Collection for sale on eBay

[Jim Stettler]

This collection is for sale. It is not mine.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Western-Electric-ENTIRE-COLLECTION-over-300-phones/274167016619

Located in: Davenport, Washington, United States
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as far as price...well ya gotta start somewhere eh?

Here are some pics of some of this collection. It took many years to collect. These were just pulled from a museum display. (Pulled because of peoples carelessness.)
Age and Health a were determining factors in my decision to sell this collection.
There are well over 300 working phones in the private collection (dates range from 109 to mid 1980s for the most part)

I do not have an inventory list but that can certainly be arranged.
There are payphones..3 slot and single slot  about 20..... some with keys ....some with out.... most able to plug and play.


here are highlights of collection......


Most phones are Western Electric and Automatic Electric with a mix of GOP (British) phones, (about 30 total) and some stromberg and kellogg
card dialers, desk phones, business phones,, ten button phones and
a giant 6 foot trim line with real phone in it!!!
early pictures phones pr. (sony)
202's 302's etc
misc. paper documents
2 tele-trainers with phones working
2 PHONE BOOTHS ALSO........... ONE WOOD AND ONE ALUMINUM WITH DOORS (circa 1957) FOR BOTH
One double drive up payphone booth (circa 1980)
one millitary autovon phone
a few boxes of misc



One really nice oak switchboard...."nice" and small too came from ATT exec.


MORE MORE AND MORE...

should you have serious interest... please contact me

This is a pickup only....PICK UP ONLY..... NO SHIPPING...

WE CAN ARRANGE FOR OVERNIGHT LODGING IF YOU HAVE TO TRAVEL A LONG DISTANCE

sold as is of course

IF YOU ARE A SERIOUS COLLECTOR TAKE A GOOD LOOK HERE

ASK QUESTIONS ....

[Jim Stettler]

Bids start at $16,000
Local pick-up only
Davenport, Washington, United States

[kleenax]

Bids start at $16,000
Local pick-up only
Davenport, Washington, United States

I think he put one too many "0's" on that asking price!

[paul-f]

I think he put one too many "0's" on that asking price!

Looks like he's fishing for offers.

Also, it's not the "entire collection." His other listings include more telephone items.

[Pourme]

~

He offers (over) 300 phones for $16,000.00

That's $53.33 each.

I would think There should be a itemized list of what he is offering for the 16G. Especially since some of the same phones appear in more than one listing.

[Doug Rose]

I think he put one too many "0's" on that asking price!

   Ray...I thought the same thing...Doug

[CanadianGuy]

Does anyone have a realistic number in mind? Not that I plan on buying, just curious.

[Jim Stettler]

Does anyone have a realistic number in mind? Not that I plan on buying, just curious.

I have some realistic opinions on the logistics.
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I would have to fly 1,200 miles 1 way
I would have to buy cartons of banker's boxes and rolls of bubble wrap there
I would have to rent a moving van to travel 1,200 miles. and fuel
I would need my garage clear or have  other storage available. There are 20 payphones, 2 phone booths and a 6" trimline

All the above are associated costs. My guess is $1,200-$2,000 as a working number to get the phones home.
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Other thoughts,

That is a lot of work,  sort, pack, load, unload, (then unpack , sort, and sell)
50-100 of them may be worth keeping, That leaves the rest to store, and move around until you finally sale them.
The good stuff you could put on eBay. After you clean, test, take  good photos, pack and ship. That is time.

To get rid of the common stuff quick, I would need to haul them to a phone show and sell them cheap. The closest show that I could sell the bulk of it cheap would be the Fall  Indy show.
I would want to price it cheap enough so it sells, and I would want to get enough money, so that the collection gets paid for by the spare stuff.
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For me, free wouldn't be worth the work.
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If it was local and entire collection, the logistics are still tough.
In that case, I would mentally place a low-to-reasonable value on each phone I like, add it all together, divide it in half and that would be my max for everything. 
Things like 20 payphones and 2 booths are heavy and awkward to store and ship. I would low-ball their value. I have lots of the common stuff, so many of the phones don't have any value to me.
I would still have to process and store  the collection, until hauled to Indy and sold.

JMO,
Jim

[Payphone installer]

Moving would be at least 2500-5,000 value about 2,000 with sale value 3500.00 on a good day. When you buy a collection you need to buy it at 40% of what you think it will sell for. In many cases I look for the 10 items that will recover all the money or close to all the money. Because the only reason to buy a complete collection is to get pieces you want or money to get pieces. Or to stock pile money for good phones later. You don't buy it at face value.