Blakely Collectibles   

We all have special childhood memories whether it be Barbie Dolls, GI Joe, Easy Bake Ovens, Remote Control Cars, Toy Trains, Vacations to Disneyland or whatever, for many Arizonan's, the Blakely Gas Stations and their promotions bring back memories for many Arizonan’s. 

If you lived or grew up in Arizona during the 1950’s and 60’s most of you will remember the chain of Blakely Gas Stations located throughout Arizona.

Their stations were state of the art for the time with some stations operating as many as 15 pumps.  They were also the first self serve station in the State.

If you don’t recall the stations you may remember the Arizona Cactus glassware and dinnerware that were given away to promote their stations.

These giveaway's consisted of frosted glass and pitcher sets, clear painted glass sets, crystal etched glasses, pottery and fine china dinnerware. 

The Blakely gas station giveaway’s have become one of the top Arizona collectible today. 

You may have inherited a set or just stumbled across them in a yard sale, thrift store or antique shop and found them irresistible.  Whatever attracted you to them you are not alone.

Many collector’s are searching high and low for items to complete sets or for those unusual and hard to find pieces. 

I had the great pleasure to visit with Mrs. Charles Blakely and her daughter Charlene recently.  I was a nice time hearing some her stories and getting to see some items in their personal collection that I have not seen but, figured they were in existence.  At the same time I was able to share some of my rarer finds that they were not familiar with.

Hopefully, through this website we can all learn about the history of these stations as well as some of the collectible items in existence and perhaps items that may be available through other collectors. 

I do have a lot of people inquiring about pricing of the Blakely and why I don't have anything on the website.  It is difficult to keep up with that as it can change drastically and will swing up and down depending on the interest in it.  2014 was a hot year with it being our 100th Anniversay of Statehood in AZ and the article that the Arizona Republic did on my collection. 

The economy also drives pricing when there is disposable income you have more interest and buyes, when money is tight not so much, we have all been there.  There are also pricing variables depending on the venue of where you are making a purchase - yard sale, thrift store prices are usually the lowest, then you have online auctions - Ebay, Etsy and others and that all depends on how many bidders have an interest or if it is on a buy it now basis, you do have shipping costs related to those purchases.  Then you have local in person auction houses again that all depends on who is there at the time, add in a buyers premium and tax to those purchases.  Then there is the antique store/show pricing but, if it is rare and you can't find it elsewhere then you may not have a choice.  Trust me, I've made many an antique shop purchase for Blakely as well as other items.  The dealers also have their own pricing of what they are willing to pay for it as they know they have added costs factors before determining their final price - booth rent, commission, store sales and time frame involved for re-sale.  They may invest $100 in hopes of turning it quickly but, in some cases it could be months/years before they sell it so they are out that $100 for an unknown time period.  For these various reasons, I have purposely not posted any pricing.

Please visit my "Other Oil/Gas Company Giveaways" page as many times when I'm talking to dealers, collectors or even watching on-line auctions folks seem to want to a refer to just about any frosted glass with a scene depicted on it as being Blakely.  They are not.  You will find the Oklahoma Indians, California Missions, Gold Strike, Trains and more on frosted glasses like the ones given away by Blakely but, many of them were promotional items just like Blakely gave away but, were given away by another independent oil company.

Please be patient with us as we work to develop and grow this website.

I would like to extend a warm thank you to Kara Morrison (reporter) and Dierdre Hamill (photographer) of the Arizona Republic for their article in todays (2-18-12) edition.  You can also find it on their website at http://www.azcentral.com/style/hfe/decor/articles/2012/02/17/20120217blakely-gas-stations-give-aways-hot-collectibles.html

CONTACT US

Email:  director@blakelycollectibles.com