol in a wall, being I always drank it before I could put it in a wall! I will ask around here to see if anyone ever used that theory in this area.


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## California Dream N (May 24, 2007)

I believe it is usually hard liquor that is used but it was all I could do to talk my Hubby into parting with a bottle of beer. I knew better then to suggest his Jack Daniels...lol  When the old houses in this area are torn down there is usually a booze bottle in one of the walls..[]
 Norene


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## LC (May 24, 2007)

Norene, I had to tear down a block building that was built on my property around 1958, after an inebriated teenager crashed into it one night with his Mommy's car. I found four or five beer bottles in the blocks as I was tearing it down, all empty of course. I know the person who built it, I am sure they were empty when he put them in there ! [/align]


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## capsoda (May 24, 2007)

JACK DANIELS!!!! MY GOD!!!! THAT WOULD BE A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY!!!! [sm=lol.gif]

 It was hard loquor in the south too. I have also found small dogs, cats and birds nailed up in the walls of Antebellum homes. I have also found stacks of coins or bills and a pair of lovers in an ash pit. That answered a hundred and fifty year old question. The Major from the Pensacola Light Blue Brigade, who had the house built for his young bride and himself, came home from the Civil War after convelessing for months from wounds found his young bride in his bed with her lover. He poped a cap in they ass and burried them in the back corrner of a huge ash pit. A bud and I got them out in 1974 while emptying the ash pit to make room for a basement.


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## LC (May 24, 2007)

That had to be a wild experience !


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## RHach (May 24, 2007)

Nice find "Just Dig It"!  I have quite a few signs myself I have found through the years in abandoned buildings. I had some similar Pepsi signs like the one you have...I ended up trading/selling them to a friend of mine whom is a big Pepsi collector. He taught me this simple rule on how to date Pepsi signs:  Look for a colon or hyphen. When you see a colon, "Pepsi : Cola" then the sign dates from the "teen" years up to the 1940's. When you see a hyphen, "Pepsi-Cola" Then you are looking at a 1950's era sign. The "Bigger-Better" campagin was mentioned earlier, a way Pepsi could sell double the ounces than Coke for the same price, a nickel. Most likely your sign is from the mid 1920's to early 1930's. Too bad it was cut off some, but they did this alot back during the Great Depression. Your sign was looked at as a piece of sheet metal, not a work of art. So if someone needed to patch a roof, or board up a window and the sign was too big, well, out came the tin-snips. Look at it like today when you take that plastic Folger's can and use it to clean out your paint brushes. One hundred years from now, someone will find that can in your basement and wonder why someone would do that. As they say, and why we all dig/hunt for this stuff, "Today's Trash, Tomorrow's Treasure"!


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## LC (May 25, 2007)

Every time I look at the Cola sign, I think of when I was doing that roof. It was like 90 degrees, was working by myself, up and down the ladder all day getting this and that till I was done. I wish I knew who it was that placed that sign up there, would make having it much nicer than it is.


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## logueb (May 25, 2007)

Warren, we didn't have one of those new fangled drop your money in machines.  We had the old lift the lid copper lined drink box. The moisture formed during the day would freeze in a thin layer in the bottom of the cooler at night. When you pulled out a soda the next day the imprint of the base of the soda would be left in the ice. When you popped of the crown top,  ice crystals would form in the soda sometimes.  You had to keep the cooler set this cold to keep a steady flow of cold sodas during the hot summer months. Peanuts in a soda, moon pies and RCs, stage planks, dip ice cream on a cone....[] memories of those hot summer days long ago.


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## Just Dig it (May 25, 2007)

Thanks  RHach! and  everyone else. I think this is my best thread yet..I mean with the ammount of info  that everyone here has and  by everyone i  mean Cap and  Lobey...jk jk I mean EVERYONE..i honestly feel any  question with the proper ammount of info or a pic  could be answered..thank you all ....i dont know about the  wall thing around mass but i know my girfriends father found a musketball kit..to make musketballs..with a wooden cooling rack a large spade shaped bayonette and a  leather side case  that  i think said usmc and was  full of  musketballs  while doing a wall repair...i will start a thread  on it under unexpected discoverys  sometime this week...with pics.etc im glad to know the time range of my sign....it hangs over my  record player in my room now!!  So Thanks You All   (With Gratitude)
  Eric Johnson


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## bottlenutboy (May 25, 2007)

> it hangs over my record player


 
 your behind on the times...i havent seen one of them things in a WHILE!


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## brokenshovel (May 25, 2007)

Yes, you are offically old.

  Try some oxalic acid (wood bleach) on the rust.  It an old beercan cleaning trick.  It will take off most of the rust discoloration and reduce the major rust areas.  You will need to soak it and use a stiff brush.  
  Just use your neighbors pool[]
  JUST KIDDING.  It's not stuff you want to play with that much.  Use gloves.


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## capsoda (May 25, 2007)

> Just use your neighbors pool


 
 [sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif]  Thats a good one!!!


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## Just Dig it (May 25, 2007)

oh no ..everyone else is behind on the  times vinyl is where its at..i dont  just  collect bottles = ) i have a 1940s zenith stereophonic record player in   a walnut  case i love it..roadside  find  works  perfect looks like brand new..when i commented to the  guy across the street from it he said  his  buddys mom died and it was in there as long as he  could remember
 i offered my sympathy and  told  him  to tell his  friend that i would take  good care of it..even though it was out for the trash..


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## cowseatmaize (May 26, 2007)

On the subject of signs, has anyone read this. It makes me drool at the find.
 http://www.metrocast.net/~moxieman/restoration.htm


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## Just Dig it (May 26, 2007)

that is a  truly amazing  discovery i saw a really  cool  find im gonna  go  find a link...


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## Just Dig it (May 26, 2007)

yeah.. i stumbled on this story a while back ..since we are on the topic of amazing  finds. i thought this  was up to par  with  some of the  good ones..read on ..heres the story. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://tea.armadaproject.org/Images/curtis/curtis-oldbottles.JPG.jpg&imgrefurl=http://tea.armadaproject.org/curtis/11.26.2001.html&h=300&w=400&sz=25&hl=en&start=47&um=1&tbnid=e5aqln_nBcGoJM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dold%2Bbottles%26start%3D40%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN


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## Flaschenjager (May 26, 2007)

Hi *Eric - Just Dig It -*
_The Encyclopedia of Pepsi:Cola Collectibles_ by Bob Stoddard shows one very close to yours, except for the top. The one pictured has 'Sinclair Serv. Sta.' above the PC. It is from 1939 and 56"x 33", a C+ (rarity) and books for $400 (near mint). 

 In the past while researching PC signs, I've learned a blue outline around red script lettering indicates a 1939 date. Also, according to the books and PC collectible experts... You can throw out that dash and double dash concept as far as dating. There are signs from 1910 w/ a single dash...look at the rare sign on my PC website-page. 

 DO NOT use abrasives (steel wool, sand paper, scouring pads) on your sign. Clean it as mentioned above w/ oxalic or citric acid... just like a rusted beer can, etc. 

 Nice find!


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## Just Dig it (May 26, 2007)

so does it hold any  value in its current state? i mean obviously to the  right person  but how bad is it damaged ? I would say it has 8  nail holes  2 of wich are the size of a nickel and  you can see the rust


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## Just Dig it (May 26, 2007)

the cut is  obviously also a determining factor


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## Just Dig it (May 26, 2007)

...also thank you very much for  the info on it!


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