Bell / Western Electric - "Mod 1 Picturephone"

[MagicMo]

Hmm... Looks like some serious bidding has started.

Seems to be ATCA and TCI members spearheading it.
So much for the nit-pickers and for all of the naysayers predictions.

I should have listened to the people who said I should have set a low starting bid from the beginning. All's well that ends well. This is exciting now!!!   

[Greg G.]

Hmm... Looks like some serious bidding has started.

Seems to be ATCA and TCI members spearheading it.
So much for the nit-pickers and for all of the naysayers predictions.

I should have listened to the people who said I should have set a low starting bid from the beginning. All's well that ends well. This is exciting now!!!  

That must be what they liked, the excitement.  I think you did right.

[G-Man]

The bids so far are only place-holder bids and as per the chatter from other lists regarding this auction, a serious collector is not going to be deterred by a $5000.00 starting bid.

The lower bids are most likely from those who gambled that they might be able to win it by default if the auction was not well publicized. Fortunately a TCI member publicized it on the centraloffice, ATCA and a couple of other list where most of the high-rollers reside. 

The really serious bidding has yet to begin!

[Sargeguy]

Nice, I'm glad you changed the starting bid.  Now collectors who thought $5000 was too much are looking at the bids and saying to themselves, "if those guys are willing to pay that much, maybe it's worth that much. and I should bid too...".  Of course if there are some whales waiting in the wings to drop serious bids at the end, the size of those bids will be influenced by the number of bidders and and how high the price has been jacked up by the bidders who aren't going to win.  Having multiple bidders creates volatility and uncertainty as to the outcome.  The best way to overcome this uncertainty is to bid even higher at the end.  Another way is to "stake their claim" by placing a high stakeholder bid to scare away competition.  Either way, the price jumps up when you have a lot of bidders. 

[DavePEI]

Nice to see it moving. Just shows though that the $5000 wasn't an unrealistic amount to ask. And it still has the better part of 6 days to go yet. Its time to win a lottery!

Dave

[kleenax]

Kleenax,
Shill bid? I had to google that because I had no idea what that meant. Heck no, all joking aside, I meant in a spiritual sense (my Dad, the big guy upstairs, etc.). I believe in the notion of Good things happen to good people.
Now that we got that out of the way, I'm still interested in your new guess. Hypothetically speaking, if for some reason someone bid on it over the $5000 starting bid, what do you think it would go for? C'mon, humor me. Pretty please?
~Maureen   

If this were a paid appraisal, where I would really have my "feet to the fire", I'd have said about $3,600, but since you asked for a fantasy guess from me, I would say $5969.00

I sincerely do hope that I am wrong and that you get $25,000 for it, but only time will tell. Let's all watch and see. Naysayers, nit-pickers, and even those starry-eyed whimsical lurkers that like to add 000's to every guess will just have to wait and see 

[Greg G.]

From Maureen's description on ebay:

It also has engineer names of those who (I'm assuming) worked on it and those who drew the schematics. Some of the names documented in my paperwork: T.V Crater, T. French, B.A Wright, E.L. Tobolski, J.H Gentry, R.W Strauss.

I wonder if any of these guys are still around?

[MagicMo]

From Maureen's description on ebay:

It also has engineer names of those who (I'm assuming) worked on it and those who drew the schematics. Some of the names documented in my paperwork: T.V Crater, T. French, B.A Wright, E.L. Tobolski, J.H Gentry, R.W Strauss.

I wonder if any of these guys are still around?

Hey Briny,
I was thinking the same thing. I will be googling tonight. There are few other engineer names I will ad to the description tonight. It's just a lot of paperwork to go through.

[kleenax]

Interesting.......The bid is at $4999.99

Either Mr. Friedman knew that the reserve was $5,000 (or higher), or he is REALLY lucky at guessing when he bids!

[MagicMo]

Interesting.......The bid is at $4999.99

Either Mr. Friedman knew that the reserve was $5,000 (or higher), or he is REALLY lucky at guessing when he bids!

Not anymore. Reserve met

[Doug Rose]

Mo.......  You done good! Congrats ...Doug

[G-Man]

Congratulations!

It looks as if Dean from the TCI/ATCA group broke over the $5K barrier.

Again, so much for the naysayers!

[MagicMo]

So, I found this googling the engineers that had part in my Picturephone:
T.V Crater was one of them

http://www3.alcatel-lucent.com/bstj/vol50-1971/articles/bstj50-2-235.pdf

[Greg G.]

Wow, I was reading the description more and when I got to the part about the cost of a Picture Phone call, I ran the numbers through an inflation calculator.  A three-minute Picturephone call from Washington to New York City cost $16.  A $16.00 call in 1964 is the equivalent of $118.50 today! The most expensive connection, between New York City and Chicago, cost $27 for three minutes. That's $199.97 today.  Please deposit your coins.

[MagicMo]

Wow, I was reading the description more and when I got to the part about the cost of a Picture Phone call, I ran the numbers through an inflation calculator.  A three-minute Picturephone call from Washington to New York City cost $16.  A $16.00 call in 1964 is the equivalent of $118.50 today! The most expensive connection, between New York City and Chicago, cost $27 for three minutes. That's $199.97 today.  Please deposit your coins.

See, it would have never worked out in the end anyway! Who would walk around with that many quarters.