Have you ever not purchased a phone, then wished you had?

[FABphones]

Further to my other post where I wrote how I picked up a 15 euro vintage phone then - arrrgggh - put it back:

'I saw a black wall mounted Bakelite (maybe, I'll never know now) model in another Depot Vente. I picked it up but thought, noooo steady on, I've just added one to my collection (total phone count 9!)'.

I wondered if you guys had ever actually had a fab bargain in your hands and then not bought it?

Virtual tipples of whiskey offered to cry into to those who share their stories of phones momentarily held, then lost...

[Dan/Panther]

I have pretty much the opposite reaction happen often.
Buying a phone, and later wishing I hadn't.

D/P

[twocvbloke]

There's been a few phones on ebay I've missed out on buying due to my hesitation, one being a late GPO 746 that had a properly grey set of plastics (as in, hadn't turned brown) which went cheaply, wanted to buy that for my Grey fleet, but, oh well, can't linger on what could have been...

[AE_Collector]

In my case working for the Telco I will always regret the couple of instances of not keeping something I had removed and then later wondering what I was thinking!

A Northern Electric Call Director/Speakerphone unit that I removed and sent back where it was certainly junked as Call Directors were on their way out by then in the very late 1970's. To this day I never did manage to acquire one of them, just a normal NE 18 button and a 30 button Call Director.

Also an AE 880 Speakerphone in somewhat hard to find Turquoise which I left behind due to the usual discolouration that Turquoise or light blue phones almost always have. I figured I would find a better one which never happened while I was still working so I finally had to get one on eBay that still has some discolouration issues.

Terry

[compubit]

Several times on eBay where I've seen something, but forgot to make a bid, or didn't pay attention as the auction ended, and it went just higher than my initial low bid...

I also was at a flea market in Dallas (setup in a church parking lot on a Saturday morning), and saw an Aqua Blue Touch Tone Princess with the plastics in perfect shape.  I looked at it, set it down, and when I came back not 5 minutes later, someone was walking away with it tucked under their arm...

I'm not letting that happen to me when I go to Canton, TX's First Monday Flea Market in March!  I have learned, though that you can ignore the "shops" area (i.e., the places where people have fixed stalls) - rarely anything phone related, or if they have something, it's outrageously priced. 

Jim

Jim

[WEBellSystemChristian]

I have had many, many "one that got away" stories, but I never really looked back at the phones I didn't pay much attention to and didn't buy, but regretted later.

There was one on Craigslist that I thought might have been a painted Ivory 302. It had Ivory paint that was chipping and revealing what's looked like metal underneath. I tried contacting the seller, but they never answered. I thought it was probably a home brew anyway, so I didn't try again. Little did I know, the seller listed it on eBay, and a member on the ATCA bought it. It turned out to be home-painted Ivory...over original Blue plastics...

Another was a 554 in an antique store far away from home--again, painted. It was a "C" stock phone, one painted black over scrap colored plastics. This one had a soft plastic Ivory housing, along with--bear with me here--an Oxford Gray handset! I was focused on another phone, so I passed on that. I regretted it about 20 minutes after getting home. I tried going back to get it a month later, but it was gone.

[rdelius]

Did not buy a $90.00 "Eiffel Tower" at an antique show.Found 5 or so 1890s?vanity cabinet sets with no hardware at an antique store in Dunedin fla.They were calling them small Victorian desks

[Jester]

Once, during the summer after my first phone finds, I walked into a roadside flea market some forty miles north of home.  I found this neat set that looked to be mid '40ish manufacture, but it wasn't a Western Electric, so I was prepared to walk away(I've grown up since then).  While I was staring at it, I saw some things I recognized, namely the handset appeared to be F1 and the suede feet looked like those I'd seen on a 302.  I picked up the handset and read: Northern Electric  F1  Made In Canada.  With that info., the brown/black color and the $20.00 asking price, I was determined to go home with it.  Unfortunately, being just out of high school and heading to college in the next month, I didn't have the $20.00.  In 1984, minimum wage here in the States was $3.35 USD/hr.-- or almost 8 hours' work for a $25.00 item.  I tried to barter with the shop owner-- no go.  It would be another 25 years before I would get my hands on a burled walnut Uniphone.