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Portable Phone Numbers = Market for Cool Numbers
goombah99 writes "The New phone number rules that allow you to keep your phone number when you switch carriers has given rise to phone nascent number property rights. On E-bay you can bid on 867-5309 (made famous by Tommy Tutone's Jenny I got your number). As I write this the bid is over $8000 dollars with seven days to go. What other numbers are famous or valuable? Will we see a land rush like the internet names?"
Great, now I can prank call the winnning bidder...
...
...
Pick up the phone
I'm always home
Call me any time
Just ring
3624368
I lead a life of crime
All the worlds indeed a
I think the general "gee-whiz" factor of owning 867-5309 would wear off really quickly. I know I called this number in the past, how many other people did too? I think the guy that is selling this is making a nice penny on his past headaches.
Mike
If it actually works, this is a brilliant idea, and it's certainly harder to squat on phone numbers than domain names.
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova
Who wants to buy 3-14-159-265?
Unpretentious Sydney reviews by unqualified Sydney reviewers
Which spells BUT-FUCK. Please, don't ask me why I know this.
You'll have to be a *real* nerd to actually buy a "famous" phone number!
/. there for a while ;)
ohh... wait... forgot I was on
No, i don't like sigs...
In China this has been around for years. Chinese numerology gives great value to number 8. See for instance "A special phone number, 88888888, was auctioned Monday in this capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, for 2.33 million yuan (about 280,723 US dollars)." In Hong Kong there's a premium on lucky phone numbers and you can buy and sell them, the mobile phone companies usually have a board outside with lists of auspicious numbers available.
It is odd how people have become acclimated to the belief that they own their phone number. Back in the day (in the 80s) I had lost a phone number when a local business wanted it. The phone company explained clearly in their legal text (which was in the phone book) that you don't own the number, and can lose it at any time.
Do phone numbers really matter all that much? I used to know all my friends' phone numbers by memory. Now, speed dial makes it worthless.
If someone changes their number, they e-mail me, I save it to my contacts list, and when I sync my phone the new phone number is there. I don't think I call more than 1 person a day from my phone without using the contact list. I use over 3000 minutes a month from my cell phone, so that's around 9-10 people a day I call without knowing their number.
For a business, having a cool number that spells something or references the business in a memorable way makes sense only when you need to get people to call you after seeing an advertisement. Once you regularly call someone, you probably won't recall that number, even if its something great like 4-DADA-21.
I know I don't own my phone number. I also know I'll be paying more on my cell phone bill so that others can keep their numbers. I've switched cell phone numbers probably 4 times in 8 years, and never really lost contact with anyone.
If people matter to me, they know more than my phone number. They have my e-mail address, they have my home address, they can contact me through other friends. If I lost my number today, I'd be hampered for maybe 2 days and then it would be business as usual.
I'd rather not pay for this feature so others can "protect their private property."
There is a web-tool for finding out what words you can make with a phone-number using the letters that appear next to each number - http://mmm.mbhs.edu/~bconnell/phoneagrams.html
Why use eBay? Just call the guy.
TK
Here in Norway we got number portability a couple of years back. For a couple of weeks the newspapers were filled with stories of numbers going for outragous prizes. There were even specialized web sites where one could auction cell phone numbers. A couple of months later, everyone sobered and the market dried up. The whole thing was even sillier than the domain name market in the dot com era.
I called the number and there was no Jenny there. - Just some guy calling me an asshole for calling him at 3am...
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
xxx-9333 (weed)
515-382-5968.
For those too lazy to find a phoneagram script, their number equates to 515-FUC-KYOU.
I searched Google but couldn't come up with any other real examples of 382-5968. I would imagine most telcos know about it and don't assign the number, I'm surprised someone managed to actually get it in Iowa.
Here in RI in area code 401, a plumbing service owns
the number, and advertises it on the radio, and even
sings a bit of the jenny song.
I wonder if they had to dish out the $$ for it or
if they simply requested it from thier phone company.
Here are the lyrics,...
