WESTERN ELECTRIC 1915 CANDLESTICK~GUN METAL GRAY~VG eBay 260879956973

[Doug Rose]

I was surprise this went so low. A WE Steel Candlestick 40AL. It is is superb condition and these are not an easy find. This is a beauty....Doug

eBay 260879956973

http://tinyurl.com/6ch83ju

[wds]

I'm surprised that it went for that much.  Usually those 40al's, especially with the bulldog transmitters aren't worth much more than the value of the receiver.  Ebay sure can be strange sometimes. 

[Doug Rose]

Live and learn. I thought the steel sticks were a tough find. I just found one a few months ago and was thrilled....thanks...Doug

[wds]

I've noticed lately that Ebay prices are all over the place again with these phones.  I've seen some very common phones sell for twice what they're worth, and then on the otherhand, I just picked up an AE40 in nice shape for $5, and a Kellogg F740S, wood wall phone complete with the Mercedes dial.  And to boot the phone looks like new.  But, if anyone wants to buy my 40al for $117, I can have it out in today's mail!

[mariepr]

I'm noticing a trend where 100% "virgin" phones are attracting more interest than top notch restorations.   

Phone can look well used as long as they are "unmolested" and unchanged as they came from Hawthrone or wherever.   I had a Wanamaker pay station that drew ridiculously low bids because the termial board had long been removed and the previous owner had wired in a mininetwork and F1 transmitter. Once it's been messed with in a substantial way interest goes down and it loses collector appeal. 

[GG]

One possibility is, everyone has their own personal style for doing refurbs. 

One person tries to keep all the original parts as the phone was found "in the wild."   Another person swaps out parts to get it back to how it should have been issued when it was new, e.g. #4 dial in a B1, #5 dial in an early 302, #6 in a later 302, and so on.  One person uses Novus, one prefers buffing their plastics.  One likes black AE fingerwheels, someone else likes chrome, someone else, polished brass.   

And so on for every detail.  And sometimes people just prefer to do the work themselves, for the same reason someone might prefer building an RC airplane from scratch rather than buying one ready-to-fly: it's nice to work on stuff with your own hands. 

The market for telephones that are fully refurbished, consists largely of people who are looking for one of these but don't have the technical skills to do the disassembly, repairs, reconditioning, reassembly, and adjustments on their own workbench. 

Neither is "better or worse," just different.  Sometimes it's worthwhile for a phone geek to pay for one that's fully refurbished; sometimes it's worthwhile for a nontechnical person to buy one "as-found" and learn while doing. 

[Doug Rose]

Another Bower-Barff on eBay. This went for $155. Hmmm.....Doug

http://tinyurl.com/cm9azyo

[wds]

I'm stumped.  Of course I'll put my 40AL on ebay, and it will sell for $25.