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Passing on your Phone Collection discussion ...

Started by Babybearjs, November 23, 2011, 03:37:30 AM

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Babybearjs

heres a good question... how does one make sure that their telephone collection stays within these collector groups when he/she passes on.... even though its written in thier will, the family doesnt always follow through... what kind of services does ATCA and TCI have for keeping the phones safe from the thrift stores... or is that a good way to start collecting.... I have several 300 and 400 series phones, all in working order and I don't want them just "thrown out" so to speak when its time... what do you all think??
John

Doug Rose

My wife and children know the value of my phones. They know the phones are great investment as well. Whether you like eBay or not, have them post 12 pictures and say old phone. Put it in the proper catergory and it will sell for whatever the going rate is/was at that time.

They also know I would haunt them to the end of time if they did something stupid with them....Doug
Kidphone

liteamorn

My girlfriend has taken to these and probably has a better eye than I do with them. My youngest daughter and her boyfriend were over the other day and were wide eyed over them. i think my phones will be fine, besides, I'm taking some of them with me :) .

Phonesrfun

#3
Quote from: Babybearjs on November 23, 2011, 03:37:30 AM
heres a good question... how does one make sure that their telephone collection stays within these collector groups when he/she passes on.... even though its written in thier will, the family doesnt always follow through... what kind of services does ATCA and TCI have for keeping the phones safe from the thrift stores... or is that a good way to start collecting.... I have several 300 and 400 series phones, all in working order and I don't want them just "thrown out" so to speak when its time... what do you all think??

There are no guarantees, and the clubs have no "programs" for keeping phones within the "family".  That function is really not within the scope of the clubs, and if you consider what would be involved, it would be an impossible task.

Most collectors make arrangements for passing them on, but they are known to go the way of auctions too.  I have a friend in my town who is now in his 80's and slowing down considerably, and has spent some time in the hospital recently.  He has quite a bunch of parts and phones, and so I have asked him what he plans on doing with it.  For now he is still thinking he will recover and be back to the health he enjoyed years ago.  So, he does not want to think about it.  He just says it will go to his son, and his son can do with it whatever he wants.  His son, by the way, is not a phone collector.

It is pretty hard to do or say anything that will change a person's mind at that point, and that is why no collector's club can actively do anything.  

The thing that the clubs do provide is a network of folks that get together either in forums such as this or the TCI or ATCA listserves, but more importantly, in person.  The telephone collector shows are excellent ways for people to come together and not only share in the hobby and buy and sell phones, but to build friendships.  Some of the real "old-timers" on the listserves go way-way back and they are fiercely loyal to one another.  Recently, the costs of travel and gas, and the hassles with airlines has really made it difficult for people to travel to national shows.  The regional shows, while smaller still provide a good venue for getting together.

Remember that the Internet is a recent phenomonon.  In the past, club get-togethers and shows were the only way phone collectors had to get together and build their friendships.

These days with the Internet, e-baY, and the nameless "handles" and the here today and gone tomorrow ways makes it a totally different hobby than it once was.

I like this forum better than the listserves because I think it is more personable, and we can post pictures easier than on the listserves.

However, remember that if you really want to tap into more knowledge and more experience, you should not ignore the listserves.  

I'll get off my soapbox now.....
-Bill G

Phonesrfun

One more thing...

Both clubs have monthly newsletters with a classified section, so if someone plans on selling an entire collection or a spouse of a deceased collector wants to sell within the hobby, those are also available. 
-Bill G

Dennis Markham

Excellent posts, Bill.  I agree 100% with your thoughts on this issue.  Thank you for sharing them.

AE_Collector

Doug Rose:

Didn't you start a thread in the past on this topic? 6 to 12 months ago. I can't seem to find it at the moment but undoubtable there will be more good responses in that thread as well.

Someone was telling me fairly recently about a program from one of the European or maybe it was Australia/New Zealand clubs where they did just this sort of thing. They had a program to handle the distribution of collections from deceased (or maybe even downsizing) club members. That seemed like a WIN-WIN-WIN arrangement to me for all concerned parties. Phones went to good homes, the estate got what they were worth rather than garage sale pricing, club memebers got a good shot at adding to their collections at reasonable and fair prices.

I think this would be  something that the North American clubs should really consider looking at.

Terry

Phonesrfun

Another point, there is an excellent article in the TCI newsletter "Singing Wires", talking about the Bill Daniels estate auction.  Some extremely fine items, indeed.

A membership in TCI gets you all the past Singing Wires issues on line, if anyone is interested.
-Bill G

Babybearjs

thanks guys! the problem that I have, as some of you might have seen before is family that doesnt care about personal effects after they leave. my dads estate was totally lost to "Stupid" people, my sisters... he had a whole shop of woodworking tools, HO scale trains, various antiques... all lost because no one cared.... to this day I don't know what happend because one of my sisters, who was a druggie, supposedly "lost" my dads effects... wonder how much stuff wound up in the pawn shop???? so, you can see my concern...    John
John

Phonesrfun

Well, that is unfortunate, indeed. 

I have heard of that happening and it is really maddening, to say the least.  One thing I think happens is that one man's treasures are another's trash.  I really understand my hobby, but to some, it's just a collection of old junk.  It's too bad that others don't take the time to realize just what is involved. 

Of course the other issue is when there is someone who does as you describe and somehow "looses" the inheritance due to less than appropriate acts.

-Bill G

Sargeguy

I plan to be cremated in a phone booth on a pyre of wooden magneto boxes and subsets clutching my WE Type 22 in  hand and my early 20-B in the other.  Other than that I am not worried about what happens to the phones, I imagine they will find there way back into circulation eventually.
Greg Sargeant
Providence, RI
TCI /ATCA #4409

Owain

#11
Quote from: Sargeguy on November 24, 2011, 12:34:38 PM
I plan to be cremated in a phone booth on a pyre of wooden magneto boxes and subsets clutching my WE Type 22 in  hand and my early 20-B in the other.  Other than that I am not worried about what happens to the phones, I imagine they will find there way back into circulation eventually.

I'm hoping someone will buy me this  from here.


<edit> Both links return this message now. But, we can guess!  Terry

ESalter

I believe I'm lucky in this respect.  Actually, my dad is lucky because I'm around to keep the collection going.  I'm only 23, so my time is a ways off yet, but hopefully 60 or 70 years from now someone other than me will have a respect for old telephones?  My 1 1/2 year old daughter loves playing with the old phones(she absolutely LOVES running into the phone booth, shutting the door, and waving at us from inside.  Maybe she'll keep on liking them.  My fingers are crossed for that.  ---Eric

savageje

Maybe a bit OT, but I thought I'd share that I drove out to PA in October for the Bill Daniels auction and picked up a few items there, including a nice 233G (my first pay phone) and a beautiful 51AL with a nice #2 dial (my first candlestick).  It was awesome just to go and see all of those rare and beautiful phones in person. If I ever were lucky enough to have a collection like his was, I would pass it along in the same way. 

Although I thought the buyer's premium was a bit steep (keep in mind I'm used to small country auctions here in the Midwest), I think the auction house did a good job of attracting knowledgeable buyers.  I think all of the items fetched decent sale prices (especially considering the state of the economy), but I felt confident that most items ended up with collectors that will carefully preserve them.  Granted, you generally don't see things like an 1878 "coffin phone" at Goodwill. ;)

Phonesrfun

From what I've read and heard, the coordination was a massive collaborative effort between family, members of the phone club who were close friends of Bill, and the auction house.

Apparently his collection was of the highest quality, and very large.  There are several others that have large and valuable collections.

Mine is pretty small and ordinary.

-Bill G