Jenny, Jenny who can I turn to
You give me something I can hold on to
I know you'll think I'm like the others before
Who saw your name and number on the wall
Jenny I've got your number
I need to make you mine
Jenny don't change your number
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
Jenny, Jenny you're the girl for me
You don't know me but you make me so happy
I tried to call you before
But I lost my nerve
I tried my imagination
But I was disturbed
Jenny I've got your number
I need to make you mine
Jenny don't change your number
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
I got it (I got it), I got it
I got your number on the wall
I got it (I got it), I got it
For a good time call
Jenny don't change your number
I need to make you mine
Jenny I've got your number
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
Solo
Jenny don't change your number
I need to make you mine
Jenny I call your number
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
Next two lines sung over
background refrain of "867-5309"
Jenny, Jenny who can I turn to
For the price of a dime
I can always turn to you
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
Fade out repeating "5309"
Lead Singer Tommy Heath actually grew up in Texas, Montana and spent some time in Japan.
He is though, a software engineer
Can a phone number be slashdotted? :) I think we're about to find out!
Jenny lived in Bay Area in the 415 area code at the time of the record.
An AD company in SF has the TRUE number.
555 numbers are already assignable. Check out the 555 master list for the numbers currently in use.
Wired magazine had an article a couple years ago about Woz's quest to get a one-digit phone number. The closest he got was 800-888-8888, until the 888 toll-free code was made. So he grabbed the all-8 number and immediately started getting crank calls with weird gurgling sounds on the other end. Turns out lots of little kids just find a phone dial and bang on the same button for a while. :)
RIP Bon Scott. Ride on, ride on...
"BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
Here in the Netherlands, you can always call the local police station by dailing 0900-8844, which spells 0900-TUIG.
Tuig means scum in dutch.
For those of us who are too lazy to figure it out, here's a site that tells you what a phone number spells.
I remember reading in Wired that Steve Wozniak got the number 888-888-8888 when the 800 numbers switched over to 888.
He found the number unusable because he got tons of wrong numbers from small children -- who seemed to have a habit of pressing the 8 key repeatedly...
It's realy not that hard to do. Step A get a cell on the same carrier and account, swap numbers change billing info your done. I have done this with Nextel to keep my number when moving off a corp account to a personal one. The Corp did end up with a new number but it wasent on contract (that stayed with the phone) so they were free to cancel it. It's generaly realy easy to swap numbers on phone on the same account as well as move a single phone to another account with it's number. Course this may just be Nextel they are used to deeling with business more than personal it seems at least to me.
No sir I dont like it.
"36-24-36"
She sounds hot! What's her name?
Putting the romance back into necromancer.
Unless the Gub'mint is handing out free telphone service, there will always be those on the edge of society that don't have any electronic way to reach them.
Of course, with payphones waving byebye, or increasing their cost (50 cents? I remember when it was ten...), it is getting harder for those without phone service to function on a 'normal' level.
My wife and I are always talking about getting a cell phone, but she doesn't want to be reached anywhere she goes, and I don't like the idea of a GPS tracked number associated with me.
Plus, you'd think that service would be cheaper now that everyone and their brother has one - I'm a cheapskate who doesn't think that a cell is 'worth' it yet - it helps that I now live in a small town where everything is 5 minutes away.
All that said, your theory or proposal doesn't sound that far-fetched. Technology now or will soon allow the govenment to know absolutely everything about its citizens, and those in power like to stay there. The thing is that this plan, like all other information gathering, tracking, and ID-ing, will fail to document those who have the cash to 'stay out of the system'. When was the last time you ever saw anyone rich on jury duty?
This national ID=phone number idea will work great everyone who isn't very rich or very poor. And that's a lot of people.
I'm thinking you're ripe for a defense department contract.
1-900-867-5307.
Sure, I'll answer it all freakin' day long. For a modest charge of $24.95 per call.
Gawd, I'm such a geek :)
Brak: What's THAT?
Thundercleese: A light switch.. of TOTAL DEVASTATION!
Owning the number would be more useful for a small-medium business. There is a service company in my area that has xxx-867-5309 and they can put it in their commercials knowing that people will remember it. For a business this is a very valuable thing.
Ya know, this number's gonna be phone-bombed like mad, and for $14,000 (current bid as of this posting)? I can only think of ONE BUSINESS that would want this many calls...
Phone-sex hotline.
"That's right, for a good time, you can FINALLY call Jenny at 867-5309!"
36-24-36? Only if she's 5'3".
My phone number at the time was an anagram of 867-5309. It was 537-0869. I only got prank calls from dyslexic people.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.