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I expect you all will be fighting over this auction

Started by McHeath, August 11, 2009, 02:16:38 PM

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JorgeAmely

Dennis:

Those phone lots are sometimes worth buying. That is how I found my 1955 Oxford Gray phone. It was a diamond in the rough among some junkers.
Jorge

Dennis Markham

Jorge, I should remember the details of that purchase but have forgotten.  Please tell us about the lot that brought you your Oxford gray 500.

foots

Here's one for you Dennis, dig the presentation on this beauty. Its item number 190283057748
 
"Ain't Worryin' 'Bout Nothin"

Dennis Markham

Yea, that's a classic for sure Foots.  Do you think if you offered the seller a buck for it he/she would be offended??

Greg G.

Quote from: foots on August 14, 2009, 12:15:05 PM
Here's one for you Dennis, dig the presentation on this beauty. Its item number 190283057748
 

Uh, parts, yeah, riiiiiiight.  Who was it that told me "phones are not gold"?  This seller needs to hear that, badly!
The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e

McHeath

A hundred and thirty two big ones!!!???!

For a dollar phone?

Love it. 
;)

foots

#21
What goes through some people's minds? I bought a nearly mint condition yellow ITT for $4.99. I wouldn't even offer $1.00 for that other thing.
"Ain't Worryin' 'Bout Nothin"

benhutcherson

Well, I was the lucky winner on the four-phone lot, which arrived yesterday.

Yes, the shipping was in fact free. I haven't had too much of a chance to look at it, but the aqua one has a soft center fingerwheel, and the yellow rotary at least has a black base.

And, yes, the seller did ship them all together in one big box with no cushioning between them. Fortunately, the only casualty was the dial bezel on the 2554 popping off.

Honestly, I don't think that I did that badly on it, but I'll let everyone know when I've had a chance to inventory everything good and proper.

JorgeAmely

Dennis:

Time flies when you are collecting phones!

To make the story short, two years ago, Dennis and I had been looking at this phone lot that perhaps unknown to the seller, had an Oxford Gray from 1955 bundled among six other phones. When the dust settled, I had bid a few pennies more than Dennis and won the lot.

After that came the long wait for the box to arrive (5 weeks). The phones were all packed "burrito" style. See some pictures below:
1. Auction picture.
2. All phones were packed like the Princess shown.
3. The gray phone right out of the box.

Jorge

jsowers

Jorge, you were lucky, lucky, lucky--three times. To find it, win it, and then have it arrive safely among all those others. Burrito style packing? That's hilarious. Almost like those pods in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And I assume it was on-hook when you unwrapped the burrito and that a gelatinous phone didn't pop out and assume the identity of one of your other phones.  ;D Like in the movie.

I got a pink 500 from 9-57 packed on-hook not long ago even though I specifically asked for it not to be. The thing that saved it was two layers of large bubble wrap. It even had quite a bit of space for the bubble ball to bounce around. By some miracle, there was no damage to the phone. I attached two pictures.
Jonathan

JorgeAmely

Jonathan:

When you retire from school, you can work as a forensics expert. You even take pictures of how packages arrive!

I have another packing style variation: the "airhead" style (no pun intended). I discovered this one following the arrival of an AE80. Picture this: a napkin covering the bottom of the box, the phone on top with the handset scotch taped to the cradle (which of course separated in transit), 20 to 30 foam peanuts and another napkin on top.

The "maracas" sound scared me when I picked up the box, but luckily, it was not broken.

Don't know what a maraca is?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maraca

Jorge

jsowers

Quote from: JorgeAmely on August 27, 2009, 11:40:01 AM
When you retire from school, you can work as a forensics expert. You even take pictures of how packages arrive!

I have another packing style variation: the "airhead" style (no pun intended). I discovered this one following the arrival of an AE80. Picture this: a napkin covering the bottom of the box, the phone on top with the handset scotch taped to the cradle (which of course separated in transit), 20 to 30 foam peanuts and another napkin on top.

The "maracas" sound scared me when I picked up the box, but luckily, it was not broken.

I even take a picture of it before I open the box.

I learned the hard way to take pictures of every box as it arrives on the doorstep and while I unpack it. I just take my camera and my packing knife and have at it. If it's damaged, I have the proof why. And working for a school system kind of teaches you to be a detective to figure out how students and teachers can mess something up on a computer so badly. You have to find out what they clicked or what they did, and from a very sketchy description.

I do know what a maraca is, or a set of maracas, and you were lucky again that those weren't phone plastic pieces making that shh-shh sound. I've heard that sound shaking a box too. Makes your heart sink. And their use of napkins reminds me of the ones who use a sheet of newspaper on the bottom and on the top. Useless. You may be lucky the handset tape came loose and they separated. That way at least it's not grinding against the cradle.

I also got a phone lately with the handset packed on-hook and it was wire-tied down from front to back with some of those plastic wire ties all tied together. It arrived safely too. The pic of that is on a different computer, so I don't have it to post. I sent it to Dennis at the time and we both had never seen a phone done that way before.

I don't know how you can get a phone packed well 100% of the time. I've thought of withholding payment until they reply to my email, but then sometimes they do reply and still it's not packed well. Does anyone have a foolproof way? I guess when you're dealing with a fool packing an item, there is no foolproof way.
Jonathan

Dennis Markham

#27
I have taken photos of the box before I opened it and during the opening process.  I don't do it with every box but when it sounds like a maraca then I do.  Between us all I'll bet we could put a book together of phones that have arrived broken or should have been broken due to poor packing.

Jorge, I must have selective memory.  I absolutely had no recollection of me bidding on that bundle of phones.  But if you say it is so, it is so.  Just another phone passing in the night.  But they're not all like that, are they Jonathan?  (Yellow 500 with matching straight cord)! :)

jsowers

Quote from: Dennis Markham on August 27, 2009, 05:18:43 PM
Just another phone passing in the night.  But they're not all like that, are they Jonathan?  (Yellow 500 with matching straight cord)! :)

Dennis, let it gooooo! (sound of exhaling) Release the good! (more inhaling and exhaling)  The next one, it is yours.  :)

Yes, some do pass only once or twice, sad to say and we all have had our share of good and bad luck. It's what keeps us looking and hoping.
Jonathan

Dennis Markham

I was only kidding Jonathan.  I have let it go.............yea, right.