Classic Rotary Phones Forum

We've got quite an auction for this week's contest.  It's an entire collection of telephones, and it can be yours in one fell swoop.  There's something here from most American manufacturers:  Kellogg, Stromberg, A.E., W.E., North, Connecticut, Leich... It's all there.

So put on your thinking caps and break out the adding machines, gang.  What do you think this auction will bring?  Let's hear your guesses before the auction's end.




S C O R E B O A R D
$238.89 - Dan²
$340 - Dan/Panther
$450 - BDM
$475 - Bill Cahill
$500 - benhutcherson
$750 - mienaichizu
$800 - bingster
$1500 - McHeath
$3000 - HobieSport

<edit> Auction cancelled.

Holy Moly!  Them's some fine phones in there!
$3,000. is my half-educated guess, Bingster.

I'm going to guess $500.

Nothing jumps out as especially rare..

My guess $340.00.
D/P

$450

I bet those would bring lots more money if they were auctioned individually. I think they are going to cost way more than $25 to ship, too. Can anyone ID that aqua phone? It has a sort of Automatic Electric look to it.

Is anyone else depressed at the thought of their phones being liquidated in this way?

When I made my bid, I wasn't considering that the sum of the parts, is greater than the whole.
D/P

Quote from: Perry on February 22, 2009, 08:15:54 PM
Is anyone else depressed at the thought of their phones being liquidated in this way?

Perry;
You know it's rather funny that we think about our stuff after we've gone, as though we might come back later.
Death is the FINAL vacation, that we don't return home from.
D/P

Like with all possessions one accumulates, we are only the "keepers" of these phones.  It's just our turn at the moment to have them.  As I zoom into and past mid-life I think of this every time I drag more "stuff" home.  Eventually someone is going to have to drag it back out again.  It's depressing to go to an Estate sale and walk through someone's home and watch people pick through their life-long accumulations.  But that's life.  Just keep going forward and hope today's not THE day! :)

My Late Uncle Jim, always said; "If I can't take it with me I'm Not going".
He promised me afew things when i was younger, that I could have when he passed.
I recently asked my Aunt what ever happened to this or that. Her response was, You know I don't know what happerned to that !
Maybe he took it with him....?

D/P

It's not really losing the stuff, just that it seems not to be valued highly by whoever inherited it. It probably took some effort to put all that together, and it's all being auctioned as a group, without individual descriptions, etc.

That's right Perry, and there was probably a story with each piece.  But that bit of history died with the collector.  If one has the desire to catalog one's collection it helps---if there is someone to pass it down to that has an interest.

Quote from: Perry on February 22, 2009, 08:41:12 PMIt probably took some effort to put all that together, and it's all being auctioned as a group, without individual descriptions, etc.

That's why I like the way these are being auctioned off.  I think there's good mojo in having all these phones kept together.  If they were auctioned individually, they might bring more money, but the effort of the original collector would be lost.

I guess if you put it that way, it's nice that they are staying together (assuming that whoever buys them doesn't just split them for individual eBay sales).

I suppose that another option would be for whoever inherited the phones to put them all in a box at a yard sale for one of us to buy for a few dollars. Then we come full circle...

Like Laura Bush says on T.V.; "Be a mentor".
Then you have someone that knows you, and your collections value, and may keep most or at least a good portion of your collection together.

D/P

Quote from: Dennis Markham on February 22, 2009, 08:52:34 PM
That's right Perry, and there was probably a story with each piece.  But that bit of history died with the collector.  If one has the desire to catalog one's collection it helps---if there is someone to pass it down to that has an interest.

Dennis,

You've given me a thought.

I've seen studies that indicate most collectors have above-average memories, or at least certain types of memory. Since I think I definitely have the collecting "gene", if such a thing exists, I think that I bear this out.

I can look at any telephone in my collection(or any other collection, for that matter) and recall where I bought it, and how much I paid for it. In most cases, I have a very distinct memory of where it was in the store I bought it-down to the location on the shelf.

Perhaps it would be valuable to take the time to record each of those memories. I don't think that it would be of any value to anyone other than myself, however it could potentially remind me somewhere along the way.

I'll have to think a bit about what this might be worth.

Interesting comments on dying.  I was talking to the 92 year old fellow across the street yesterday and he was talking about a recent plane crash and his take one what went wrong.  He was a career navy guy, and spent the last decade working on aircraft, into the 60's, and it suddenly hit me that all the knowledge he has about aircraft and turboprops and piston engines is currently going to waste and will be lost when he dies.  It all got very sad, this seems to be one of the greatest tragedies of being human, all that we are and know is lost when we go, just like the history of this phone collection has been lost because the keeper of that history is gone. 

Morose.

