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The Bill Dagg
The Bill Dagg

ADVERTISING COLLECTION
ADVERTISING COLLECTION

An interview with Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher

hen Bill Dagg was in his thousand off of the Star Car sign at my 2012 auction. While I may buy
late 30s, his doctor told other things of interest to me, I always go back to advertising. I just got
Whim he needed to spend caught up with it.
more time on hobbies and less
time on work. “That’s when I Why do you think that is?
realized I really didn’t have any My first car was a 1965 Mustang. Then I bought a ‘67. Over the
hobbies,” said Dagg, now “retired” years, you could say I’ve collected and restored Mustangs so maybe
(which he defines as “I work when that’s what attracts me to automobile and petroliana signs and anything
I want to work”) and “in the country store. It’s nostalgic to me. I don’t buy anything newer than
fourth quarter” of life. His need to 1969 – my childhood years.
find a hobby turned into a passion
for collecting that has now become What do you look for?
an opportunity for fellow enthusiasts to acquire a part of it as he brings My favorite is porcelain advertising signs but I also look for
the last of his lifetime collection of brand advertising signs and two-sided flanged signs. Really, anything with good advertising. It’s
petroliana to auction this November. Some 900 lots will be getting harder, though, to find authentic, good-quality items. There are
auctioned off by Millers Auction Co. of Hixton, a lot of really good reproductions out there and even the
Wisconsin, at the Monroe County Fairgrounds in best auction houses sometimes have difficulty telling
Tomah, WI, November 11-12. This is the second the difference.
go-around for Dagg, who in 2012 sold as many as
5,000 items from his collection at an auction through Where do you store all these cars and other items
Matthews Auction in Nokomis, Illinois. Does that you collect?
mean Dagg is finished collecting? Highly doubtful I’m in the building business so I built a 42 x 100
based on our conversation:
warehouse for it on our property, which gave me the
space to display, not just store my collection. When we
So when you were looking for a hobby, how did you moved in 2012, we downsized and I sold about 90
land on advertising signs? percent of what I had at the time at auction but added
In the mid-80s, my younger brother was an auctioneer a smaller building to our current property for what I
so I started going to his auctions. One of the first things had left, and as it turns out, continue to collect.
I bought was a Star Car porcelain sign for around $225.
Then, I was buying anything with advertising and I started going to Can you talk a little about your auctions?
auctions once a week. Then I learned about these advertising shows and The 2012 auction included about 5,000 items, mostly advertising
auctions and started going to those, as well. Back then you would buy signs and petroliana items. That was about 90% of what I had at that
a piece at an auction for a few dollars and people would look at you and time and the three-day auction realized over $650,000. I held back
question why. Now, look at what these are going for! I cleared a mostly smalls we didn’t think would sell at the auction and some of my

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