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Infancy of my Telephone Collecting

Started by Doug Rose, September 20, 2014, 07:29:05 AM

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Doug Rose

Seeing Ken sell his F1 handset reminded me of how I started to collect telephones in earnest. My wife (at that time) had no issue with me collecting telephones, but we were  just getting by and there was no budget for telephones. This was way before eBay. An old timer (now I am the old timer) at the flea market told me when you "get serious" about collecting, you will sell telephones. I thought the guy was nuts. Then again, how many black 302s did I need. He also told me that I had to refine my collection, "don't try to collect everything." I really thought he was nuts.  He was also the guy who introduced me to Avon SOS.

As time went by and I had to pass up phones at the flea market because it was over my meager budget, I began to reflect on what he had told me. I figured he knew his stuff so the game plan changed. I bought almost everything I could get my hands on and fixed them up for resale. Profits went to buying phones I wanted. Again.....loooong before eBay. Only collected phones from before I was born. I had a 500 set as a child. I now collected from the color 302s.....back. The 500s and the Princess' went to other collections

Soon, I was able to buy nicer phones for my collection with the profits. I had a booth at an antique store and sold at fleas. I became known as the "phone doctor." I would repair peoples phones with the parts I got from "part phones" that I got for almost free. Many times I was paid in phones. WIN....WIN!!

No with eBay I got to buy some really great phones and sell from my house! How cool is that. I still get up every Saturday and hit the yard sales (leaving in 5 minutes) and hit the Fleas on Sunday.

I now have a decent collection with the profits I made from fixing and selling telephones. I will still but a phone on eBay to fix and sell if it is in my range. It has become a game. I do enjoy this hobby more than I can tell you. The hobby has also become a business and has helped my children now that I no longer buy many phones for my collection.

Just an idle thought....Doug

Kidphone

Dan/Panther

#1
Doug;
A wonderful story, with many bits of wisdom, and a moral.

I had a similar experience a few years back collecting Marx electric trains. I had a set when I was growing up, in the fifties. I decided I was going to start collecting, and my goal was one of everything Marx made in the 'O' gauge. So here I go. One day a friend invited me to another friend of His that also collected. We went to his house way up in the foothills in Orange County Ca. A beautiful house. When we went inside, the house was huge. He was single. He said would you like to see my collection. Sure would. So here we went room by room in his 5 room house. EVERY room was full of nothing but Marx trains. Not just a bunch of duplicate junk. His collection was almost a complete Marx collection not just of types, but variations of EACH type. Literally Thousands of them, His garage was also full. I realized, Not only would I never be able to come close to his collection, I could never afford it, nor would I likely live long enough to match it. So I cut my collection down to MY favorites.

D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

Slal

That's interesting.  Very similar to what I went through when started collecting fountain pens.

Went "pen crazy" and bought every last one I saw until had a shoebox full of them.  Then an experienced collector suggested I 'focus' on what seemed to interest me the most-- silver overlay pens.

Even so, "Pen Guru" advised collecting every silver overlay pattern-- even from one company-- would probably take a lifetime.  Narrow collecting focus down even more-- maybe to a particular time period.  So that's what I did!

Also like how you finance your hobby-- sell what you enjoy collecting!  For phones, too new to start doing that.  When first started with phones, bought some earlier models & didn't get much comment on them.  "That's nice."

Then got a red WE500 and things kind of snowballed.  "Wow!  Red hotline phone!  Can you get me a blue one?  I want a green one!  Did they make bright green ones?" 

Buying & cleaning them up for others has given me valuable experience and it's also very rewarding.  "Wow!  That ugly thing was really *this* color?  That's awesome!"

Only downside is this new 'telephone work' is that it's keeping me from fixing up old electronics that I sell to support pen (and now phone) hobby.

Photo is of an amp that's going to be a challenge because one of its boards is cracked & foil side = no connection.   Hopefully I can save it.  If not-- 'donor unit' otherwise known as 40 pound doorstop.  ; )

cheers,

--Bruce 

Greg G.

I also thought (at first) that I would clean, polish, and resell, but I found that after spending a lot of time and effort on them, I got emotionally attached and didn't want to part with them.  Now after almost 6 years of phoneitis, I tend to by-pass black 500s and instead try to latch on to 20s-30s era phones.  But even then, I always want to take a closer look at that mundane black 500 or 302 because I've heard some stories here about amazing finds when they looked under the hood, and they can always be used for parts or gifts if nothing else.
The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
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