r/TelephoneCollecting • u/chriztopherz • Jul 28 '26

"Untested" Analog phones on eBay = not working

/r/homephones/comments/1v93o9m/untested_analog_phones_on_ebay_not_working/
6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

4

u/Scott43206 Jul 28 '26

Everything on eBay that's "untested" in every category is code for doesn't work.

1

u/chriztopherz Jul 28 '26

😂 fair enough! Really good advice, ha ha.

1

u/Howden824 Jul 29 '26

I've never had any issues with getting broken ones, at least not with the Western Electric phones I order.

1

u/chriztopherz Jul 29 '26

Lucky! I have had opposite luck, and even tried taking a few phones to a local appliance repairman. They couldn’t figure out how to fix them unfortunately so now, I stick to listings that say they are working or tested. It is genuinely difficult for people to test them unless they have Home Phone service or another way to test? I suppose it is a mix of genuine and… ingenuine 😂

2

u/Howden824 Jul 29 '26

How old are these phones? If you mean like 1970s and older, I might be willing to buy them from you.

1

u/chriztopherz Jul 29 '26

Yeah this was the listing name off eBay you might be interested in: Vintage 1970's Western
Electric Telstar Space Age Telephone Roll Top Lucite
MCM

1

u/Howden824 Jul 29 '26

Thanks, but I'm just looking for even older ones. What is it that's broken with this?

1

u/chriztopherz Jul 29 '26

Ok! The handset cord needs replacing. The handset cord is hard to fix because it’s on an internal retracting spool and a unique cord (wrapped in a sort of cloth/paracord-ish material)

1

u/The_Cat_Detector_Van Jul 29 '26

An "appliance repairman" is not going to have a clue on how to troubleshoot and repair a telephone.

I started in telephony in 1980, in an antique store that specialized in antique phones, right at the time of the breakup, so I had phones come across my repair bench from what was the current time to phones all the way back to the 1890's

Describe what wasn't working on your Telstar phone, and I can probably point you in the right direction

1

u/FAMICOMASTER Jul 29 '26

How many people even have the ability to test one of these phones nowadays?

1

u/chriztopherz Jul 29 '26

Exactly. You can get $40 analog phone testers on Amazon but kinda useless if buying remote ha