New Addition

[Tonyrotary]

 I may be deployed but I discovered Ebay...lol. At first Ebay was blocked but lately it has been coming through. I saw that you guys get some of your phones thru Ebay so i signed up and bidded on a Western Electric Trimeline Rotary phone. I payed a little too much due to me being a noob on Ebay but am happy nonetheless. Now I know to wait to the last minute to bid if someone tries outbidding you.

I always wanted one of these phones but in rotary. This one is clean and comes with the transformer to light the dial. This will make 3 old rotary phones so far I own. Addicting this hobby....lol.

[Dennis Markham]

Tony, beige often is yellowed from UV exposure.  This one looks pretty good.  It's good that you got the transformer with the phone.  Makes life easy.  If you don't mind me asking, what did you have to pay for the set (not including shipping)?  The phone looks good.

[HobieSport]

Hi Tony,

Yep, it's a seriously addictive hobby.  I'm going to have to sell some phones on Ebay after I refurbish them to support my evil habit.  I don't really want to be thought of as a "dealer", but I just love fixing up the good old phones and giving them new life.  My personal collection will probably end up being just a few good examples of the phones that I love.

As far as buying on Ebay, on the Ebay site are many good tutorials and suggestions of how to buy most effectively.  From my experience, it's best to be patient.  I always bid in the last few seconds and before I do that I carefully consider what the phone is really worth to me and set a strict limit on my maximum bid.  The term "sniping" sounds rather dishonorable, but that really is a good analogy, and is common practice.  You wait and wait and then you pounce.

Since none of the phones I buy are "rare", I very often pass up many phones on my watch list when the bidding goes over my limit, knowing that a similar phone will very likely come up again soon.

It's also a little bit weird feeling that I may be bidding with other forum members/friends here on the same phone.  But if I know that a certain member is looking for a particular phone, even if I was interested in that same phone, I am just an likely to point the phone out to that member via a private message and not bid on it.

You're in The National Guard in Hawaii for four more months, is that correct?  I'm just wondering what the shipping costs are like from the mainland to the islands.  Parcel post within the "48" seems to be $10-$12 for a five pound phone.

Speaking of national security, I just spoke with our kindly neighborhood mailman, and asked if I could have him pick up packages from me for shipping out when he comes everyday right to our door to deliver our mail.  He said that he'd be glad to, but the Post Office won't let him, and that I have to bring the packages down to the Post Office for shipping.  Yep, you guessed it, it's a national security policy.  Hmm.  On the other hand, my packages will mostly have old phones in them, which could indeed be suspicious.  Small heavy packages containing electronic devices of dubious origin...

Last year a friend of my sisters went to drop off a small package of music CDs at the friendly local small town post office in Maryland.  She was a little early and the post office was not open quite yet, but she had to get to work so she just left the package by the door with a note for the post office folks with postage paid and and signed her name.  Mind you everyone knows each other in that little town. Well, an hour later the whole postal system there was shut down while the bomb squad came in and blew her package and the front door of the post office to smithereens.

Mind you I have all due respect for national security and the folks who help maintain it.  I just question the wisdom of some of the policies sometimes...
End of rant.

[Tonyrotary]

Dennis,

That is what I thought about the beige not being discolored. I paid $50 for it before shipping. A bit higher than I wanted to. If I had waited till the end like I had to I could have saved $10.

[Dennis Markham]

Generally that's a high price for a Trimline but if it's as nice as it looks in the photo and you're happy with it then it was a good buy.  Beige is generally the most common color after black.  But of course a black Trimline is not common nor is a black Princess.

[BDM]

But of course a black Trimline is not common nor is a black Princess.

Ain't it the truth! I have a black Trimline®, but of course it's a later model. Not the nice round button version.

[Tonyrotary]

Hi Hobie,

Yeah I agree the national security thing gets carried away sometimes. That must have been a sight to behold watching the bomb squad blowing up a package at the local Post office!

As far as an addictive hobby no kidding! At least my wife likes old phones too but she said the other day I don't have to collect them all at once!...lol Yep I have learned about patience on Ebay. Also thought about what if other memebrs are bidding on the same phone. Like you if I knew someone here really wanted that phone I would surely step aside.

I am deployed for 4 more months but will still be a memeber of the Guard when I get back. I live there and yes shipping to hawaii can get expensive. For a 5 pound phone it would be at least $15 or more. The Trimeline I just bought cost just a hair of $15 to ship.


Dennis,

Yeah that was the max I was willing to spend on the Trimeline and turns out that is what I spent...lol.

