NOTICE!
This information should be very helpful for those buyers who don't want to get ripped off! There are a group of a dozen or so sellers selling signs they call porcelain, used, preowned and vintage. If you look at their sales history under ITEMS SOLD, you will find that they have sold and are STILL selling the SAME EXACT porcelain, used, preowned and vintage signs over and over and over again. DOZENS of the same signs. Common sense reality check people. There is NO WAY someone has a never-ending supply of the same exact porcelain, used, preowned and vintage signs unless they are making them. These are fantasy fake reproductions listed as porcelain, used, preowned and vintage and are NOT even porcelain. The vast majority of buyers do not know the difference at all and this is what these deceptive sellers are counting on. If you are selling signs you make you should list them as such. Most of our signs are NEW and our listings are transparent. Think twice before you buy these fake signs. It's OK to buy a sign made to look old but the buyer should be told about this rather than intentionally deceiving people. If you call these sellers out on this they just block you and continue flying under the radar selling fake signs that are NOT porcelain, used, preowned OR vintage.
There are a small handful of newer eBay members, (we will not list these seller’s names), that are now selling signs they describe as “pre-owned”, that are actually very recently made. These signs are intentionally made to look old or vintage & described as preowned. The vast majority of these newbie sellers are mass producing their “preowned” signs of just about everything vintage they can find on the internet. If you take the time to review & research these sellers, what they sell and how many hundreds and thousands of the same exact same signs they have sold over & over the prospective buyer can obviously see that it would be virtually impossible to have 100 or 200 of the same exact “preowned” signs unless they were making these signs themselves. Of course, these sellers are purposely not transparent with their descriptions. They are intentionally vague as most buyers do not take the time to do the research. Instead, many buyers click & buy believing that the signs are, in some way vintage because after all, they are listed as “preowned”. In addition, they describe them as porcelain & 99.9% are NOT porcelain. The vast majority are a digitally enhanced graphics on steel or tin & then beat up using a multitude of various methods to accelerate an aged appearance. Everything from soaking in acid solutions & various concoctions of special chemicals all mixed, used & designed to produce & sell preowned signs with a vintage appearance. All of this performed in the art of deception. Inspecting the back of the signs they are all virtually identical. Either black or white with bubbles & scratches here and there in various different spots. Ultimately, it is very easy to spot these types/kinds of signs. There are dozens of sellers practicing the same identical questionable business practices mass producing fake porcelain fantasy signs. For the most part many of these signs are of decent quality & reasonably priced. However, several of these sellers have literally pirated Electolite® original images & artwork designed by Electolite® years & literally decades ago. Many of these images came directly from the 1926 Ashton Collins advertising binder, (of which we still have the original binder valued at $50,000.00). We have been on eBay since day one in September of 1995. Over 25 years. Electolite® has been & still is, the most prolific seller of all things Reddy Kilowatt. If you GOOGLE Reddy Kilowatt almost every third image on the Worldwide web is associated with Electolite®. Virtual proof of just how long we have been selling Reddy Kilowatt memorabilia. Everything Reddy from original rare antique representations to multiple unique fabrications ONLY available by/through Electolite®. We are absolutely one of the few known expert sources for all things Reddy Kilowatt. This is a communication to sign buyers and collectors in an effort to assist in educating the public with real information about how a small group or consortium of sellers are operating on the eBay platform as well as many other sales venues. If you think you are buying a vintage porcelain collectable sign, think again as it is very likely you are not.
Reddy Kilowatt: The corporate mascot created in 1926 by Ashton B. Collins, Sr., of the Alabama Power Company. Reddy has a light bulb for a nose, wall outlets for ears with a torso & limbs made of lightning bolts. The character was licensed to power companies across the United States to represent electricity as a safe & useful utility. Employed by more than 200 different companies at one time, he is rarely seen outside of antique malls and garage sales these days.
We are an exclusive seller of this type/kind of Reddy Kilowatt sign & art depictions of this famous & highly collectable Character. Unique & extraordinary, our signs & Reddy Kilowatt memorabilia have been carefully selected & designed from the genuine Reddy Kilowatt Mat Service Proof Index Artwork from the original artists at Reddy Kilowatt, Inc., 750 Third Avenue, New York 17, N.Y. (1926). We are the ONLY company that offers these particular ORIGINAL OLD STYLE artwork selections of Reddy Kilowatt.
So wherever you buy your Reddy Kilowatt signs we hope you enjoy them and remember, we will leave the light on for you.
Sparky