Recycled Neon Channel Letters from Storefront Signage
Channel letter signs are expensive to buy and for good reason. Fonts and shapes and overall look must be designed. Then the letter channels are formed by hand or machine. Neon or argon tubing is then bent to fit inside the channels to light the letters. Then it has to be installed, wired up and tested. Removing a sign from the building after a business closes is another expense. So you can not expect to get old sign letters for free. Being the avid fan of neon that I am, I feel recycling neon channel letters makes sense.
I often observe relatively new channel letter signs go up on eBay© with similar ad copy. "Paid $4500.00 new, buy it now for less than half!" followed by "Local pickup only, Will pack and deliver to freight dock for fee." The opening bid will be $2000.00. The auction of such a used neon channel letter sign doesn't seem to draw any interest of purchase at 2K and a rive to fetch with today's fuel costs. Sometimes those auctions just vanish without a winning bidder, never re-listed. Others will re-list and re-list a few times, again without bidders. Even less will start to drop the price at each re-list. I also found some channel letter signs for low prices. "Low opening bid - buyer pick up!" The opening bid might be $199.00 for a 13 letter sign. Why were the prices low? Two reasons. One, expensive shipping costs for complete signs. Shipping a channel letter sign and needed transformers costs upwards of $200.00! Reason two, breakage. It seems no matter how you pack the letters, something will break en-route if packed by a novice to glass items. About 1/3 of package contents broken was the incoming rate, irrelevant who shipped it! Not good. So the boxes arrive, and I would find that I may or may not have what I wanted. How did I get into neon channel letters? Well, I'll tell you.
I started a new business in 2004. That new business needed a sign. I was very limited on signage display space on the business' building. So, it all started when I found a neon channel letter sign for sale on eBay©. That sign read BASEBALL CARDS. I immediately noticed I could use most of the letters to spell out "CAR SALES". I bid and won the auction and drove to Chicago to fetch the sign letters. So for rather cheap I was able to get most of the sign I needed. That sign's letters was only part of what I needed though. So, I ended up buying a few other signs to find the rest of the letters I needed. Some signs were picked up by me, other signs I had shipped to me.
The neon channel letters listed below are available for purchase from me. They are extras from the various complete signs I bought. I'm not doing anything with them but storing them. No, I'm not a sign shop, nor do I manufacture these channel letters. If you haven't visited my about me page, you probably should to get to know me better.
Shipping a single letter or two for personal "illuminated initials" proves to be fine. I usually pack the glass in one carton and the channel letters themselves in another. Of course, the size of the letter matters the most, 2 foot tall letters are best sent singly. I pack the channel letters and neon tubes well to ensure safe arrival. So browse the letters below and see if you find a set of letters to spell a word for your business or maybe your initials. If you found 5 letters that you could use for a word in your business sign, or for personal whatever, plan on 3 cartons to ship 5 letters to you. Personally, I find Fed Ex does the best for me and how I pack to ship. Thanks for stopping in for a look! I'm happy to move any of the letters listed below onto a new home where they will be used.
Please note that thumbnails of sold letters do not open full-sized pictures.
Neon Sign Channel Letter Related Links:
| Neon channel letter basics | Neon channel letter service and re-assembling |
