For Sale :: 867-5309

It seems that a famous song has spawn a phone number for sale on ebay,...and at the time of this post, is up to $41,000

cgi.ebay.com... y=1503

This is going to change everything I think.

For the longest time I never understood why a domain name for a website can be considered property, even though it is rented, yet a phone number is not considered property you can sell.

So this guy is a New York lawyer, that is selling the number.
I can only imagine he may have to test the waters of current law, or regulations preventing any sale or transfer.


Verison, who the number is leased from, apparently has been asked about this transfer of ownership. Their responce is, "no question: It cant. Individuals do not have ownership of the numbers given to them, so their right to the number cant be sold."

This is where it gets interesting.

This lawyer that is auctioning the number states on his auction page...

"Number portability has allowed me to put this up for sale."


I smell a big lawsuit coming soon.
It has been 'upheld' that property ownership rights of domain names is enforcable to the leasee. But this may be the moment where the phone companies lose the hold on the phone number arrays they control.

And if one ensue's, this would also mean trademark rights could be applied to the phone number, and a company could sue to get a particular number, becouse the hold the trademark name that the number would spell out on the phone pad on your handsets.

Isnt that how the internet works?
All connections are numbers?
But domains are bought (leased) to give the number an alphanumeric equivelent?


..

I always liked the B52s' 606-0842 and I would bid up to $5 for that.



Songs about phone numbers annoy owners for a while huh. And then in the US it has to get all litigious, otherwise you wouldn't be in the US.

My old car had a 666 number plate - I wonder how much that would have brought ?

Its amazing that this person is becoming famous and is going to possably get rich all from an EBay auction of a phone#.....


The possabilities of making money on EBAY are endless. Ive seen some crazy sh*t on ebay sell for big money..

Well, it occurs to me my analogy may be severly flawed, and damaging the implied conspiracy of the two systems.

I realized that the phone number, in comparison to an IP, is just another type of IP.

Some registrars already offer 'name my phone' services where a domain owner can set up the name to direct visitors to a page, where a visitor can type in a message, to be sent to a mobil phone text messenger.

Oh well, it still will be interesting to see how the dust settles though.

I bet Tommy Tutone bid $41,000.

No, some girl named Jenny.

IT'S J-LO!!!

[Edited on 16-2-2004 by RANT]

i bet the person just wants to get rid of the phone number... you have to imagine that 867-5309 is no doubt the most famous phone number, which means it's probably the most crank called... i know if i were getting a ton of crank calls because of that song i would get rid of the number. i know most people when they had it the just got rid of it, but hey i dunno!

The attorney had it installed as a second line in his home, after obtaining the number. He attached it to an answering machine.

He said that he would get alot of pranks on the messages, but mainly drunks late at night.

hey, i guess if u just say as long as he has the number, noone else will. all he has to do is get paid enuf then change his number, and make sure the other guy gets it. im pretty sure cell phone companies (verizon? cingular?) offer something along those lines that wud be helpful. i dunno, i dun have a cell phone so i tune out the commercials. not the music tho

It's up to $80,000. I don't get it. This is stupid. (No - not anyone on this board - this sale is stupid) $80,000 for a phone number? That kind of money could really do some good - feed a few families, send a kid to college. Some people really have their priorities mixed up.

Originally posted by weedpickr
It's up to $80,000. I don't get it. This is stupid. (No - not anyone on this board - this sale is stupid) $80,000 for a phone number? That kind of money could really do some good - feed a few families, send a kid to college. Some people really have their priorities mixed up.

I agree, unless there is a return on the investment.

$800,700 now, what idiot is gonna pay that much for a phone number. geesh!

This is stupid. (No - not anyone on this board - this sale is stupid) $80,000 for a phone number? That kind of money could really do some good - feed a few families, send a kid to college. Some people really have their priorities mixed up.

I agree with you 100%

Whats this famous song thats promoting the number?
ive never heard of it =/
it has 177 bids and 43 Cancellation's and there's still 5 days left.. i recon he's going to get $100,000+ easy

you mean $80,700, smilingsarah82, not $800,700

Originally posted by Cyberhuss
Whats this famous song thats promoting the number?
ive never heard of it =/
it has 177 bids and 43 Cancellation's and there's still 5 days left.. i recon he's going to get $100,000+ easy

you mean $80,700, smilingsarah82, not $800,700

I would bet money that people are bidding for fun, Eminems, house in michagn maxxed out. Im sure they didnt pay that much.

Originally posted by weedpickr
It's up to $80,000. I don't get it. This is stupid. (No - not anyone on this board - this sale is stupid) $80,000 for a phone number? That kind of money could really do some good - feed a few families, send a kid to college. Some people really have their priorities mixed up.

i agree, but otherwise would that money be going to something like that? im willin to bet this is rich dude, and is doing this because its just something cool, like having a coke cooler for your fridge (a buddy of mine does that). otherwise, hes gonna spend it on like, a hooker or soemthing, so, hey, why not? he gets a cool number, the other gets 80k. everyones happy!

It's not like he's getting ludicrously rich or anything...


He's a NYC lawyer, so he probably pulls in like half a mil or more a year anyways.

NYC=High cost of living
Lawyer=High Paying

NYC+Lawyer= Dood who gets paid way too damn much, IMHO.

There's more than one version of that number. I know someone has it in Utah. I've called it just to see. The person who has it here is named Natalie and she is a hairstylist. Her voicemail answered and I left her a message asking her if she was sick of people calling her because of the song.

one simple phrase...


A fool and his money !

lol, i bet she just luubbbs you!
well, yeah, of course, thats why we have area codes, theres more than one. since this is with a cell, the available area codes are much much fewer. ino everyone here is 917, but things are different around the country, jsut a lot less different.

The other two items this guy has sold that still have active links sold for a combinded total of less than $50. He's moving up!



It looks like eBay's cancelled the auction for the Blue Angels F-18. it was up to $1.8 mil last I checked and before it disapeared.