Just wanted to feel others out on what I consider to be real annoyances when I check eBay listings.
Pages of listings for modern cell phones in the Collectibles - Telephones category when cell phones have their own category, Cell Phones and PDAs
The guy here in Canada who lists pages of framed communications stamps in the Collectibles - Telephones category, when there is already a correct category for postage stamps.
Whenever I see this happen, it irks me, especially when there are a lot listed as I have to scroll down and even page down to get back into what I am looking for - Collectible telephones.,
Then there are the completely extraneous listings in the wrong category and test postings that appear from time to time.
Of course then there are those completely incorrect listings that appear every day, like "Art-Deco Eames Plastic Bakelit handle" referring to a G handset. Argggh!, or a Western Electric 17A line test set listed as an "Antique Western Electric Magneto Wire Field Telephone". Then, if one takes the time to let the seller know the correct description, they basically flip you the bird.
Sometimes it is a plain, honest mistake - other times it is an attempt to mislead the buyer.
Then, there are the guys who list something for many times their actual value, and leave it listed for months on end hoping some unsuspecting soul will pay their "Buy it Now" price, instead of getting the picture that it maybe just simply isn't worth what they are asking.
Maybe I am just being an old curmudgeon but I do find this annoying, and eBay doesn't seem to have any sort of mechanism in place to weed out extraneous listings.
My Pet Ebay Peeves of the day!
Dave
dave-
i totally agree with you........... looking at "vintage telephones" on ebay usa yesterday .......there were 100 pages , alot of which are clogged with the things you mention.
i usually use dennis markham's categorized web page :
http://tinyurl.com/c93dzvx
........although for some reason, ...the last few days days i've been finding that the page doesn't open properly... (words on right, no phones' pix on left.) anyone else having problems with it ?
Quote from: david@london on May 26, 2012, 05:15:39 AM
........although for some reason, ...the last few days days i've been finding that the page doesn't open properly... (words on right, no phones' pix on left.) anyone else having problems with it ?
Opens the same for me, too...
Dave
Quote from: DavePEI on May 26, 2012, 04:43:54 AM
Maybe I am just being an old curmudgeon . . .
You may just be an old curmudgeon, Dave, but you are an exactly correct curmudgeon in what you say, all of it. I've felt the same way for a month or two now and spend a lot less time looking for classic phones and parts on eBay due to all that clutter.
One would think the power listers on eBay could get that fixed. I'd like to see a "Report wrong category listing to eBay" added to their report item link but I doubt that will ever happen.
Most of those used cell phones are being sold out of China and listed in more than one place. So eBay makes twice the money on one item so what do they care.
Yes, this of course been happening for years and in other catagories as well.
I think some people are either Drunk when they list items in wrong catagories
don't care or just trying to be slick. There are times when they do get bids.
JohnnyJT 8)
South Phily
ebaY is a never ending source of frustration, always changing and always frustrating. I make certain that I always have Myers or Mount Gay Rum in the house.....
Terry
I also agree. It's truly aggravating to see phones constantly relisted for prices many times the true collectible value. We can only hope that some uneducated novice doesn't succumb and take the bait. Two that come to mind recently are a pink 1500 and a pink mushroom. I won't feed the flames by providing the listing numbers, but you can easily find them if you really want to.
That having been said, I must admit that eBay, on balance, is a terrific resource if approached with some prior knowledge and a little common sense. Over the years I have added many wonderful items to my collection due to the existence of eBay. We have to accept the bad in order to reap the good. This is just a reminder that knowledge is power, so do your homework before bidding!
DF
Quote from: Dave F on May 27, 2012, 12:53:19 AM
That having been said, I must admit that eBay, on balance, is a terrific resource if approached with some prior knowledge and a little common sense. Over the years I have added many wonderful items to my collection due to the existence of eBay. We have to accept the bad in order to reap the good. This is just a reminder that knowledge is power, so do your homework before bidding!
True enough - I just wish they would put in and enforce some rules. It just seems that in the 12 years I have been using eBay on a regular basis, the quality of the listings has dropped, and of course, prices have gone sky high, some times due to deception and misleading listing on the part of some of the sellers. Of course, inflation is also driving prices, and those increases I consider natural. I pity anyone with no idea of what they are buying.
