How to Find Real Porcelain Signs for Sale—Buying Vintage Originals or High Quality Reproductions

There’s no shortage of new, old, and vintage porcelain signs for sale online. You can find awesome gas and oil, cartoons, characters, aviation, marine, farm, and more vintage porcelain signs on eBay, Etsy, random Facebook pages—they’re everywhere. But if you’ve been in this hobby for more than five minutes, you’ve probably learned the hard way: most of them are aluminum junk with vinyl stickers slapped on top.

If you’re serious about buying the best quality porcelain signs, you want the real deal. Here’s what to look for:

1. Porcelain Enamel, Not Paint

Real porcelain signs are layered with enamel and fired in a kiln. That gives them their unmistakable glossy finish—and the durability to last 100 years. If it scratches like paint or peels like a sticker, it’s not porcelain.

2. Thick, Heavy Gauge Steel

If it feels light, it’s wrong. Originals—and our reproductions—are made with 1/4” thick steel. You can feel the weight. You can hear it when it clanks. That’s how you know it’s the good stuff.

3. Each Sign, Slightly Unique

Most cheap reproductions forget this. They’re made to look good in a photo—not to feel like the real thing. Each sign will vary slightly in weight and depth. 

4. Why Most “Porcelain Signs” for Sale Online Are Trash

They look alright from afar—but up close, they don’t hold up. Flat aluminum. Wrong fonts. Printed graphics. Once you see the difference, you can’t unsee it.

5. Where to Actually Buy Real Porcelain Signs

There are only two options:

• Pay thousands for beat-up originals
• Or, get real reproductions made exactly the same way

That’s why we started Porcelain Advertising. No shortcuts. No stickers. Just genuine single-sided and double-side porcelain enamel signs and authentic neon—just like the vintage original porcelain signs.