Hi there and welcome (back). 

Yay.  Fixes that make sense.   

Ok.  Well, in order for that to work with the sims 2, what you have to do (as squinge was saying before.) is get an already existing object from the game, and use that file to replace an existing mesh.

Basically, you want the sign as a decorative object on a lot.  So you'd need to take an already in existence object. (say, a vase.) and hack that object, replace the mesh, with the files from your object.  and then you know.  you've turned your sign into a package file.  

This is of course the excessively dumbed down way to explain it.  Mostly cause I'm not a mesher... and any more technical than that I'm going to confuse myself.  But what you need is a mesher type hacking into stuff person.

Ok.  So it's a sign.  Now is this sign supposed to be umm... neighborhood decoration, or something that you're putting on a playable lot?

Ok, hi there.    Do you have a picture of the object?  If you could show a picture of the object, I can probably explain more easily what you need to do to get it to work in the game.

To become one of the witches that came with apartment life, you do need to have apartment life.

indeed.  

gah.  Mr. Humble.  hate that guy.

Score!  I hate that guy too!

my guess is lazy coding.  yep.  that's my guess.

Good on you, Squinge.  The ghost outerwear thing never made a bit of sense to me.

I know that for me, when the gifts get dropped, if I go to buy mode, and grab it in buy mode, and then set it in the house, I can then go get it.  I know you can't place things outside of that is considered the sim's rental property, but I have managed to move the things inside where they can pick them up.  

To be clear, I have not attempted this with date gifts, or anything, just the free computer present.

woo.  very nice.