[Dennis Markham]

Hobie, I have some comments regarding shipping.  The U.S. Postal Service's flat rate boxes are the same price shipped ANYWHERE in the United States.  A small Flate Rate box (or cube as they call it) is $9.85 if you purchase your postage from their web site and print the label yourself.  If you go to the Post Office and buy the postage the same box ships for $10.35.  The weight is unlimited up to 80 pounds.  The Large Flat Rate box is $13.95 at the P.O. and $13.50 if you print it at home.  That box ships, again up to 80 pounds for that price to ANY of the 50 States, including Alaska and Hawaii.  I see a lot of eBay sellers that limit their shipping to the 48 States.  I have shipped to Hawaii in a flat rate box...same price.  It takes a few more days to get there, but not more than 5 from here (Michigan).  Now if you ship in a regular Priority box that goes by weight and destination.  Those boxes are good if you're shipping within a 200 mile or so range from home.  I can send a phone to Indiana cheaper than putting it in a Flat Rate box...for from say here to California it's cheaper to send in a Flat Rate box, IF you can safely package it.  I generally will not ship a model 500 in a Flat Rate Box because it is small.  I've done it but feel better about using the larger carton. 

The boxes are FREE from the Post Office.  If one gets one of their boxes (Priority Mail I'm talking about) and turn it inside out and ship it via UPS or FedEx one is committing a federal offense---technically.  It's done all the time.  That's why the Post Office is going broke.  If one were to log on to the USPS web site and order boxes they come in bundles of 25.  Five days later the carrier will lean them up against your front door---free.  Or you can go to the counter and ask for one.

Hobie, I think your carrier is mistaken.  You can log on and arrange for them to pick up your cartons at your door step.  They want your business.  But, you have to weigh and print your postage before hand.  I bought an official U.S. Postal Service scale that goes up to 10 pounds for under $20 from the Post Office.  When I weigh my packages and then take them to the P.O. they get the same number.  They're very accurate.  Your postal carrier should have told you that.  I have never had them pick up my boxes because I live less than a mile from the Post Office. 

Once you have your Priority Mail Box packed, a shipping label attached you can drive to the Post Office and they have a huge drop box inside.  It's open 24-7.  You open the drop box..put your box in...close it and listen to it hit the floor and two to three days later it's at it's destination.

This weekend I dropped one off at 1:00PM on Saturday.  The guy in Georgia got it in his mail yesterday (Monday).  That is pretty good service.  I realize there are probably some P.O.'s that do not leave their lobby open 24-7 but most in suburban areas, at least around here do.  If you don't like to use your computer to do it (called Click-n-Ship) there is a machine at the P.O. that allows one to weigh the box, use your credit card to pay for the postage and then throw it in the bin.  Open all night.

Sorry for the lengthy posting and it's getting quite off topic now.

[AET]

Sure is addicting, this all started for me a couple months ago, maybe not even that long, just becuase I wanted to replace the touch-tone caller ID model my dad had in my room with something that fit the decor a bit better.  Now I'm hooked!  Luckily there's great people on this forum who can relate!

[mienaichizu]

Phone addiction is in our nerves now

[mienaichizu]

On my desk today are two white telephones from Switzerland from 1954 or possibly from 1956.

The first thing that I notice is a lack of rust.

any photos of your phone?

[Dan]

check what out?

[Greg G.]

I may be deployed but I discovered Ebay...lol. At first Ebay was blocked but lately it has been coming through. I saw that you guys get some of your phones thru Ebay so i signed up and bidded on a Western Electric Trimeline Rotary phone. I payed a little too much due to me being a noob on Ebay but am happy nonetheless. Now I know to wait to the last minute to bid if someone tries outbidding you.

Commonly called "snipeing" on eBay, but it's fair game (IMO).  Don't feel bad about spending too much as a noob, I did the same thing at first.  Two best pieces of advice I got - "Phones are not gold" and "Be picky about what you buy".  Have you read Dennis's article on what to look for on a 500 set?  It helped me a lot!

[Tonyrotary]

Well the trimeline came in and the wife says it is in good shape so I am happy! Oh yeah about sniping on ebay I used it to recently grab another phone off of ebay! A nice 1964 northern electric 500 for $38 bucks in black. I purposely woke up in the wee hrs and walked back the tent I work at and logged in to secure that one....lol.

[AET]

Good to hear you're getting the hang of it Tony!  Sniping is definately fair game, and I've been doing it on various items on ebay since 04.