What is everyone's opinion of sellers that completely disassemble an item to sell the parts individually.
Personally it falls under the cover of speculators, people that buy just to profit, with no regards to the hobby.
I boycott, and tell them so.
D/P
P.S. unless I really need the part.....
He is a member of the ATCA and has been doing it for as long as I can remember. Myself, I do not understand why he does it. The E1 did not have the mouthpiece listed, so maybe that was his reasoning on these actions.....Doug
The problem is MOST parts fail the same (so most are looking for the same parts ), so we are going to end up with tons of parts that no one wants, or no one needs.
sell the entire handset or phone, whatever, at least it will all be together, instead of in boxes all over the place.
D/P
How do you know if they did that?
They run all of the parts on separate auctions in the same week instead of just selling the phone as one unit . You can see that the parts add up into a complete handset or phone in those cases.
Because the same seller lists all of the parts in a row for one phone.
I mean it could be a coincidence, but I don't think so.
D/P
Personally I can't stand when people do that. I've got a very slow going project, a '56 BSA Road Rocket that I'm (hoping) to rebuild into a cafe racer and many times, ebay is the only place for parts, and I need a lot of 'em. It's very aggrivating when I need an entire assembly but can only find the individual parts of that assembly and when the individual prices are added up the total comes out to a small fortune. >:( >:(
I agree with D/P -- I don't like this practice. There's something to be said for the originality of an item. If you break apart a complete phone to sell it for parts, you're losing that phone's unique story. It seems like collectors should be trying to preserve as many complete samples as possible. Personally, I would only break up a unit that was otherwise trashed and beyond a point where it could be reasonably restored. It seems like there are plenty of those kinds of phones out there to keep a decent parts supply going.
I agree that it is a bad idea and a waste of a phone. I don't use phones for parts at all, because I don't PETT (people for the ethical treatment of telephones) would approve of that. Even the later model modular 500s are still good phones, the internal parts are just as good as the hardwired 500s. At the same time I'm not normally in the situation where I need parts, since these phones are just so reliable. It's better to take parts from a non whole phone. I do understand that there are situations for some people where that isn't possible though, so if you have a 12/49 (or D/P's 48 500) 500 I think it's okay to borrow parts from a different phone.
I personally dislike prostitution too, it will always be there as long as there are paying customers.
There's a notorious "bear" of a seller whose ebay feedback shows that he only buys intact phones and only sells parts. It would not make economic sense to do it unless the sum added up to more than the whole. I've never had a problem with the break up of incomplete phones (e.g. former table lamp conversions) but almost every week at least one single seller lists enough "parts" to make up a complete phone, so it's obvious what he/she is doing. The only way to slow this practice is to remove the economic incentive by not doing business with sellers who routinely do this. Think about it... who else other than a telephone restorer is in the market for "parts"?
The one thing that bothers me the most, is in the descriptions, the seller exhibits a certain degree of telephone knowledge, which leads me to believe they are or were collectors.
I certainly hope it's not one of those collector that feels low end entry type phones are beneath them, and not worthy of preservation.
All I can hope is that the seller only sells a portion of each phone, and does not make more on the sale then they paid for the phone to begin with, and ends up with a stack of phones each missing one critical part they can't find. If it's not profitable maybe they will stop.
D/P
Dan, is there a particular seller/item you're talking about here? I don't see a link in your original post but based on Kidphone's response he did because he mentioned that the seller is an ATCA member. What am I missing????
Dennis;
I've run into this situation in Radios, Trains, and phones. The person I'm referring to is listed at the link below. I won't specify which seller, but you should not have a problem figuring it out.
I don't know if it's the same person Doug refers to?
D/P
http://tinyurl.com/29glvhx
Quote from: Dennis Markham on April 25, 2010, 12:51:32 PM
Dan, is there a particular seller/item you're talking about here? I don't see a link in your original post but based on Kidphone's response he did because he mentioned that the seller is an ATCA member. What am I missing????
Dennis....He is in the ATCA and he sells disassembled phones and handsets etc. It was an E1 that I was talking about. It had everything but the mouth piece (spit cup). If he gets a 202, it is completely dismantled and sold in pieces....Doug
D/P I think I see who you mean. Not a bad deal, I suppose, if you don't mind paying about $150 for a complete E1 handset in marginal condition. ;)
It's a big issue in the trains I collect, and a huge issue in the world of watches. It's extremely common to see the movement, dial, hands, and case of a watch all sold separately, especially with popular railroad watches like Hamilton 992s and Illinois Bunn Specials.
The best solution is to just not buy from the sellers who are known to be guilty of parting out.
Ultimately, though, the only true solution is for collectors to quit trying to "upgrade" sets in their collection. If collectors would quit switching and swapping parts to try make the sets they have better, there would be no market for parts from broken up sets.
Quote from: benhutcherson on April 26, 2010, 12:37:21 PM
Ultimately, though, the only true solution is for collectors to quit trying to "upgrade" sets in their collection. If collectors would quit switching and swapping parts to try make the sets they have better, there would be no market for parts from broken up sets.
Ben: That's an interesting point, and a good one. I've been pretty torn about the fact that I have a number of AE80s that have frequency ringers in them, and I've been tempted to change them out for SL ringers. I wonder what folks think about that. The collector side of me wants to keep the phones original, but on the other hand I would like all of my phones to ring. I suppose I could be contributing to the problem by trying to switch them out. :)
Quote from: savageje on April 26, 2010, 10:18:27 PM
Quote from: benhutcherson on April 26, 2010, 12:37:21 PM
Ultimately, though, the only true solution is for collectors to quit trying to "upgrade" sets in their collection. If collectors would quit switching and swapping parts to try make the sets they have better, there would be no market for parts from broken up sets.
Ben: That's an interesting point, and a good one. I've been pretty torn about the fact that I have a number of AE80s that have frequency ringers in them, and I've been tempted to change them out for SL ringers. I wonder what folks think about that. The collector side of me wants to keep the phones original, but on the other hand I would like all of my phones to ring. I suppose I could be contributing to the problem by trying to switch them out. :)
Switch out the parts, but save the old parts and tag them for the phone.
That is how I handle this dilemma.
Many/most after market parts come from "junker" phones. The scrappers charge to much, they price themselves out of the market.
Jim S.