It would be far better if Ebay were to put in and enforce rules to prevent some of the dishonest listing and out of category listing - it would be better for both the consumer and honest sellers.
Dave
Quote from: DavePEI on May 27, 2012, 01:07:05 AM
<snip> ... It would be far better if Ebay were to put in and enforce rules to prevent some of the dishonest listing and out of category listing - it would be better for both the consumer and honest sellers.
Dave
The problem here, of course, is that eBay is not an expert on the items listed on the site. In many cases, dishonesty is "in the eyes of the beholder", and they certainly don't have the resources to investigate and pass judgement on every possible case of seller-tomfoolery. Awareness on the part of savvy buyers is our best defense against unscrupulous behavior by sellers.
DF
ebay's full of chancers, a load of rubbish from the PRC (and often sold as genuine goods that turn out to be fakes), dishonest sellers, cheats, liars and all, that, just as there are in real life, it's just an extension of the del-boy suitcase marketer, selling cheap and then mysteriously disappearing...
As for the over-the-top value sellers, well, when you think about it, they're costing themselves a lot of money in relisting fees, so continue to not buy their stuff, let them feel the financial pain of the error of their ways... :D
Really the Biggest annoyance are the Ebay Software Programmers.
They constantly try to upgrade the system and cause lots of havoc.
My gripe right now is I like to have my Custom View Search setting
with Time: Newly Listed with Show Columns Time Remaining.
So I can see what items were newly listed and the time when the
auction ends in one glance. Ebay changed that option and now it
shows when a newly listed item was listed. Totally Dumb.
For weeks I have leaving feedback and calling Customer Service
to enable this feature again. Maybe someday soon I hope.
JohnnyJT 8)
South Philly
Currently on ebaY:
Vintage Art Deco Automatic Electric AE 50 Wall Monophone "No Flaws"
Quote from: AE_collector on May 28, 2012, 08:55:25 PM
Vintage Art Deco Automatic Electric AE 50 Wall Monophone "No Flaws"
Gotta love that perfect dial! That is funny, "No Flaws"!
Dave
Another pet peeve I have with eBay is what I call the free shipping scam. This comes into effect when an International (most often US seller) offers an item for free shipping. Ahh... but there is an unwritten catch. Free only to the U.S.
Now my way of thinking is that when shipping an item to Canada, if offering free shipping, he should take the cost of shipping to Canada, and subtract the amount that he would have paid to ship to the U.S. and charge the difference.
However in practice, it doesn't work that way. One is always charged the full cost of shipping to Canada, and there is never any account taken for the fact the shipping is no longer free.
Now, an American seller might say, "Why should I pay the much higher cost of shipping to Canada?" I say the same. But, charging only the difference is only fair.
It is just another form of padding the auction price, and it seems to be almost universally accepted. The seller just pockets what he would have spent on shipping. This has happened to me a hundred times at least. Outside of eBay, most will subtract the cost of shipping that he had accounted for, charging only the difference.
Now, the one place I don't see this scam is from sellers in China and Taiwan - if they say free shipping, they mean it, to Canada, or to the U.S., or for that matter, to any country they ship to.
Dave
Quote from: DavePEI on May 29, 2012, 05:49:47 AM
Another pet peeve I have with eBay is what I call the free shipping scam. This comes into effect when an International (most often US seller) offers an item for free shipping. Ahh... but there is an unwritten catch. Free only to the U.S.
Now my way of thinking is that when shipping an item to Canada, if offering free shipping, he should take the cost of shipping to Canada, and subtract the amount that he would have paid to ship to the U.S. and charge the difference.
However in practice, it doesn't work that way. One is always charged the full cost of shipping to Canada, and there is never any account taken for the fact the shipping is no longer free.
Now, an American seller might say, "Why should I pay the much higher cost of shipping to Canada?" I say the same. But, charging only the difference is only fair.
It is just another form of padding the auction price, and it seems to be almost universally accepted. The seller just pockets what he would have spent on shipping. This has happened to me a hundred times at least. Outside of eBay, most will subtract the cost of shipping that he had accounted for, charging only the difference.
Now, the one place I don't see this scam is from sellers in China and Taiwan - if they say free shipping, they mean it, to Canada, or to the U.S., or for that matter, to any country they ship to.
