For baseball fans

[Greg G.]

Yankee Stadium Bull Pen phone.  Hurry, at this price it won't last!

http://tinyurl.com/q93z4e7

[Phonesrfun]

I suspect it will fetch something lower than its asking price.

[andre_janew]

$5,850 for a dial-less WE 554 is an outrage!  Of course, negotiations have to start somewhere!

[Phonesrfun]

I wonder how the seller came up with that exact-sounding asking price.  Why not a nice round number; Like, say a nice million Dollars or something like that?  Maybe he is expecting some haggling, and then he would be willing to go as low as $5,800.

[TelePlay]

Maybe he is expecting some haggling, and then he would be willing to go as low as $5,800.

I don't know, the listing says "The owner of this item has indicated they would sell this item at this amount." . . .    but is open to an offer. If it sells, I wonder if it will come with a notarized certificate of authenticity and a bond just in case it is a fake.

I was looking at the price as $50 on the high side for the phone and about $5,800 for good packing and shipping . . . 

Anyway, all kidding aside, the history of the phone, as stated in the listing, is at the bottom of the image for posterity.

[Phonesrfun]

Yeah, and if you believe that, I have a bridge I'd like to sell... Or some swampland in Florida...

In 2009 I posted a thing about creating a dial center and spinning a tale about a phone that came from the White House.  It would appear to me that proving the provinance of any particular phone would be very difficult.  Then you have to ask yourself "what if it were real?"  Is it worth $5,800 to have a real bull pen phone???

Here is a link to my post about a "presidential" phone:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=1204.msg15272#msg15272

[Greg G.]

Uhm, somebody bought it.  Apparently this was sold in February, but you had to be a registered bidder to see that.  I just registered and the sale price now shows. 

I'm going to be busy for a while making hand-written dial cards and BS stories about mundane phones.  Best part is I won't have to do any refurbishing, just as long as it's sports related.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

One thing to tell whether it's true or not would be to check the dugouts at Yankee Stadium. You could peel the paint away to look for any paint layers underneath that would match the paint specks on the phone!

That idea seems like it would cost a lot of money for travel, tour fees, public vandalism charges, etc, but this buyer seems to be a big enough deep-pocketed Yankees fan to do something like that anyway!

[HarrySmith]

I just came across this in my pile of phones waiting for refurb! This must be a dugout phone form Yankee Stadium in the 1950's! WOW!

[Phonesrfun]

Ohm my!  You had better put that one up for auction!  It's even older.  A genuine Bullpen 354.  Definitely much more valuable than a 554.  If Bullpen is abbreviated "BP", then the word I am thinking of which would be appropriate for the number card would be abbreviated "BS"

[andre_janew]

If you have a genuine Bullpen 354, better put a price of at least $6,500 on it!

[HarrySmith]

Ohm my!  You had better put that one up for auction!  It's even older.  A genuine Bullpen 354.  Definitely much more valuable than a 554.  If Bullpen is abbreviated "BP", then the word I am thinking of which would be appropriate for the number card would be abbreviated "BS"

Absolutely!!