Imperial on eBay: What?!

[deedubya3800]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300619152561

Seriously?!

[Doug Rose]

This was bought by a collector that is well known for his deep pockets. I bid 37.77 for it as it had a real nice thermoplastic Ivory F1. It also has  what looks like a rust mark in the plate by the dial. This is a $100 phone, unless I am missing something!....Doug

[LarryInMichigan]

Most Imperials were gold-plated, but this one is SOLID gold

[Jester]

By my calculation, I need to remit $490.00 to the guy who sold me mine three years ago--and it came with the subset.

[Doug Rose]

By my calculation, I need to remit $490.00 to the guy who sold me mine three years ago--and it came with the subset.

Welcome back stranger. You have been missed. The collector who bought this definitely knows better. What is he seeing that we are missing? This is just a HUGE overpay..Doug

[GG]

How'bout this: a bunch of people submitted impossibly high bids, thinking "I really want this and if I bid way high that will take care of that!"  The result was a last-minute bidding war between the "nobody else will bid this high for it" bids.  This occasionally happens in other types of markets, so it's not surprising to see it happen on FleaBay. 

[Doug Rose]

FleaBay?

[GG]

Yeah, you know, FleaBay, like Radio Snack, and Home Despot:-)

[bingster]

Most Imperials were gold-plated, but this one is SOLID gold

Gold-plated might be nice, but they weren't even that.  The shiny metal is rhodium plating, which is left bare for silver Imperials, and is sprayed over with a translucent, gold-colored, baked-on lacquer for the gold Imperial. 

[AE_Collector]

Yeah, you know, FleaBay, like Radio Snack, and Home Despot:-)

I thought it was "Radio Crap"...

Terry

[Doug Rose]

And here I thought I was one happenin' dude! Fleabay sounds like an insult. I happen to love eBay. World's largest antique store I can visit everyday. Buy old phones and sell my wares. Yes, it has its faults, but I'd rather have it than see it go away....Doug

[AE_Collector]

I assumed that the term "FleaBay" sort of implied selling off ones junk ie: stuff full of fleas from down in the basement.

A guy I used to work with had a Toyota Pickup truck that he bought at Fleetwood Toyota. Fleetwood is an area/neighbourhood here. The truck had a decal on the back proclaiming that it had come from Fleetwood Toyota. Someone removed the "T" from the word Fleetwood so that it now proudly proclaimed that it came from Flee Wood Toyota. Made me laugh everytime I saw it. Calling it Flee Wood just maks it sound like such a skungy (flea infested) area!

Terry

[GG]

Oh, hardly intended as an insult.  It comes from "flea markets."  Ebay/FleaBay has become a giant vacuum cleaner for stuff that might otherwise have been found at flea markets.  (British: "boot sales" as in, a parking lot full of people selling stuff from the "boot" or "trunk" of their automobiles.) 

The upside is that it's made those flea markets globally accessible so anyone can find stuff from anywhere in the world.  The downside of course is that the obscure item that caught your eye also did likewise with ten other people.  But at least your winning bid was the fraction of the cost of flying to the locale where the item may have otherwise turned up at a flea market.

Radio Snack, like McDonalds, is good for what it's good for: a smaller but standardized list of small parts for building stuff, that's accessible in almost any town in the US.  As in, a smaller but standardized menu of reliably decent food that's available anywhere in the US.  The truly local places have larger inventories (menus) but Radio Snack (McDonald's) is always there as a backup source for the basics. 

Home Despot, on the other hand .... eh, they're just nasty.  Better to stick with the local lumber yards & hardware stores. 

[DavePEI]

Radio Snack, like McDonalds, is good for what it's good for: a smaller but standardized list of small parts for building stuff, that's accessible in almost any town in the US.  As in, a smaller but standardized menu of reliably decent food that's available anywhere in the US.  The truly local places have larger inventories (menus) but Radio Snack (McDonald's) is always there as a backup source for the basics.

Somewhat related.. Remember back when it was Allied-Radio Shack? Before Tandy Leather and when we still had Radio Scrap here in Canada? I used to get the Allied Radio Shack catalog AND the Allied Electronics catalog, as well as Lafayette, Fair Radio and others when I was a kid. Back then, the Radio Shack catalog was about the thickness it is now and the Allied catalog was about an inch thick.

For those who didn't know, Radio Shack in Canada is now handled by The Source:
http://www.thesource.ca/estore/default.aspx?language=en-CA

A month or so ago, I stumbled onto the Allied Electronics web site, and ordered a print version of their 2012 catalog. It arrived Monday last week and IT IS HUGE! It is a real catalog, about 5 inches or more thick, and with over 2200  pages! I couldn't believe when my wife came in with the mail and plunked this sucker on the table! Good thing I re-enforced that table!

http://www.alliedelec.com/

There are parts in it I thought you would never find these days!

Dave

[AE_Collector]

Do they sell refurbished old phones for around $10!?

Terry