Dave
I'm basically only a seller on Ebay and agree with most of what you are saying. I can understand the frustration of the free shipping "scam". Keep in mind Ebay forced us sellers to build that into our price. They now charge fees on domestic shipping charges. There's no way to "fix" that from the sellers side. Example: I offer free US shipping, you buy something in (assuming Canada), when I list it there's no was to set it up to deduct the built in cost. Every rebate would have to manually sent back to the buyer. I would recommend contacting the seller and ask them for the discount, I'd give it with no problem .
The high price listings is not smart even if they are "baiting" a rookie. Sometimes its hard to find the right price point so start high and work from there. I'm waiting to see one of my listings on here... ;D Its not always a mindset of hoping to bait a novice in, keep in mind as you have seen on here there are some collectors with deep pockets on ebay and $100 bucks is not a big deal. Why not try for a month?
Now just a little something to even the playing field. I have never had a seller contact me and say " hey I know packing materials are expensive and you pay for tape, printer ink and paper, so add a $1 or 2 to my order." Personally I use all recycled boxes and packing materials, but I still have to go find them or drive and pick them up.
Just a few things to help ease the annoyances hopefully. Trust me as a seller I can list plenty of annoyances.
Quote from: pbghmike77 on May 29, 2012, 10:11:11 AM
The high price listings is not smart even if they are "baiting" a rookie. Sometimes its hard to find the right price point so start high and work from there. I'm waiting to see one of my listings on here... ;D Its not always a mindset of hoping to bait a novice in, keep in mind as you have seen on here there are some collectors with deep pockets on ebay and $100 bucks is not a big deal.
Just to use an example. One seller currently has a piece of store advertisement for the telephone. It is a small desk-top sign made out of cardboard, and came from a NB General store. The seller is from the US, no names.
He is asking just about $300. It hasn't sold, and the seller has re-listed the item at the same price at least ten times without adjusting his price.
Example 2) Some time ago, someone put an NT-E1A-49 Ringer on for $225, listing it as "Eames". These are the grey plastic ringers often used with ringer-less phones. Plug the ringer into the line, plug the phone into the ringer. I emailed the seller, and told him I had recently bought 4 of them in separate auctions, and not paid over $20 for the most expensive, a buy-it now.
He emailed me back, and told me to mind my own business, and on the third re-listing sold it to an un-expecting, clueless buyer for full price. Incidentally, had that buyer looked thoroughly, at the time he bought it, he would have found another listing for the same ringer for $14.99. I feel so badly for the unsuspecting soul who bought it.
Go Tell!
Thing is, people don't complain about the good sellers like you. I have seen your auctions, and they are reasonable. But I have seen many like the two examples above, and they are just taking advantage of vulnerable buyers, nothing less and nothing more. And they operate with impunity.
Dave
Trust me I'm not defending stupidity. Sellers like that are conflicting to other sellers. On one hand they make sellers that are honest and fair more desirable. On the other hand they are grouped in the sellers category which we all know a few bad apples ruin the whole groups image.
I feel somewhat bad for buyers like that, but sometimes lifes lessons are expensive. Hopefully next time they will be a little more thrifty. I guess all in all its just a defense mechanism because I am a seller. I have yet to see a post on here that shows how well an item was packed or "I emailed a seller and told them about there item and they were very grateful."
I love this site, it has been so helpful to me. Not only educating me about phones in general but gives me a great idea of how you guys wish to receive packages. I'm glad you think I'm reasonable, I'm well aware ignorance has caused me to price a few items high. Thanks for all you guys do....
The thing is, there have always been sellers which say that something is worth so much and never sell it because it's not worth it, I've been to shops where they've had the same items for sale on display for years, and I'm amazed they actually stay in business from selling so little... :o
There will always be the seller who prays on ignorance to get their money, and there will always be those who are honest and genuine... :)
Quote from: pbghmike77 on May 29, 2012, 12:01:44 PM
I guess all in all its just a defense mechanism because I am a seller. I have yet to see a post on here that shows how well an item was packed or "I emailed a seller and told them about there item and they were very grateful."
Actually, defending sellers is natural when you sell. After all, it is these guys that make sellers look bad though and the good sellers need to realize this. and push for effective enforcement. What form that enforcement might take, I don't know, but it is something sellers should be discussing amongst themselves. I know that it appears any time eBay has a problem, they take it out against the sellers. If eBay get complaints from both sides, sellers and buyers, they will be more likely to sit up and take notice and make the right decisions. In fact, they should be asking sellers the best way to solve problems .
