What a wild ride! I ended up buying 5 candlesticks, including lot 972 for $125. That was a fantastic deal on this phone. I'm having trouble finding out what I actually bought, but I will post pictures as soon as I figure it out.
Sweet! I just bought a 20AL with OST reciever and 229 transmitter for $75 bucks. Ive never bought in this style before. How do I go about paying?
Ken
I just got off the phone with them. You can't see what you bought on the web site. They will send you an invoice tomorrow with the amount due and shipping charges. You can pay by C.C., or if you pay by check you get a 2% discount. However, they wait 14 days for the check to clear before they ship. I can't wait!
By the way, I almost put a bid in on that one, but choked after thinking about the other phones I just bought. I'm going to try and put together a list of the phones and how much they sold for.
Awesome, cant wait!
Ok, here's the phones I got. The Monarch was kind of an accident. I placed a bid but as I was pushing the button, the price changed about 3 times from other bidders, and I bought it at $175. Still not a bad price with the OST receiver.
Here is the one phone I purchased.
Does anybody know why these great phones are being sold?
-KK
This guy (Pete - see link below) is selling off most of his collection. No reason given I don't think.
http://oldtelephones.com/
Surely we're not the only two to buy phones from Morphys today?
Quote from: wds on December 07, 2014, 04:11:45 PM
this guy is selling off most of his collection. No reason given I don't think.
http://oldtelephones.com/ (http://oldtelephones.com/)
Surely we're not the only two to buy phones from Morphys today?
Not today, but I have in the past, including the 5 I got last week. In this particular auction, I just did a low-ball opening bid on this one, but was out-bid.
Morphys is good at packing. Call them and ask that the handsets be wrapped separately and not placed on the cradle.
I was wondering about the shipping on these phones. Since you've bought from Morphys before, how do you get notifications about phones for sale on that site?
Quote from: wds on December 07, 2014, 05:38:36 PM
I was wondering about the shipping on these phones. Since you've bought from Morphys before, how do you get notifications about phones for sale on that site?
I don't use the Morphys site, I use Proxibid (http://www.proxibid.com) which works with many auction houses, including Morphys. Just give Morphys a call, they'll even tell you the cost over the phone.
I just now did a search for "telephone" on Proxibid (my usual method). Wow, what a bring down from all those sticks and other cool phones, nothing much at all!
Attached is a PDF of all the telephones that sold today on Morphys.
Looks like you guys got some deals! Sadly I was outbid on the items I was looking at. I would have stuck around for some of the more common WE sticks if I'd known they were going to go that low!!! :o
At times it seemed like the Buyers had run out of steam and some of the phones went real cheap. Kenton's phone is worth at least $250. Quite a bargain.
I was surprised too. I felt some of those unique sticks went real low. I guess there were too many phones for buyers to take in all at once.
-KK
I'm sorry I blew my phone budget on those other phones now.
Quote from: wds on December 07, 2014, 05:38:36 PM
I was wondering about the shipping on these phones. Since you've bought from Morphys before, how do you get notifications about phones for sale on that site?
I didn't really answer your question. On Proxibid I just do a key word search every now and then. I'm sure there's probably a way to automate it so that you can get emails, but I've never done that. Much of the time there's not that many phones, and you have to factor in the internet premium along with the shipping costs.
Just for the fun of it, I totaled up the proceeds from the sale of all the phones. $369,775.00 Five items were passed on. (no sale)
thanks Dave....I wonder how much was profit as those beauties did not come cheaply.....Doug
Although some of the phones went for good prices, it seemed like most of them sold for cheap. Considering that the prices for phones seems to have gone down over the years, I kind of doubt that Pete made much (if any) profit. If he bought many of these phones years ago, he probably paid more for them than they are worth now. I just read on the TCI email that one collector bought 50 of the phones.
Sadly, Dave, that seems to be the way of things. I've heard it said that people collect what they remember, and as the collector population ages, interest shifts to more recent items. Example - I grew up with 500-series desk sets and wall phones all over the place, and today I am mystified as to why anyone would have interest in them as collector items. Yet this Forum clearly demonstrates that it is true.
I collected and restored antique radios for 20 or so years, and yes - I took a beating when I started selling off my collections a couple years ago. I don't expect prices to recover to anywhere near what I paid for them. My current interests have shifted to phones, but I am much more selective about what I acquire. Phone collectors beware - you're in it for the current joy, not the eventual profit!
Bill
Hey Bill....great observation. Its funny, I grew up with 500 sets and feel the same way. They seem "current" to me, that is why I do not collect them. Same with the Princess and Trimlines. I agree with you 100%.
I hope Peter did well as I would hate to see his collection be a break even sale. I buy low so hopefully something will be left for the grand children...Doug
Bill, although I agree with you, I also want it to be known that I don't collect candlesticks because that's what I remember as a kid! I'm not quite that old!
I grew up with 500 sets and have many of them, but I'm partial to 20s-30s era phones. I sold a few phones at the first Seattle phone show, I wish now I had kept them. Nothing special, a few AE 80s, one or two 500s and a Dutch PTT. They had been cleaned and made functioning, so my markup was what I thought would be fair. I ended up selling them at a loss. Not going to do that anymore. They are all my precious babies, down to the lowest black 500.
The phones arrived yesterday, packed quite well. All five phones in the same box, but they were wrapped very nicely, and I have enough peanuts now to last me all winter. It took me over an hour to unwrap all the phones from their bubble wrap, and nothing was damaged. The packing was good, but it was also pretty expensive. I noticed that a lot of the phones at the auction were not on the old telephones web site, so apparently he had many more than he displayed. A couple of the phones I bought were still quite dirty, so i wonder if he did the same thing I do, and buy faster than I can clean and put on display. This canadian had quite a bit of dirt on it, so I doubt that he had this one on display anywhere.
Does anyone know how to remove the base plate from this phone? I don't see any screws, and it doesn't look like it twists off like some of the Strombergs.
To remove the base plate on the Canadian Independent candlestick - you have to remove the screw on the side of the shaft up towards the hook (but on the opposite side of the hook). Then the base and contact switch drop out from the bottom so be careful.
That did the trick. Interesting arrangement - no wires between the switch and the transmitter - the stem mates with another contact up in the stem. The receiver arm doesn't bolt to the stem, it just slides into place. Quite original.
Hey Craig....I didn't know you belonged to the Forum.....welcome.....Doug
Thanks Doug. I've been here for a few months now I just haven't been that active.
Craig...start posting pics of your great collection....good to have you here...Doug