Most refurb stamps you've ever seen on a phone?

[bingster]

I happened across this poor 500 while browsing ebay, and it got me wondering.  What's the largest number of refurb marks any of you have ever seen on one of your phones?

[Adam]

A phone in my collection beats that by 1.

[GG]

Bingster, you got a URL for that one?   Seems to have been processed every couple of years, for example if it had been installed on a college campus in a dorm where it went back to the telco every year. 

I like mongrelized phones with four decades or more of differently-dated parts, and use them to illustrate the four Rs of good eco-industrial design:  Robust, reliable, repairable, recyclable. 

[bingster]

It's this one, GG:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110663023716

[GG]

Looking at the photos in close-up, the main housing appears to be painted, and I'm going to guess that the transmitter & receiver caps are as well.  The handset handle most likely isn't, thus the color of the plastic has faded over time (and could be restored somewhat by using RetroBright though very carefully).

There's a sticker on the inside of the handset that apparently has the last user's name & address.  In which case I wonder how it was that this one ended up going back to the mill every couple of years unless there's a big college or university nearby and it was a dorm phone.

[xylenol15]

So, I know that most of you prize phones with all matching dates, but I personally like phones that have been refurbished several times. I was on ebay and saw a phone with six refurb stamps. Has anyone else seen more stamps on a single phone?

[Dennis Markham]

This topic came up last year.....check out the posts under a similar topic.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=4571.0

[xylenol15]

Oops, thanks Dennis. I tried to search but it was hard to narrow it down.

[xylenol15]

I was considering buying this one because it had so many refurb marks. I had hoped to look under those stickers to see if there was another stenciled date(s), but someone else landed it. Now I'll never know, aack!  

Anyone here get it? I would have raised my bid but I was considering other items for purchase. Anyway, my dad already has a phone with almost no matching dates, and it's not like I have to purchase an example of everything I find interesting (although I would trade even Dan/Panther's 500 prototype for a WE 1500 prototype  )

Auction Link

[poplar1]

Do you have the item number if this was on Ebay, or a photo?

[xylenol15]

I'll include the pdf here, as well as photos, so that future users will be able to see what I was talking about. I've looked through many fascinating auction threads where both were missing.  

Hi, Poplar, you posted while I was typing! Also, the auction link is embedded in the 1st post.

[AE_Collector]

Didn't someone else mention a phone on ebaY with LOT's of refurb dates on here just the other day? I don't remember where the post was though or if it is the same phone.

And good going with posting a picture and details about the auction right into the thread. It is frustrating to read old posts that turn out to only have the ebaY link that went dead long ago.

Terry

[AE_Collector]

Found it! It was another topic that you started about the phone so I merged the two topics together under the "Auction Talk" board. May as well keep al lthe info on a particular phone in one place.

That IS a few refurb's isn't it!! At the Bell System, "What Goes Around...Goes around some more and then Goes Around Yet again" I guess ??

Terry

[xylenol15]

AE_collector, you found me out! 


Well, if you look at the thread Dennis linked me to you'll see GG suggested that universities were a source of constantly refurbed phones. This makes sense to me. I would guess (perhaps most of you are old enough not to need to guess  ) that even though people rented their phones and that they were technically telco property, that they got used to thinking of them as their own appliance which Ma Bell would repair or replace as needed.

However, living in a university, in a rented space, it would be easier to start thinking of the phone as belonging to someone else. Sharing the space with other people would reinforce this feeling. I expect that every so often these unfortunate phones would make the acquaintance of a heavy handed, ill tempered twentysomething who gave Bell Labs' own tests a run for their money. The cords would probably go first, with the housing a close second. Also, students probably balked when they arrived in the dorm and the phone looked like it had last been wiped down six months ago with the worlds most decrepit old rag. I expect that the transmitter caps would elicit the most disgust. As phone collectors, I think we can all agree that bits of stray human debris are 10 times more disgusting when you know that they belong to someone else.  ='X

[AE_Collector]

At some times the phones may have been removed and returned to the Telco at the end of each year as well. Maybe once they were converted to modular they would let the dorm tenants pick their own model and color when they moved in. That way they might rent an expensve decorator model rather than just take wah twas in the room already.

Terry