But you know, in the past 12 years, I have had a lot of marvelous sellers I have bought from - I have had those who combined items to save shipping, and the first time I know about it, I see a credit to my Paypal account. I am currently dealing with one who is very upset that his drop shipper didn't notify him or myself that they were running short of an item, and that they wouldn't be able to ship my order. This guy is sincerely upset. Frankly, as he cares, he gets top rating from me. I have had those who changed the description on listings when the listings were incorrect. I usually email these guys to thank them for their wonderful service, but no-one thinks to thank them publicly. I have had sellers who packed so thoroughly, it took a half an hour or more to get into the item in the package, and I have thanked them. I even had one guy several years ago who, after I bought, saw the same item for less money, and refunded the difference without my even knowing until I saw the refund. That is rare, but guys,it occasionally happens.
So, maybe that is what we should do. When we come across a seller who does a particularly good job, we should also leave messages about how well they did. That could provide guidance to others looking for similar items.I still think the bad sellers are in the minority on eBay, but they are there. So, getting back to the point, eBay needs to have an enforced mechanism to weed those sellers out - one that is fair to all sellers. Feedback doesn't do it, but it helps, but then you get the stupid buyers who will buy the wrong item, and it won't work for their purposes, or those who don't pay, and who the seller can't leave bad feedback for.
Nothing is perfect,but the whole system still needs a lot of work.
Dave
Dave....just so you know the seller has no power with eBay at all. ZERO. Seller cannot leave feedback, unless it is positive. If there is a dispute, the seller is always found to be wrong. If the buyer doesn't want it, sellers description was not accurate. If the buyer decides not to pay, too bad for the seller. If buyer drops and breaks their new phone, it wasn't packaged properly as there is no damage to the box. Guess who loses?
One thing is very clear on eBay, seller is always wrong and buyer is always right. There is no such thing as a bad buyer, only bad sellers.
If anyone thinks it is easy selling on eBay, they have never sold on eBay. That I can guarantee you.
You would think eBay would look out after their sellers, as you cannot have a buyer, if there is nothing to sell. BUT...eBay treats their sellers like a baby treats a diaper.
I play on both sides of the eBay battle. I think I am a good buyer as well as a good seller. But to be very clear, there are just as many bad buyers as there are bad sellers.
Walk on the wild side, sell for a while on eBay.
Doug
Quote from: DavePEI on May 29, 2012, 12:32:32 PM
Actually, defending sellers is natural when you sell. After all, it is these guys that make sellers look bad though and the good sellers need to realize this. and push for effective enforcement. What form that enforcement might take, I don't know, but it is something sellers should be discussing amongst themselves. I know that it appears any time eBay has a problem, they take it out against the sellers. If eBay get complaints from both sides, sellers and buyers, they will be more likely to sit up and take notice and make the right decisions. In fact, they should be asking sellers the best way to solve problems .
I also state: "Feedback doesn't do it, but it helps, but then you get the stupid buyers who will buy the wrong item, and it won't work for their purposes, or those who don't pay, and who the seller can't leave bad feedback for."
As you can see in the quote I posted above, I am aware of some of the sellers problems. The ONLY way sellers going to get eBay to sit up and listen to their concerns is if they get together as an Association, and provide a UNITED voice. An eBay Seller's Association.
Then I mention the fact that sellers can't leave feedback for bad buyers.
These are only items they will address with pressure from a strong association - one which I hope would also address the problem of bad sellers.
Dave
Yes, there are certainly plenty of eBay annoyances to complain about. As both a long-time buyer and seller, I have probably encountered most of them. If the annoyances are so severe that you can't tolerate them, the solution is clear and easy: Just stop dealing with eBay! It seems to me, however, that that course of action could put quite a crimp in your ability to locate new things for the collection (or to profitably dispose of unwanted items). As I said before, the benefits far outweigh the annoyances, and that's why we keep coming back for more. In one lazy afternoon of searching, we can see more neat stuff than could be found in a lifetime of hunting through thrift shops, flea markets and garage sales. Even with all its warts, eBay is great; I would be lost without it. As you all are aware, I'm still looking for some rare cards for my AUTOVON Card Dialer. I don't know where they will ultimately come from, but I would put the odds at better than 50-50 that when I finally land some, they will have been found on eBay. For that, I can put up with the annoyances!
