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I expect you all will be fighting over this auction

Started by McHeath, August 11, 2009, 02:16:38 PM

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McHeath

This is how you do it ladies and gentlemen, this is how you present a phone for sale to the global community of phone phanatics:

http://tinyurl.com/lnfbbc ( dead link 08-04-21 )

I think Finlover could even learn a few things about presentation from this one. ;)



jsowers

#1
Do you think they had a buy one, get five free photo offer at eBay today? You can almost get animation mousing over the five almost identical pictures. And "dail." Don't get me started on that one. On the positive side, at least the shipping is cheap.

Here's another head scratcher...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150365326311
( dead link 08-04-21 )

The seller says Free Shipping but in the copy it says shipping is $25. They didn't even get all the phones out of the box! Do you think that's how they're going to ship them? I had one seller do just that many years ago and it cracked the most valuable phone in the lot. It was a hard plastic light gray 500 WY motel phone. Here are the pictures...
Jonathan

Dan/Panther

I'll be blunt...
Don't people care, OR are they really that stupid ?
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

Greg G.

One of my pet peeves is when they say where they got it.  So it's from an estate, so what?  Why do they think that adds to it's desirability?

The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

McHeath

The multiple bad pictures of the same angle on the phone are amazing, do they really think that the same fuzzy picture over and over is helpful? 

I also saw the auction of phones in a box, with more fuzzy pictures to boot. 

The person with the white phone also has a green one, same deal.

HobieSport

#5
Quote from: Brinybay
So it's from an estate, so what?  Why do they think that adds to it's desirability?

Sounds more "prestigious" than saying that they picked it up for buck last week at a yard sale, I guess. Like a buddy of mine who's a local chef. He's really quite good, but when he calls himself a "culinary artist" I cringe. It's all "spin" and/or euphemisms.

I sure don't get the multiple images on Ebay though. ??? And free shipping for $25. ::)

But I'd like to know what the aqua 500 is at the bottom of that box.  I'm not buying phones at present but it might be worth it for someone to ask about.
-Matt

Greg G.

Quote from: HobieSport on August 11, 2009, 04:50:01 PM
Quote from: Brinybay
So it's from an estate, so what?  Why do they think that adds to it's desirability?

Sounds more "prestigious" than saying that they picked it up for buck last week at a yard sale, I guess. Like a buddy of mine who's a local chef. He's really quite good, but when he calls himself a "culinary artist" I cringe. It's all "spin" and/or euphemisms.

Yeah, like "baristas".
Quote from: HobieSport on August 11, 2009, 04:50:01 PM

I sure don't get the multiple images on Ebay though. ??? And free shipping for $25. ::)

But I'd like to know what the aqua 500 is at the bottom of that box.  I'm not buying phones at present but it might be worth it for someone to ask about.

Which one are you looking at?  The one in McHeath's post is item number 110423390223.
The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

bingster

Regarding the identical photos:  I've seen this done with radios, too.  Numerous photos of one view, nothing of other important areas.  It drives me nuts.

Regarding the box o' phones:  If I'm remembering correctly, didn't Dennis wind up with a mahogany 500 this way?  Piled in a box with a bunch of other phones?
= DARRIN =



Greg G.

The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

Dennis Markham

Bingster, I ended up with a Mahogany 554 that way.  Talk about dumb luck.  I had it a year before I even knew it was something worth having.  I was buying up phones at a pretty fast pace.  I had no clue what I was buying.  That's how it flew under the radar of the collectors.  I didn't even know there were collectors!  When I finally decided to clean it up to re-sell it on eBay (about a year after I bought it) I saw the color code on the back.  By then I had met a couple of local collectors and e-mailed one asking him if he knew what color -54 was supposed to be.  He replied honestly telling me that if the phone is brown it may be worth hanging onto but if I wanted to sell it, I was to let him know when I listed it on eBay.  He didn't offer to buy it out-right.  That was when I decided to keep it and start collecting all the colors.  I haven't seen another Mahogany 554 on eBay since then.  I believe our friend jsowers has one but they are few and far between.

So the short answer is yes, sometimes those "lots" of phones contain bargains.  But one has to take the junk with it.

jsowers

Dennis, alas, I don't have a brown soft plastic 554. I wish I did. That's the one I still don't have. Counting yours, I've only heard of two of them that have ever surfaced. If anyone else knows of one, please speak up. I'm not talking about those brown ITTs and Stromberg Carlsons. I mean the 1954-57 brown soft plastic 554s with the thick switchhooks.

Dennis, you are a lucky dog. Astoundingly lucky, and you can call it dumb luck if you want to, but you at least knew to hang onto that phone. And what's more, you deserve all that luck. The recent experience with the nice moss green birthday phone is another example. It's like they beat a path to your door.
Jonathan

Phonesrfun

Quote from: jsowers on August 11, 2009, 09:14:08 PM
Dennis, alas, ........ I'm not talking about those brown ITTs and Stromberg Carlsons. .........

Oh, you mean like this ugly ITT thing?

-Bill
-Bill G

bingster

Quote from: Brinybay on August 11, 2009, 08:49:48 PM
The seller love's multiple fuzzy shots from the same angle:

The thing that's so crazy about this is that, in ebay listings, the first picture is free, but additional photos cost extra.  So this seller is paying good money to show what's basically the same photo multiple times.
= DARRIN =



jsowers

Quote from: Phonesrfun on August 11, 2009, 09:20:35 PM
Quote from: jsowers on August 11, 2009, 09:14:08 PM
Dennis, alas, ........ I'm not talking about those brown ITTs and Stromberg Carlsons. .........

Oh, you mean like this ugly ITT thing?

-Bill

Bill, I never said anything about brown being ugly. Brown is beautiful.  :)  It's 554s I was referring to and the ITT and SC 554s are very common and cheaply had when compared to their WE counterparts from the 1950s. On the order of about 10,000 to one. At least it seems like I've seen 10,000 of those things on eBay in the last ten years and there was Dennis' one that sold. The other one I heard of was from California, taken off the wall of a garage at an estate sale by a very lucky collector and phone dealer.
Jonathan

Dennis Markham

It's been a while since I listed something on eBay but they used to have a "picture pack" where you paid like $1.10 and got 6 photos that enlarge.  Perhaps that's what this seller did.  But you still have to individually up-load each photo.  Doesn't make sense.

Jonathan, my error, sorry.  I thought you did have a Mahogany 554.  Thank you.  I am fortunate to have come upon the phones I have so early in my collecting "career".  I'm still looking for that Oxford Gray 554 at the flea market for a buck! :)