I just found a box for sale for $75 or best offer! Nothing special about it, in pretty bad condition, and you still gotta pay for shipping. For $75 I could find a new rotary phone in its box! Some people think anything old is instantly worth a fortune, or they're on crack, or both. ;D
http://tinyurl.com/y946naf (http://tinyurl.com/y946naf) ( dead link 08-04-21 )
hilarious, bsp :o i must have used that line ("are they on crack or what") a dozen times whiles perusing the antique shops this weekend ;)
If that thing sells for $75 I'll be dragging out the 6 or 8 of them that I have. Mine are older too. I could retire! Amazing.
Hmmmm...I think I'm going to get into box restoration!! :D
I recently bought 6 NOS boxes still folded just like that for $15. I really expected a phone to be inside for that price.
The seller revised the price. It's now a bargain-basement $49.
If he dropped it to $10, shipping included, it might sell.
The packaging for collectors can be a very big part of the value of an item.
HOWEVER.....This guy has "Hyper Saturation of the Duodenum."
D/P
Not phone related, but here is an empty box 270478958963
Crazy part is that is nothing. My buddy showed me one last winter that a guy was asking over $13,000 for!!! It was an empty cardboard Lionel train box from the 20s or 30s that the whole set came in. It was not even cool looking like the box in the auction, just a brown nox that said Lionel on it. Time to start saving boxes?! ???
Quote from: Craig T on November 03, 2009, 02:10:11 PM
Not phone related, but here is an empty box 270478958963
Crazy part is that is nothing. My buddy showed me one last winter that a guy was asking over $13,000 for!!! It was an empty cardboard Lionel train box from the 20s or 30s that the whole set came in. It was not even cool looking like the box in the auction, just a brown nox that said Lionel on it. Time to start saving boxes?! ???
Did it sell? I noticed this one has some serious bidders! I have an HO scale box in vg condition, wonder if I could sell it for a small fortune!
The box in the auction in question appears to be from the 1960's. One of these (attached photo) is from the earlier phones from the 1950's. And this box has the original phone inside.
Most of the Lionel boxes that bring big money are the boxes for items that, themselves, are rare in the first place.
The box linked above is for the B unit for the Wabash F-3s, the 2240C. Box or not, the 2240C is pricey, and the box is even harder to find.
Add to that that the box is in really good shape, something that you don't often find with the relatively flimsy cardboard boxes.
Not all Lionel boxes are worth a lot of money-people just pay attention to the outliers.
Quote from: Brinybay on November 03, 2009, 05:37:21 PM
Quote from: Craig T on November 03, 2009, 02:10:11 PM
Not phone related, but here is an empty box 270478958963
Crazy part is that is nothing. My buddy showed me one last winter that a guy was asking over $13,000 for!!! It was an empty cardboard Lionel train box from the 20s or 30s that the whole set came in. It was not even cool looking like the box in the auction, just a brown ox that said Lionel on it. Time to start saving boxes?! ???
Did it sell? I noticed this one has some serious bidders! I have an HO scale box in vg condition, wonder if I could sell it for a small fortune!
Hey Briny, no the 13K box did not sell. Then the guy went and made a lamp out of it. ;D There was another even higher than that. I don't know about trains, but I know that the collectors are into them if they are the right ones. Yours is worth checking into for sure. Rare or not $13,000 dollars is a lot of money for an empty cardboard box.
I would have to tell the government that I was too big to fail to come up with that kind of jack.
$13,000!!! That's crazy! Buying boxes seems so... boring.