Quote from: Doug Rose on May 29, 2012, 02:02:49 PM
<snip>....just so you know the seller has no power with eBay at all. ZERO. Seller cannot leave feedback, unless it is positive. If there is a dispute, the seller is always found to be wrong....
This is simply not true. Over the years, I have been involved in several disputes as a seller and, IN EVERY CASE, eBay has ruled in my favor.
Quote from: Doug Rose on May 29, 2012, 02:02:49 PM
<snip>....just so you know the seller has no power with eBay at all. ZERO. Seller cannot leave feedback, unless it is positive. If there is a dispute, the seller is always found to be wrong....
Quote from: Dave F on May 29, 2012, 03:29:39 PM
This is simply not true. Over the years, I have been involved in several disputes as a seller and, IN EVERY CASE, eBay has ruled in my favor.
Dave F....I guess I should have said that I have never won a case as a seller on eBay in over 10 years of selling. The sellers I have talked with are in the same boat as I am. I am truly envious of your never losing streak as a seller. You balance off my never winning. Part of the cost of doing business on eBay.
I do agree that with all its warts, I would miss eBay dearly if it went away...Doug
Quote from: Doug Rose on May 29, 2012, 02:02:49 PM
I do agree that with all its warts, I would miss eBay dearly if it went away...Doug
So would we all, but hopefully they will work to correct both the buyer's and seller's problems.
Dave H.
One way I've found to weed the bad sellers from the good is to ask questions. Not too many questions, but enough to see that the seller is willing to go to a little trouble to make the sale. If they never acknowledge your email, then forget about bidding on their auction. They're bad news. Be sure to email at least one or two days before the item ends and not within hours of the end.
I've found that a good response from the seller usually means a good experience overall. I always thank the seller for their response if I win their item. They need to know how they made the sale.
Once I asked a seller a question and casually mentioned a small mistake in her auction. She was so incensed than she banned me from bidding on not only that auction, but all of her auctions. I was the only bidder on two of them, and thought that was kind of funny that she never sold those phones because the only person who was interested she had to ban from bidding. Needless to say, I haven't tried bidding on anything else she had for sale.
Dave, you are so right about the good outweighing the bad. There is no way I could have ever gotten a tenth of what I have in my collection if I were just shopping locally. I searched thrift stores and yard sales for years and came up with very little, so I am truly thankful for eBay and what I can find on it.
Quote from: Doug Rose on May 29, 2012, 02:02:49 PM
<snip> ... the seller has no power with eBay at all. ZERO. Seller cannot leave feedback, unless it is positive...
For what it's worth, a while ago eBay discovered that nearly all of the problems between buyers and sellers were the result of unsatisfactory performance by the seller. Non-payment by buyers was (and continues to be) a relatively rare event. Most people only bid on things they actually want. Buyers were unwilling to leave honest negative feedback due to the risk of feedback retaliation by rotten-apple sellers (I found myself in
this position more than once in the past). This is why the feedback system was changed to the way it is today. Now, a buyer can leave negative feedback for a seller when it is warranted and not be worried that he will get unfairly dinged for doing so. The dispute process allows sellers to tell their story when a buyer does not live up to his end of the bargain. Buyers can (and do) get suspended from eBay for continued misconduct. Admittedly, there isn't any way that moderating transactions between millions of independent people can be perfect, but this system seems to work (mostly) adequately.
Also, remember that eBay is a for-profit entity. As such, eBay's rules are understandably tilted toward maximizing their corporate success. In general, this means keeping all the users happy. Nevertheless, there will be times when "justice" falls through the cracks. Hey, life ain't always perfect. Consider it a cost of doing business, as you smile with satisfaction at your great phone collection.
DF
Consider it a cost of doing business, as you smile with satisfaction at your great phone collection.
DF
[/quote]Dave....we are in agreement on this. When I first started collecting some 35 years ago, I met a gentleman at a flea market. I would buy phones from him every week and he was my first mentor in telephones. Back in the day when you could get good phones, cheap! He told me, "when you really get serious about collecting telephones, you will sell them." I thought he was crazy. Then again, how many black 302s did I need?
