"Okay people, rotary phones are just dumb old poopty things of the past. If you seriously love rotary phones -a) you have no life b) you will never get laid.. Now just think about it, THEY ARE F**KIN' phones! There are so much more interesting things in the world, than phones. Okay, so why are kids like me not interested in collecting them (like old perverts such as yourselves)? Well, they are a waste of money, and the only thing you can do with them is talk to some other idiot. But most of the time, the only thing that you will do with these pieces of **** is put them on some shelves and glance at them every once in a blue moon. There is so much more you can do with this money. How 'bout you actually put your greedy money towards helping starving african children, or the BP Crisis. But no, your money is best suited for buying old crap from the past. Why don't you people grow up and get with the 21st century, or take your just take your phone cord, build a nuce, and hang yourself . Thank you." -Eric
Ah the joy of the Internet, freeing people from ordinary things like civility and kindness.
But that's another topic...
As our plastic bag collector story shows everything that can be collected is. Humans like to gather about them things that they find enjoyable, meaningful and just plain cool. Eric will probably figure this out as he ages, and hopefully lighten up, I'm sure we could find a collection of something at his place, be it video games, music, ball caps or who knows what.
I'm not sure that the classic era phones we collect will still find many takers in 50 more years. Most of us here have direct memories of using these phones as the only game in town, you wanted to call _________ and you had the use the 500 in the hall, or the 354 in the kitchen. Once those of us with a living connection to the phones are gone the only ones left will be people who understand and like the style and quality of them.
It's been talked about here of the fall off in interest for wooden wall phones of the late 19th and early 20th century. Speculation is that the loss of people with direct connections to that era drives the lowering interest.
My own son has a certain interest in the phones, he will look for them at yard sales for me if he's passing by, and he will occasionally watch me putter on one. But he's not interested in collecting them himself, though he certainly will one day have a large and instant old phone collection when I kick off!

That's going to be a heckuva yard sale friends, better get there early!
