nice score!

["Eddie Stakes" <eddiestakes@xxxx>]

Sometimes good guys do win. This original aluminum cased 12+ foot dealership
sign hung over a local dealership's service bay entrance for years. I tried
to buy it repeatedly since the 1980's, but was told it was not for sale. One
day in Feb 2004 I drove past the dealership which was being painted, and
noticed the sign was gone. So I turned around and parked my 68 Rebel
convertible Machine front and center of the Parts Department. The two guys
inside could not agree on what happened to it, one said it had been tossed
weeks ago, the other said it was given to a longtime employee who was
retiring. So I headed to the back and dug thru a 18 foot dumpster, but to no
avail. Upon going back to my car, I stopped and talked with another fellow
in the service area who indicated they still had the sign, but it was spoken
for. He led me into a area and there it was propped up against the wall in
all it's massive glory. I offered to buy it again but was turned down. I
stuck my card on it in case whoever was fixin to retire changed their minds
due to the size of it. So June 2004 I'm sitting at home and got a call from
a fellow who works for this Mopar dealership. He asked about parts for AMC,
and some NOS things he had for sale and asked about what I thought a AMC
dealership sign was worth. I told him the story of the sign I had tried to
buy for 17 years off this one dealership, and I could never understand why
the Mopar dealership left it up there long after AMC was gone. Turns out he
had this sign. So I got it and here is a photo of a extremely rare item, a
aluminum encased 12 foot+ American Motors Dealership SERVICE SIGN.
http://www.planethoustonamx.com/amc_dealership_sign.JPG
I may add
that there is a huge one over 25 feet tall, the vertical type, in Laughlin,
NV, still, the dealership is gone but sign still remains, and is allegedly
in good shape. There is another angled 25 + foot American Motors sign in a
small town in Arkansas just east of the OK border. I'll remember the name of
the town if I see it, but this is the angled type that AMC would anchor in
the ground at a 45 degree angle. Still there for the taking 17 years after
the fall of AMC. You can also sometimes, rarely, but sometimes, find these
original dealership signs at AMC National meets in the $500-$1000 range.
They are truly one of the most desirable remaining pieces of American Motors
dealership's legacies.
Eddie Stakes
www.planethoustonamx.com
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