Long before eBay was thought of, I sold my excess telephones at Flea markets, antiques stores etc. I can honestly say, when I look at my collection, it was paid for entirely by selling telephones. Before my youngest college education came to me, this is what I did. Buy any phone I could find at a reasonable price, keep the best and fix and sell the rest. When eBay arrived, it was a blessing as well as a curse. There is no more travelling and set up and I always have plenty of buyers, many repeat customers. Also the dark side. BUT the pluses out weigh the minuses ten fold. It is a lot of work and my free time is non existant.
BUT " as you smile with satisfaction at your (my) great phone collection" and my daughters education....I wouldn't want to live without eBay. It is the best second job I (we) have ever had.....Doug
Hi All:
I just realized I have another pet peeve - clockwork phones!
Huh?
One of many similar listings, here is another seen today..
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/120933157763
"Vintage Wooden Wind Up Wall Phone for Repair or Parts"
"The winder is missing along with end of the ear piece and the end of the mouth piece" I think the vendor is missing the part that goes next to the earpiece, and that his mouth piece is mounted in.!
'Nuff said!
Dave
Here I go again:
Sellers who don't know how to hang up a phone correctly, and/or who think it is cutsie to place a handset on the cradle upside-down! :)
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/180909388385
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/180909388566
Dave
They are some sort of "cordless" phones anyway so the handset will probably get seperated from the base soon anyway thereby solving the "don't know how to hang up a phone" problem. ::)
Terry
I've just had a payment on a Buy It Now refunded with a note "I listed it at the wrong price and my boyfriend told me off".
So the Thing has been relisted at £50 - it was £15 - and the most recent Thing in completed listings sold at £22. So although I was hoping for a bit of a bargain it wasn't exactly ripping off the seller.
Always thought bidding on ebay was supposed to be a binding contract.
I'm holding off negging the seller in case it comes on the market again at a better price.
Quote from: Owain on June 18, 2012, 10:37:43 AMAlways thought bidding on ebay was supposed to be a binding contract.
It is, and without a good reason for refusing the sale, then they're breaking ebay's rules...
dave, I agreen with you totally! especailly when one day there are only 32 pages on the 1940-69 section and the next there are over 50!.....so frustrating!
<G>, I am hard to please, but I just remembered another of my pet peeves. This morning I saw another listing containing one of my annoyances - listing an AE Speakerphone. Thats AE as in Automatic Electric, NOT A&E! I see this so many times it makes it all the way into my top 10 peeves!
I notice there is a series of tutorials on You-tube we are all familiar with advertising the services of a certain phone repair company that persists in calling it A&E >:(
Guess I am just hard to please!
Dave
Also "Bell Systems" annoys me in listings
I prefer Stromburg and Carlson :)
Maybe I should have posted this in this thread, but, grossly misspelled words are an annoyance in any context. Minor typos I can forgive, but something like this I can't: http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=7332.msg81948#msg81948 (http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=7332.msg81948#msg81948)
Quote from: DavePEI on July 20, 2012, 05:15:51 AM
Thats AE as in Automatic Electric, NOT A&E! I see this so many times it makes it all the way into my top 10 peeves!
Yes, that is one of my least favorite errors on ebaY as well. What is the YouTube reference?
Terry
Quote from: AE_collector on July 20, 2012, 01:27:00 PM
Quote from: DavePEI on July 20, 2012, 05:15:51 AM
Thats AE as in Automatic Electric, NOT A&E! I see this so many times it makes it all the way into my top 10 peeves!
Yes, that is one of my least favorite errors on ebaY as well. What is the YouTube reference?
Terry
Hi Terry:
Practically any U-Tube posting by A1 Telephones:
http://www.a1-telephone.com/indexvideos.html
My otter pet peeve about these videos is the don't necessarily show the correct way to do things, and rather than guide people how to do the repairs, really are advertisements for his business. I am not sure if all of his U-Tube videos are listed on that page, but he has a lot of them...
Dave
the phone looks great! just oil the dial, and you're set....
Don't have an example off hand, but my biggest ebay annoyance is when they post just scant info on the item, but plenty of verbiage about payments, shipping, disclaimers, returns, etc, etc.
You need to use misspelled words to your advantage. I have a couple Westen Electrics in my collection.
