He began by sourcing used pay phones and parts from flea markets and the internet to fix up in his home workshop. Used pay phones can cost several hundred dollars, though he says he’s frugal and usually waits for listings to drop in price. Broadly, pay phones fall into two categories: coin-first (where a user must insert money before hearing a dial tone) and dial-tone-first. While many cities still have physical pay phones scattered around, most are no longer connected to an active telephone line. Public pay phones could offer an elegant solution to that problem.