http://tinyurl.com/4jhgdbo (http://tinyurl.com/4jhgdbo)
( dead link 12-07-21 )
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For all you guys looking for a WECO dial candlestick, stay away from this one.
Estate Sale? From the estate of Dr. Frankenphone:
http://tinyurl.com/4ppfsbc (http://tinyurl.com/4ppfsbc)(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_26I3Nyjgm7Q/TYFfdBI9zPI/AAAAAAAAUOU/NYrX_woaHSg/s576/%21CE4%29bIgEWk%7E%24%28KGrHqUOKjkE0fYIlIneBNTYYE1NF%21%7E%7E_3.jpg)
why is this one selling for so much? Is it the strange mouthpiece?
I am not sure why it sold for that much. Its got an AE bakelite base with a big chunk missing. An AE? Bulldog transmitter. A WECO 40AL perch (40AL were non-dial), An AE dial that is all askew and a WECO cup. The thing is a train wreck!!!
That last set is actually an Autelco refurb. this was AE 's Refurbishment division and rebuilt many sets during the war .There were custom versions of the AE base to modify non dial other brands of sticks for dial use . Look for AR in a circle stamped in ink someware.
Robby
Interesting. Frankenphones to defeat Hitler!
Back in the early 80s there were repro WE candlesticks in shiny brass (I think made by Ron Knappen or someone he worked with), intended to be sold as repros, typically with AE dials on them. These could also be purchased as kits of parts for DIY assembly if you wanted to paint one black or some other color. These seemed to be in part a reaction to the Japanese repro candlesticks of that era that never quite got the shape of this or that part quite right, and a way for people to get something closer to the real thing at a decent price. Also they were designed to take T1 transmitters and U3 receivers, and you could mount an AE Styleline network in the base, so you'd end up with something that had good audio in both directions (compared to an original solid-back transmitter that was out of adjustment).
Nowadays most people have never heard of these, and they look good enough to confuse someone who doesn't know what they're looking at, so it's not surprising that non-experts think they're the real thing. I think the vast majority of people selling these as originals, are innocent mistakes rather than an intent to deceive anyone.
BTW, I saw a listing for a replica GPO 150 on Ebay; probably one of the ones made by Conversation Pieces. The seller stated clearly that it was a replica.
Well you know what's going to happen next, right? Twenty years from now, when nobody knows how to dial a rotary phone any more (except us weirdos:-), the Crosley 302 replicas are going to start showing up on Ebay as "originals." And then we're going to be running around telling people, "no, no, revise your listing!, that one's a replica, it was made in 2010!" And sooner or later someone is going to show up here asking for advice on "what's up with this weird 302" they just bought at an antique shop for $50, that has "what looks like reasonably modern electronics inside."
http://tinyurl.com/4epr9p4
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Contacted seller to tell him it was a fake yesterday, apparently he hasn't had a chance to change it,
I saw that yesterday and thought about sending a message, but didn't. Something about the tone of it makes me think nothing would change in the listing.
What are you complaining about? It says American Bell Telephone on the back, and there's obviously a bell in the telephone, so it *must* be real! If the buyer doesn't beware, that's the buyer's problem!
("Snark" is a word for sarcastic humor, do we use that word around here?)
Seriously though, Ebay management are about as lax on this stuff as the Feds are about prosecuting Wall Street fraudsters.
I read another story about a painter whose paintings were being fully forged by a guy in China who painted each forgery by hand from photos of originals: highly talented guy, could have been an original artist himself, but instead he chose to be a forger. The original artist complained loud & long, with evidence in hand; Ebay did n-o-t-h-i-n-g.
And if it happens with phones and paintings, it's also happening all over Ebay at-large, and throughout the online buying & selling world in general.
Does anyone else see a pattern here? I get the impression that our entire culture has gone rotten with fraud, as if "anything goes to make a buck" and the feeding frenzy at the top has set the bad example all the way to the bottom. Where's the moral outrage (aside from among experts such as here), much less the prosecutions of the most egregious ones who nearly destroyed our economy?
Ebay needs to remove that listing and contact the seller and suspend his account if he isn't willing to play by the rules. And the FBI swooping down on Goldman Sachs would be nice too... (not holding my breath either way).
The seller posted the information on his auction that it is a fake but was unable to change the title or the description because it already had bids on it.
And thanks to you or whoever it was who informed the seller that what they had was a copy. Same for that "ivory 302" that was a Pottery Barn phone with an AE dial hacked poorly into the housing.
Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom from bad copies : - )