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500 H/P/U- Why so scarce?

Started by Nilsog, August 09, 2011, 08:25:43 PM

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Nilsog

I've been scouring eBay for the past couple of weeks looking for one of these, but they seem to be some of the rarest 500s out there. Is there a particular reason?

I figured a phone with a light on it would have been quite popular in the days before touch-tone and lit buttons.
Ken

Dan

I don't know the reason really, but the  lighted up princess in 1960 really eliminated the mushroom 500's really.

If you are interested in a pink one, let me know with a private message.
"Imagine how weird telephones would look if our ears weren't so close to our mouths." - Steven Wright

Nilsog

Ken

LarryInMichigan

I expect that the scarcity probably had alot to do with the (most likely) unreasonable amount that the Bell companies charged for the phone.

Larry

Nilsog

I also wondered if that might be the reason. What was the typical lease fee back then for a regular phone? I know you can still lease a rotary 500 for $4.95/month now.
Ken

jsowers

#5
I don't know what the extra fee was, but it was more than just paying for an extension. Back then most people had just one phone in their house. My parents went from 1951 to 1983 with one black phone in their house and so did my grandmother next door.

The marketing arm of the Bell System wasn't in full gear in the early days and the lighted dial phone wasn't promoted as well as the Princess. There were no 500U keychains or matchbooks. It was promoted in company literature and one or two ads. It was on the cover of one or two brochures. A 500P is pictured below, and a picture showing their full line, and the third row back are four 500Us and one 500P (in light gray, no less). This brochure is from 1958, I think. Note the field trial Princess in the back and the experimental wall model the woman is using.

The 500U, the one with the dimmer switch for the lamp, is the most common. The 500P, with no switch, is much less common to the point of being exceedingly scarce. The 500H is almost unheard of. I don't think they made the 500H in color, but so few have surfaced that it's hard to tell.

There is a black 500U on eBay, but it's priced at about twice the value. As with anything scarce, it will eventually turn up. You'll just have to be patient, and willing to spend a lot to get one. They're also what I call prime vulture bait, so if you find one, bid on it and tell the seller you'd appreciate it if they would leave the phone up until the auction ends.
Jonathan

Adam

An interesting sideline to this discussion is that according to my ITT Telephone Instrument Maintenance Manual, ITT made these too, both a version without the switch (ITT special feature code 31) and with a switch (ITT feature code 32).  (A 500 phone without any special feature was code 30).  According to the illustration in the TIMM, they looked exactly like their Western Electric counterparts.

These sets are included in my 1964 TIMM and my 1970 TIMM-2.  However, they are no longer included in the TIMM-2 in my 1977 version.

Has anybody ever seen the ITT version of the lighted 500 phones?
Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820

Nilsog

Wowza- $700 for a 500U... in black no less.
Ken

rdelius

AE might have had a version of the type 80 that had a lighted dial. I had a full sized AE dial that the number shroud was clear plastic and reverse painted. There was an electro luminsecent disc like on the Starlite
Robby

JorgeAmely

Quote from: Nilsog on August 10, 2011, 04:57:50 PM
Wowza- $700 for a 500U... in black no less.


... that reminds me of the Oxford Gray WE 500U that sold in ebay for $800 many moons ago. Did anybody keep pictures?
Jorge

Dan

I'd love to see the dark grey one myself. That's the only one I need of the oldies.
"Imagine how weird telephones would look if our ears weren't so close to our mouths." - Steven Wright

paul-f

Here are a few...
Visit: paul-f.com         WE  500  Design_Line

.

jsowers

That is one gorgeous and rare phone. And early for a 500U. Most of them are from 1958-59 and I used to think that was when they were first made, but then I looked at my BSPs and it's from 1956. Which means they were also made in dark blue, brown and dark beige and some of them had dark gray cords. That I'd like to see! A 500U in those colors would likely bring about the same as that dark gray one.
Jonathan

JorgeAmely

Good save Paul! An Oxford Gray is a rare bird indeed, but one with the night light, as the 500U features, is a once in a lifetime find. You always wonder why the seller wanted to part with it.

Jonathan, I also wonder if somewhere in the USA, there is someone with four of these 500U models, with smooth cords, each in the rare WE colors.
Jorge

jsowers

Jorge, I think my ultimate phone would be a yellow 500U with gray cords. The handset cord could be coiled or straight, or for the ultimate rarity, a yellow straight cord from the summer of 1956.

Yellow with gray cords is such a color mismatch that I like it just because it's odd, if you know what I mean. A dark gray cord just stands out like a sore thumb on a yellow phone. I just want to say "what were they thinking?" :) And then someone had to keep it that way for 50 years. No wonder so few of them survive.
Jonathan