Yup, it's very sad to see this happen to ones collection.  We collect just about everything, and almost everything I have has some story, I don't remember most of the prices anymore, but on the more special and extravagent items I do.  Even though on most my dad flipped the bill, I've been the one to retain the knowledge, the history, yada, yada, yada.  Even as a youngster, I think about it.  In near death experiences, such as my car accidents, I just thought of all the things I value, would suddenly lose them stories, and everything.  It's a very humbling moment to think that these things that are such a part of your life can mean so little just like that.

Ben, I think it is common for collectors of anything to recall how and when and how much when talking about a piece that they've added.  It's like the hunter (I've known a few serious hunters) that talk about the big buck they killed.  The time of day, the weather conditions, where it stood and how it moved before they put a bullet through its heart to end its life.  And then how difficult it was to drag it to the truck.

So there's that aspect of the history of acquiring the piece (in this case phones) and then a little piece of the history of the phone itself.  It is not often that we are privy to the details of the phone as it existed prior to acquiring it.  I do have a few in which some history was passed on by the seller.  For example there is a guy in Pennsylvania that I "met" via eBay.  When he finds something he thinks I'm may be interested in buying he'll e-mail me.  I purchased two phones from him that came from the same hardware store in Ohio.  One was an AE40 and the other a Galion phone.  The hardware store had been in business for some 80 years before closing.  He tells me that store was IN Galion, Ohio.  What (in my mind) is better than a Galion phone from Galion, Ohio?  On another black wall phone from Indiana the seller says it hung behind the counter at a local family-owned movie theater.  And yet another black 554 from the 50's hung in the music room at a school for its entire life.  There are others.  Sometimes I'll ask the eBay seller.  Once in a while they'll actually know a bit of the phone's history.  Other times they just say it came from an Estate sale.

Those examples to me make the collection more interesting.  Although I haven't written down that information I can point to the piece and tell which is which.  I think in case someone may be interested in the future, that is what I mean about cataloging the collection---not only for insurance purposes but for historical purposes.

Hmmmm. My guess is 475.00.
Lots of parts there.
Looks interesting to me.
Bill Cahill

$238.89, which will be a steal for someone....

Holy! lots of good phones in there at a cheap price, very interesting! place me in $750

Quote from: Perry on February 22, 2009, 08:15:54 PM
I bet those would bring lots more money if they were auctioned individually. I think they are going to cost way more than $25 to ship, too. Can anyone ID that aqua phone? It has a sort of Automatic Electric look to it.

Is anyone else depressed at the thought of their phones being liquidated in this way?

Yup perry the aqua phone is an AE, and look, there are 2 AE jukebox wall phone in there, one with chrome trimming

the bids surely shoots up

There seems to be a lot of interest in this collection online, 19 bids so far.

I'm guessing 1500 clams.  More or less.

Looks like the seller received a lucrative off-ebay offer, as they canceled all of the bids and ended the listing early.

That's a shame-they probably would have gotten more if they'd just let it run its course.

Unbelievable.  So much for this week's contest, eh?

so no winner for this contest?

It was me guys, I bought the whole enchilada in an off e-bay aside.  Paid $12.47 for the lot, plus he threw in free shipping and even gave me a free McDonalds gift card for a Big Mac on my next visit, 2 free ticket to Yanni Live At the Acropolis, a free Belkin router, 3 free ducks, a wire stripper, 2 lava lamps, a pencil set, an original battle flag from the 3rd Arkansas CSA Vol. Infantry regiment, a 1 gig flash drive, and his car.

So clearly the economy has played havoc with e-bay and this is a buyers market.


;)

If they had left the high bidder up, I guess we could have used that.  But the removed all the bids, leaving it at $0.  I suppose we'll just wait until Saturday or Sunday for the next one.

McHeath, my mother might be interested in taking the Yanni tickets. :P

McHeath;
$12.47, you got hosed.
D/P

Three free ducks???

I'd rather get the ducks than the goose.

I want the 1 gig thingamabobber.
Blasted sellers...
Bill Cahill

Send that Confederate flag my way LOL!  I've got 3 that saw battle, a jacket from Lee's army, and a Sword from the CSA dated 1862.  It would be right at home.  Not to mention my brother and sister's names are Robert Lee and Dixie.

I have a goldfish named Sherman! ;D

Quote from: Sargeguy on March 07, 2009, 12:13:01 AM
I have a goldfish named Sherman! ;D

Ouch, that's a stab in my southern pride :( LOL

Quote from: Dennis Markham on February 27, 2009, 07:55:27 AM
Three free ducks???

I once sold a Duck for Buck, and paid a Buck for a Duck, but I refuse to pay a Buck and a quarter for a ......well lets just say the Duck wasn't any good...

D/P