And of course the Arts & Entertainment channel obviously must have put out some phones at some point in time because they show up now on ebaY as "A&E desk phone" etc.
Terry
Quote from: AE_Collector on December 11, 2013, 01:05:06 PM
And of course the Arts & Entertainment channel obviously put out some phones at some point in time. They show up now on ebaY as "A&E desk phone" etc.
Terry
Here in the UK, A&E is "Accident and Emergency", our name for the ER at a hospital... :D
Well, I agree, bad presentation is always bad. But in this instance, I myself, wouldn't pull all of the phones out of the box if there were more than 20 or so.
Ben
Bad presentations can lead to very good bargains. I often have bought badly presented items, that proved very interesting or very rare at a good price. Didn´t seem much at a glance, but after scrutinising the pics I saw something others hadn´t.
That is how I got my white Heemaf 55 clock and my S&H modell 26.
Quote from: southernphoneman on December 12, 2013, 08:03:38 PM
in this ebay listing some seller shows how not to pose there phones for sale in a photo, in this case a phone lot of 2554's
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201000091170
Maybe this listing should've been in the "Modern Art" category. I'm sure at some gallery somewhere, someone would pay big bucks for this. All you need is some epoxy to keep them all together! :D
Assuming only one bid and collected in person (no shipping it seems):
$119.95 / 50 = $2.40
Clean and resell each phone for $25 a piece, that's $22.60 profit, multiplied by 50, that's about $1130, minus ebay tax, travel and other costs... ;D
So in total, maybe about $1k profit from that badly laid out listing... :D
25 dollar? That is cheap. How much time does it take to clean one up and make sure it works?
If there are no repairs needed it takes me about 3 hours for a Phone.
3 * 50 = 150 hours for 1000 dollar?
Quote from: Matilo Telephones on December 13, 2013, 05:07:15 AM
25 dollar? That is cheap. How much time does it take to clean one up and make sure it works?
If there are no repairs needed it takes me about 3 hours for a Phone.
3 * 50 = 150 hours for 1000 dollar?
They look like older versions of my Cortelco 2554, so haven't got the fiddly amplified handset, so, I'd say it'd take a very short time to clean up for each phone, especially if done in lots of 5 or 10 in one go, or have a bit of a production line on the go and you could probably have them all done in a day or two... :)
And considering the $25 price, a lot of Cortelco phones (new or used) seem to be listed at a high price as they "look vintage", so, price them at something like $25 a piece, they'd sell pretty quick, you could go higher of course, but then risk slow sales... :)
So, 2 hours for one Phone? Still seems a lot of work for that kind of money. My boss pays me more for my time.
Judging by the picture, I wonder if there really are 50 phones. I can see about 20. Perhaps the figure was rounded up a little?
Even then, I wonder if there is enough to make them all complete and working. Perhaps some damage and missing parts. So count on 40 phones. If there are more, it's a bonus.
If I'd want to make a quick buck, I'd make it really quick. So a quick wipe, brush and polish on the outside, make sure they work properly, spend no more than one hour on each Phone.
And then, where are you going to sell them? That takes time and effort. Flee market, antiques fair? That stille means dragging them to an fro and of course spendig time selling them. On the net? That means answering mails, doing some adminstrative work, and of course spending time shipping them. That all takes a lot of speed out of that quick buck. It'll add one hour to each Phone to get them sold.
I never said two hours, "a day or two" is about maybe 8 hours per day (so maybe 8, maybe 16, maybe 4, maybe 12, etc.) of working on them, either in bulk, or a production line (so maybe 20 to 30 minutes per phone, but interleaved with working on other phones in the line to save time), and the other 16 in the day is eating, relaxing and sleeping as you'd do with a 9 to 5 job. Take the base and handset shells off, remove electronic parts, wash & sanitise them (nothing worse than buying a "refurbished" phone with brown crusties in places), blast the inner workings with compressed air to remove dust and dirt, and then reassemble, and all the wile have the handset cables soak in in warm water with washing powder to clean them up while you work on the phones... :)
The listing states "approx 50 units", so could be 57, could be 46, what you can see is the top of the box, what you don't see is the depth of the box, it's like looking at a door to a room, you're told it's approx 100sq foot, but you're assuming it's 45 without opening the door, it makes no sense to assume something is smaller when you're given reasonable figures, if it was 20, then the seller is mis-describing the auction and can be dealt with under ebay's rules...
