New forum members are very welcome and encouraged to take a guess. After all, there are no wrong guesses, just one lucky one. No one knows the winning bid on any auction until it ends. However, it is important to get your guess in before someone else grabs your guess.
As with recent reserve auctions, the right is hereby reserved to cancel this auction completely with no winner if the auction bids DO NOT exceed the reserve, whatever that might be, when the eBay auction ends.
Since the seller added a BIN price of $12,000 after this contest was started, the contest will proceed but if the phone sells by way of the BIN option, the right is hereby reserved to cancel this auction completely with no winner.
While this eBay listing violates both of my selection rules at the same time ( a high starting price and a reserve ), I thought this unique phone would make a good auction contest candidate for our 150th contest. Listed about 4 hours ago in a 10 day auction with a reserve ( thanks to Doug Rose for the heads up on this old phone ) is a very interesting old phone starting at $1,000.00 with hopefully a realistic reserve (somewhat less than a gazillion dollars, that is). The listing is still waiting for its first bid. This phone is being discussed in its own topic on the forum so place your guesses here and discuss the phone at this link.
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=12998.msg136655#msg136655
So, with that said, once again, who knows best what this phone will sell for when the bidding ends?
The seller listed it as an "American Bell/ NET&T 1890's speaking tube telephone" with the item condition as "Used" and "Extremely good condition with original paint. Minor wood split @ 9:00 position on transmitter front door- visible in 4th picture. This is not a serious problem just a wood crack in a a 125 year old telephone." with the auction listing description as "I have for sale and your consideration, an extremely rare 1890's American Bell / New England Telephone & Telegraph (NET&T) Company Magneto Speaking Tube set. These particular type of telephones rarely come available. I have seen one or two of these telephones with vibrating signal buttons which would have been connected to a switch board. My set is a magneto version and would have been used with another magneto Speaking Tube set at the work site for direct communication without the need of a switch board operation. The extra fancy name tag is an original and one of the finest tags you will see. The Speaking Tube sets were the Private Branch Exchanges (PBX) of the day and would have been used for communication in a warehouse office to the warehouse work floor or other privet line or interior service . This Speaking Tube set is pictured in the New England Telephone & Telegraph 1890's private branch exchange catalog exactly as shown here except for the odd shaped bells which I believe were added at some point. In the 1890 NET&T Private Branch Exchange catalog this Speaking Tube Set is shown on pg 10 and is identified as Special class A Special magneto wall set. I can Email a copy of the catalog for your reference but am unable to post a picture here. My set is all original and complete in very good to excellent condition. A small crack in the wood on the front door of the transmitter box is present and can be seen at the 9:00 position in the 4th picture. This hair line fracture is minimal and I wouldn't recommend any repair be attempted or necessary. The black paint finish is original and shows slight wear to the left edge of the top box door. These bells could be swapped out for regular bells without any trouble. The rare Speaking Tube transmitter box is complete and well marked with patent dates of April 8, 1890 and July 11, 1893. The transmitter box has a fully marked out transmitter face with patent dates around the edge and property of American Bell on the inner portion. The transmitter face has a beautiful aged brass patina but has lost its original nickel plate finish of which a few portions remain. The switch hook and contact assembly are all in place and complete. The black bakelite mouth piece has an unusual center piece device. The metal disk is free floating and must have enhanced the voice sound waves but just a guess on my part. The finger grip receiver is correct for this type of set and is shown in the catalog. The receiver is marked Property of the American Bell Telephone company and is the earlier type with a wooden single pole wooden bobbin. The hard rubber body is stamped on the back side Oct 21, 1890 with a serial number of 13191. A later version (Bi-polar type) receiver of this type recently sold on Ebay for over $1,000 just for the receiver!! The cord is an original Western Electric / American Bell Red & Blue wool receiver cord. It is in rather poor condition but I left it on the telephone because you can clearly see the very early wire spring coiled conductor where it attaches to the receiver. The unique top box is complete and original with a shunt button on the left side. The box is mounted directly to the telephone backboard and does not have a back board of its own as is usually seen, this is as shown in the NET&T catalog. I can Email additional pictures upon request and I will be glad to answer any questions. This is a lengthy auction and I will be unable to respond to questions and requests for additional pictures until my return from a vacation on Nov 13th. This is a very unusual and rare telephone which will be an excellent addition to an early telephone collection of historical devices."
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191402065659
NOTE: we will use a 3% gap rule between guesses to prevent crowding. As such, guess gaps of 6+% can be split. I'll help with these as the auction goes forward and guesses are entered.
It's another chance to move up a rung or to get onto the CRPF -> Contest Standings <- (http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=4198.0) list,
. . . for as twocvbloke said, ---> "You gotta be in it to win it !!!" ;D "
If you want to see the phones of past Auction Contests, click -> HERE <- (http://s1331.photobucket.com/user/CRPFACL/library/?sort=4&page=1)
S C O R E B O A R D
$ 1,995.00 - Mr. Bones ( 12 )
Final bid of $2,025 did not exceed the reserve price
$ 2,250.00 - JimH ( 6 )
$ 3,000.00 - wds ( 2 )
$ 3,200.00 - Fabius ( 7 )
$ 3,800.00 - HarrySmith ( 9 )
$ 4,200.00 - kleinkaliber ( 10 )
$ 4,500.00 - tallguy58 ( 8 )
$ 5,250.00 - Kenton K ( 4 )
$ 5,925.00 - TelePlay ( 14 )
$ 6,600.00 - poplar1 ( 11 )
$ 7,000.00 - Gilas ( 13 )
$ 7,500.00 - Under Dog ( 3 )
$ 8,500.00 - Sargeguy ( 1 )
$ 11,999.99 - Russ Kirk ( 5) ( adjusted down to the BIN price )
Early Morning Auction Status Changes
11-06-14 Listed $ 1,000.00
11-07-14 1 bid $ 1,000.00
11-08-14 2 bids $ 1,225.00
11-09-14 4 bids $ 1,425.00
11-10-14 4 bids $ 1,425.00
11-11-14 4 bids $ 1,425.00
11-12-14 4 bids $ 1,425.00
11-13-14 4 bids $ 1,425.00
11-14-14 4 bids $ 1,425.00
11-15-14 4 bids $ 1,425.00
11-16-14 6 bidders 7 bids $2,025.00 (did not exceed reserve price) Ended at 01:00:12 PST
I have no clue whatsoever. I'm in for $8,500
A similar receiver just sold on Ebay for about $1,100. The rest of the phone doesn't seem all that spectacular. I don't think the reserve will be met, but I'll guess $3,000.00
http://tinyurl.com/laxrdxj
EDIT: eBay auction screen shot image added
can "reserve not met" be a guess?
