NORTH JUDSON, Ind. – Bidders found everything they needed but the ZIP code to open up their own vintage post office and gas station at the Osinski auction on May 7. Of course, neither ZIP code nor bar code ever passed through the gorgeous brass post office teller cage, which may well be over 80 years old. The teller cage once served the postal needs of little Tyner, Ind., an unincorporated town in Marshall County . The teller cage fetched $200. Tyner’s ZIP code, by the way, is 46572.

Any classic old post office needs brass boxes, which were offered in a section of 40 boxes, along with an additional box of brass fronts. The brass boxes came from Monterey, Ind., a town of 231 friendly folks in Pulaski County. The 40 box section sold for $50, and the box of brass fronts for $15. An old leather mail carrier bag fetched $60. With a nod to more modern mail services, the auction offered a much newer postal center, which sold for $15.

Two complete vintage gas pumps were offered. The oldest was the Wayne visible gas pump with the rare blue cylinder, restored to the White Eagle brand, which sold for $1,750. A blue glass cylinder for a visible gas pump, all by itself in a box, sold for $300.

The more modern gas pump was the restored Pure Oil. Perhaps because of the striking blue color and design of its logo, Pure petroliana products are especially valued by collectors.

Producers Oil Co., Ltd. began in 1891 and changed its name to Pure Oil Company in 1895. The Ohio Cities Gas Company purchased the company in 1917, and after several other acquisitions, in 1920 the directors voted to rename the conglomerate The Pure Oil Company. Union 76 bought Pure Oil in 1965 and by 1970 the Pure logo was no longer used.

The Pure Oil gas pump sold for $1,250. Two porcelain Pure signs from the side of a gas pump sold for $125 each . An original Pure gas pump globe sold for $300.

Illinois license plates from 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1948 sold for $12.50 each, all to the same bidder.

But despite the strong showing of the automobilia, the belle of the ball was the glass minnow trap. She was never alone, as bidders circled and admired her all day long. American glass minnow traps have been around since the 1890s, when they were first sold by C.F. Orvis Company. Many different manufacturers have made glass minnow traps since then, and some are even being made today. The one at the Ozinski auction was definitely antique, and when she when up on the auction block the building was so quiet you could have hear a pin drop. The odds of a glass minnow trap surviving the decades of rattling around in pick-up trucks and boats are amazing. She sold for $120.

A cardboard Chesterfield sign with a military theme sold for $72.50. A box of assorted postcards, from the homes of Hollywood stars in the 1960s to the risqué Earl Moran sold for $27.50. The bargain of the day may have been an elegant old ceramic draft horse for only $10. An autographed photograph of the Cisco Kid fetched $12.50.

An Osinski auction is always friendly and fun. The auction building itself is a kind of museum, will all kinds of interesting vintage signs and antiques. Even if you don’t find anything you need at the auction, there’s always something new to admire on the walls of the auction building.

Osinski Auctions is a first generation auction company run by Ben and his wife Dorothy. They’ve been in the business more than 25 years. In 1994, they became the first auction company in the area to be computerized. Osinski has been on the Indiana Auctioneers Association state board for two terms and is very active with the association.

Contact: (574) 896-3194