Will Seippel | July 31, 2026

A vintage Mohawk Gasoline neon sign sold for $270,000 at Richmond Auctions, one of WorthPoint’s Industry Partners, setting a new auction record for a Mohawk neon sign. Needless to say, this sale caught my eye.

Neon signs are hot collectibles for a few reasons. Companies don’t use them as much as they once did, and many of those used in the past have not been preserved and are completely unusable. Restoration typically lowers value, so when a collector finds a sign in good shape, from an iconic brand, there is always a lot of interest.

This particular sign was from Mohawk Petroleum Company. The company began in Bakersfield, CA, in the 1920s and played a significant role in the discovery and development of the Mountain View Oil Field. I was shocked to learn that this latest selling price of $270,000, while significant, is not the highest for a piece of Mohawk advertising.

Before this sale, the highest price for a Mohawk neon sign was $192,000, at an auction handled by another WorthPoint partner, Morphy Auctions. That sign did have the upright feather and included neon. These two sales show that petroliana is still a hot collectible, particularly advertising pieces with original neon in good condition.

The record price for a piece of Mohawk advertising, if you can believe it, was a sign that did not include any neon. What it did have, however, was the very rare “down feather” image of a Mohawk. Sold by Morphy Auctions in March 2023 for $312,000, the sign is thought to be one of only four curb signs in existence.

These three sales illustrate that condition always matters, but extreme rarity consistently attracts the highest bids. Collectors will always consider quality when deciding to purchase something, but the real score for any enthusiast or collector is finding something that almost no one else has.

Have you found something that could be rare? Check out the WorthPoint Price Guide and see if what you have is a “unicorn” for collectors.