No idea what I'm doing...
$750
5250
Edited $13,500
$2250
Extremely rare item. I've only seen that transmitter and box twice before. Notice it's an early 7 digit beveled faceplate with great markings. Also notice the "boobie" bells. The seller should of provided better pictures of it. A picture of the backboard should of been provided. Was anything cut off of the backboard?
$3200
$4500
curious about the transmitter - from the front it looks like a standard Monarch - from the back it looks like a Couch. To me it doesn't really look like anything special except for the writing on the faceplate. Can you shed some more light on the transmitter?
Never mind, I see it's a WE transmitter. Pictures are hard to decipher.
Quote from: wds on November 06, 2014, 01:53:55 PM
Never mind, I see it's a WE transmitter. Pictures are hard to decipher.
Yes, the seller should of provided a straight on picture of the transmitter with the mouthpiece off.
$3,800.00.
Since it is marked NET&T I think somebody might want to add it to his collection ;D
$4200
Well, this complicates the auction. The seller added a BIN price of $12,000 and as such, I've changed Russ Kirk's guess from $13,500 to $12,000.
Also, if the phone sells for the BIN price, the contest will be cancelled with no winner. I will let it run to see if the reserve is met and it sells for less than the BIN price.
If the phones sells for the BIN price, Russ Kirk will not win the contest (so I guess he would be hoping for a selling price of $11,995.00 ;) )
- - - -> see the note added to the initial contest topic post
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=12999.msg136657#msg136657
$6600
Quote from: wds on November 06, 2014, 09:21:33 AM
can "reserve not met" be a guess?
In a word, no . . . ;)
When I first put this contest together, rapidly trying to get it done and get to work, I forgot to add the "reserve" disclaimer paragraph to the contest topic. It is there now, along with the BIN disclaimer. Had this phone been listed with a BIN, it would not have been a contest candidate.
Quote from: wds on November 06, 2014, 08:57:30 AM
A similar receiver just sold on Ebay for about $1,100. The rest of the phone doesn't seem all that spectacular.
When it rains, it pours on eBay. This one was just listed on eBay in a 7 day BIN auction for $1,499.00, but with FREE shipping . . . Seems to be in very good condition.
Rare-American-Bell-Speaking-Tube-Watchcase-Receiver-phone-telephone-part (http://www.ebay.com/itm/161479118684)
Seller described it as:
"This very Rare Chocolate Brown Speaking Tube Receiver was utilized on some very early Western Electric telephones from the early 1880's – both desk and wall type phones used it. It is in near perfect condition as though hardly or never used. There are no chips or cracks in the Bakelite shell or cap. The receiver has the internal wooden bobbin type coil winding spool very similar to what was used on the long pole receivers of the time. There is an American Bell Speaking Tube telephone on eBay right now that uses this exact receiver – eBay auction ID 191402065659. The Buy-It-Now price on that phone is being offered at 12,000.00 which shows how rare these phones and parts can be. If you need one of these rare receivers for your phone you already know how hard they are to come by and how often they actually are available. A receiver like this one sold on eBay recently for over 1100.00. This was the first time I've even seen one for sale. A great collectable from a long gone era of USA designed and manufactured electric products. "
$1995.00 would be my guess, if acceptable, please.
Best regards!
7000
No movement in price of the past few days, still sitting at $1,425 with 4 bids, but it looks like there are 40 people watching this listing. That's a lot more than I am used to seeing for any eBay auction.
Don't remember how many watchers there were on MagicMo's Model 1 Picturephone.
Should be an interesting end, if the auction goes to an end.
Here's the 3% "no crowding" gap spreadsheet for this contest with 13 guesses.
Available guesses or guess ranges are shown in GREEN within the small upper right black bordered box.
( click on the table to enlarge the image )
$5,925.00
Well, it didn't reach the reserve so the contest is hereby cancelled with no winner but a big thanks to all who played.
The phone started at $1,000.00 and rose slowly to $1,425 over 3 days in the 10 day auction and sat there until about 4 hours before the auction ended when it rose to about $1,700. It stayed there until the very end when 1 snipe 5 seconds before the auction ended topped the prior high bid to see the auction end at $2,025.00, a bid that did not meet or exceed the reserve price set by the seller. While we don't have a contest winner, we do have the market value on that phone.
Thanks again for playing.
NOTE: This phone has been re-listed in a new 10 day auction with all the same parameters ($1,000 starting bid, a reserve and BIN for $12,000). As such, this contest will not be restarted or resumed in any way. Another phone will be found to take this contest slot.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/American-Bell-NET-T-1890s-speaking-tube-telephone-/191415030898
Looks like it was withdrawn, probably sold privately.