Value of Rare 6' Pioneer Neon Sign

AMX390

AMX390

New Member
I have this amazing Pioneer neon sign from the 70'-80's that was displayed in a St. Louis stereo shop. The guy I bought it from said that he started begging the shop for it when he was 12 years old and would keep asking for it every time he went in there. I also purchased his original SX-1280 that he bought from the shop when he was 14! Well, about 10 years later, the shop was discontinuing the Pioneer brand and asked him if he still wanted it. Hell yeah! Well, it's mine now and I really do not have anywhere to go with it and the wife definitely does not want it. It has two broken tubes but with the resurgence of neon, we have about 5 shops here in St. Louis that could fix it for a reasonable price. All of the other tubes work. I would like to know a fair value.
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Did you get an estimate for the glass work? I can't see it being done cheap. If they didn't need anything but a wall outlet, you wouldn't have as much of a problem turning it.
 
nolasally said:
Prolly 500 or so all fixed up for a pioneer nut.
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And there's a decent number of those (Pioneer nuts) around. But shipping that thing without additional breakage is going to be tough, and finding a good buyer locally may be even tougher.

BTW, neon work is surprisingly not that difficult. There was a Mythbusters episode that actually showed Kari making a sign. Plus, at least one of the broken tubes is straight, which looks like it would only require two 90-degree bends.
 
No Chit.. Might not have put QUITE so many Ho-Yules in "Gulf" & "Cokey-Dolee" signs as I did in my WASTED youth, if I knew then what I know now.... Aww hell, I would have, too... Damn signs were Stickin' their Tongues out at me.... 17 yr old boy, full box of .22s, trusty Browning Lever Action... Abandoned service station, what would you do ?!?
 
I have a similar story about a vintage Pioneer Sign that was in a light box for many years at Hillcrest, South Australia. I asked about it for years and was always told when the business closes it was mine to take. I used to drive past the business every two days and one day the insert of the light box was changed to something totally different.

I stopped and went back to the shop only to find the insert in a skip out the back in about 8 pieces. ....................and did you think I was shitty ?????

I could've been locked up for some of the language I used in the following 10 minutes.
 
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With the Pioneer love so strong one could easily get over 5 for that unit in good working condition. They guys wanting it now have money to spent and having a full stack of silver would make them jonz for it even more. A bid war and bam, spending money.
 
Blue Shadow said:
With the Pioneer love so strong one could easily get over 5 for that unit in good working condition. They guys wanting it now have money to spent and having a full stack of silver would make them jonz for it even more. A bid war and bam, spending money.
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With the sign repaired and glowing behind the SX-1280, that would have a big visual impact on the auction site. I could see it going to the Asian market for $$$.
 
You should bring it to a sign shop and see how much it would cost to reproduce new ones.
Could probably make some good money selling those.
 
OMGCat! said:
You should bring it to a sign shop and see how much it would cost to reproduce new ones.
Could probably make some good money selling those.
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Probably not a good idea without having the "rights" to sell Pioneer branded merchandise.
 
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I wouldn't trust any professional packing place that didn't specialize in that sort of stuff (i.e. don't expect Fedex/Kinkos or the UPS store to do it properly). Instead, when you bring the sign in to get it repaired, talk to one of the pros there and see what they recommend. My guess is that they wouldn't do it at all.

ETA: changed would to wouldn't thanks to the sharp eyes of @Blue Shadow.
 
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AMX390 said:
Probably not a good idea without having the "rights" to sell Pioneer branded merchandise.
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Some companies couldn't give a fat rats clacker about reproducing their trade mark logos as any publicity is good publicity and they don't have to spend any money to do this and as such it create more awareness.

There is a guy that's flogging Pioneer hats and T shirts if I recall correctly on the bay and he's still doing it and as such Pioneer would've hung him out to dry had they had a problem with it. Also I'm sure that the old logo has probably run out of date copyright wise.

Truthfully I've never liked the newer style current Pioneer logo, it's just plain old boring while the earlier "Tuning Fork in the Ohm Symbol" looks really classy. Sometimes you wonder what's going through the head of the marketing gurus.
 
IMF_Pioneer said:
There is a guy that's flogging Pioneer hats and T shirts if I recall correctly on the bay and he's still doing it and as such Pioneer would've hung him out to dry had they had a problem with it. Also I'm sure that the old logo has probably run out of date copyright wise.
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The logo is a trademark, not a copyright, and trademarks don't expire.

Legally, Pioneer needs to defend their trademark or they risk losing it. They may feel that this particular infringement isn't significant and as long as they don't make Pioneer look bad, they'll let the seller continue.

On the other hand, how many Calvin and Hobbes products have you seen? Unless they're books, they're unauthorized.
 
AMX390 said:
Probably not a good idea without having the "rights" to sell Pioneer branded merchandise.
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Since this is an item that was originally created by Pioneer, and sold to one of their dealers, they no longer have control over the sale, any more than they could stop you from selling an SX-1980 ("first sale" doctrine), or GM could stop you from selling a Corvette that you just bought new from them..

Creating a new version of either one of these (sign, or SX-1980), and claiming it's a Pioneer, would be trademark infringement, and they might want to take enforcement actions (like Quad should do for the unauthorized Chinese clones of their amps, in another thread).
 
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