Ask a silly question...

[Greg G.]

...get a silly answer!

Me to ebay phone seller:  

"Can you post a picture of the bottom, or describe the markings on the bottom?"

Response from ebay phone seller:  

"metal bottom with I believe the date and serial number on it."

OOOOKKKKAAAAYYYY, next question:   "Can you tell me specifically what the markings on the bottom are?"

To Be Continued...

[JorgeAmely]

If a picture is worth a thousand words, he sent you only 1.2% of a picture.

Keep pestering him!

[Jester]

Are you sure you want to go to the next question?  Sounds like it's time to move to the next seller.

[LarryInMichigan]

Briny,

Are you thinking about bidding on one of those art deco things which looks like some sort of phone and has a round thing with ten holes on the front that makes a clicking sound when turned, but cannot be tested because it doesn't have the right plug on the end of the wire ?

It is interesting to note that many of the really valuable phones (early WE 500s, at least) which are dirty and listed with blurry pictures and/or inane descriptions sell for cheap (one went today for $3), but some cleaner, newer phones with better descriptions (like stating that the phone works) sell for $40+.  If some of these sellers would take an extra 10 minutes to wipe of the dirt, find out what the phone is, plug it in to see that it works, and post some decent pictures, they would likely make far more money.  But that is just my silly opinion.

Larry

[bwanna]

briny, when dealing with the general population, you can not leave anything open to interpretation. you gonna have to ask  "what color is the bottom?" "what are the numbers & letters on the bottom?"

good luck

[bingster]

I've received a few responses like that, so now I get VERY specific.  Now I ask them to tell me the date "below the number 500, it will look like 11-58, 3-65, 1-72, etc."  It never fails.

[Greg G.]

I'll never know, somebody used BIN.  I was trying to find out if it was the AE FMN color, with a matching line cord.  Even though it was described as "light green", the picture looks very blue, but judging from my FMN AE 80, they turn green from fading.

http://tinyurl.com/yhq7jt9

HA!  Jokes on the buyer, I got a REAL AE FMN for less!

http://tinyurl.com/yllvxr7

Oops, I forgot, I wasn't going to get any more desk sets!  So I lied, so what.

[LarryInMichigan]

Brinybay,

It looks like you got a real deal there.  After a bit of cleaning and polishing, it will look better than the $50 one.  But since you violated the "no more desk sets" rule, you are obligated to forfeit the phone.  As soon as it arrives, send it to me .

BTW, I had my eye on that phone, but I forgot about it yesterday.

Larry

[Dan/Panther]

briny, when dealing with the general population, you can not leave anything open to interpretation. you gonna have to ask  "what color is the bottom?" "what are the numbers & letters on the bottom?"

good luck

Bwanna;
I agree, we have slipped to the low, that no one seem to be able to think in a logical way anymore.

"Hey Jeb, I think we got us one of them rarey Tellyphones, you know the ones with the fancy hen scratching on the bottom".


D/P