So I was perusing my garage stock
(as you do) at home for interesting things that might look good in the new shop. And I unearthed a vintage telephone I picked up somewhere on my travels.......
Oh, I might have that - polished up and fettled by our chaps - on my new desk - a retro vibe - I thought..........
"But wait!" says the
businessman voice in your head. These must be forty years old now. Maybe trendy types with little beards and red trousers in loft apartments in East London are falling over themselves paying £100 for these?
So off you trundle to eBay to do some due diligence and market research...... then some Googling. Lo and behold, there are phone forums out there with blokes that know as much about phones as we here do about our Dysons......
So I found out my funky 1967 black type is called a 768, defined as an early one by the angular bits on it. And it has had a resistor upgrade and a BT plug to make it work with modern systems. What you need. Now I am on fire trawling eBay to determine the best "buy it now price" for my example.
We'll polish it up, test it, and get forty drinking vouchers in exchange for my trusty 1967 768 original example with the original Manchester round paper inside......
But wait! The copyright has expired. China is now making faithful replicas along with GPO junction boxes, selling at circa £40. Selling like hot cakes....... (mental note: Check those out when in China next)
But mine is
original, right? So worth more, and off I go to search on eBay "vintage original telephones".
And then I found the Genie. No, not one in a bottle, one like this......
And I decided that was way cooler than mine. Original Buzby era British Telecom logo....Proper 70's vibe.......
Back into eBay to see what Genies are worth.......
Oh,
just £16? So to cut a long story short, I went online to sell a phone I maybe didn't need, and ended up buying another I didn't really need so now I have two.
I showed my wife my latest spiffy addition. Despite the fact we have some super Abba era furniture, and a very funky large glass table imported from Sweden, and some Louis Poulsen rather splendid light fittings that this phone suits perfectly, and it is the perfect addition, and is a complimentary period feature 70's phone - type as used by Samantha Jones in SATC - she is unconvinced. When it arrives is cleaned up and santitised, she will look at it.......
Failing which: Phone for sale.
Funny how that works. Go on to flog something, end up buying something else. The spirit of eBay!
"Do we really need ancient appliances?" she asked, as I was eyeing up an alcove thinking how good an old radiogram might sound there with Tony Blackburn belting out of it on a Saturday........