When it comes to cleaning them though, personally I wouldn't do what us brits refer to as a half-arsed job, which would just be a quick wipe, brush and polish on the outside in my view, cleaning inside and out isn't hard, these 2554 phones are small and very simple, anything longer than half an hour and you're doing something wrong... :D
And selling, well, ebay of course, hence my calculations stating "minus ebay tax, travel and other costs", it's the world's biggest marketplace that a lot of people use daily, not everyone uses things like craigslist, kijiji or gumtree, or has the time to travel to markets and pay for something at a stall that may cost a lot more, pot and packing isn't mentioned as that's a separate cost which is covered by the buyer...
Yeah, there may be parts that don't work, but that's why I never gave dead on perfectly accurate figures of what you could earn, anyone who does hasn't bought things to re-sell for profit before, the about $1k profit is an optimistic figure, yeah, you may earn a lot less, but so long as it's more than what you paid then it's profit... ;D
But looking at it like it's an earned wage, that's the wrong way to go about it, $1k, heck even if you make $600, that could buy another bulk load of phones at a cheap price with money left over, which in turn you clean up & sell on, and you get more profit, and so forth, that's pretty much how you earn money doing these things, or you could use the money to pay off bills that you may have, so that $200 investment with a little personal time thrown in becomes a useful tool to bolster the money you already have coming in...
Don't consider it as a job with a wage, consider it as a hobby that pays, after all, there's a lot of people on this forum who do just that, buy lots of phones, keep a couple, clean & sell on the rest at a profit, granted the phones they buy and sell are a little more vintage than 1980s/90s Cortelco phones, but still...
Harry, this 2554 haul looks like a good project for you. Since they were in a school, they were probably in classrooms and not used much. If only they weren't Band-Aid color---this has to be the least popular color according to Sonny, who sells to the public.
Quote from: johnnyjt on May 26, 2012, 10:28:53 AM
Yes, this of course been happening for years and in other catagories as well.
I think some people are either Drunk when they list items in wrong catagories
don't care or just trying to be slick. There are times when they do get bids.
JohnnyJT 8)
South Phily
I almost never use ebay for selling because the process to post an ad is such a pita compared to Craigslist, especially if I only want to sell locally. Currently I have a few items on there since they started offering free ads. When selecting the category, ebay kept suggesting totally incorrect categories that seemed to be just pulled out of their, uh, "hat", e.g. a bike they wanted to put in collectibles/advertising. HELLO?! IT'S A BIKE!! It was a real hassle to try to manipulate and find the right category.
Quote from: DavePEI on May 26, 2012, 04:43:54 AM...and eBay doesn't seem to have any sort of mechanism in place to weed out extraneous listings.
There is none, and E-Bay doesn't care about sellers deliberately defrauding their customers. American Heritage Museum is one such seller.
I hate it when sellers think anything more than 5 years old is an "antique" and is worth a fortune. That includes cell phones, which are not old enough to be even collectible, let alone antiques. I am an old fart too, so I am annoyed by those young whippersnappers!
Mike
Quote from: MMikeJBenN27 on December 11, 2022, 08:30:32 PMI hate it when sellers think anything more than 5 years old is an "antique" and is worth a fortune. That includes cell phones, which are not old enough to be even collectible, let alone antiques. I am an old fart too, so I am annoyed by those young whippersnappers!
Mike
They think if its even from the 50's or 60's it's antique, what ever happened to the if its 100 years or older it qualifies to be antique (and not before). They all need to be educated!
Quote from: MMikeJBenN27 on December 11, 2022, 08:30:32 PMI hate it when sellers think anything more than 5 years old is an "antique" and is worth a fortune. That includes cell phones, which are not old enough to be even collectible, let alone antiques. I am an old fart too, so I am annoyed by those young whippersnappers!
Mike
Oh well, you are certainly not the only one my dear friend Mike ;) Whether on 'Etsy', Ebay, Marketplace or even elsewhere on other non-English sites, I sometimes leave them messages that their phone is not not 'antique' but 'vintage'. which is very different, moreover, often they do not even know that their telephone is only a reproduction, that it is worth nothing more than a piece of plastic or even, the part or the telephone is not not uncommon. at all .