Aqua Blues are getting expensive

[david@london]

.............yes i think i'd feel a bit like i'd been had if i'd paid $425 + the phone was not as described.

............. i bought a 1/59 aqua for $27 a couple of months ago. not NOS, but looking pretty good after i almost busted my fingers sanding and polishing it.

............. teleplay, are those chips under the handset ? are you going to try to repair them?

[TelePlay]

............. teleplay, are those chips under the handset ? are you going to try to repair them?

Yes, but they seem to be file or grinder marks because they have cut marks in straight lines perpendicular to the handset. Have no Idea how they were formed but I will us the plastic filling and sanding repair methods using solvents and internal ribs as stated in several threads elsewhere on this forum, many by "Chuck" cihensley.

I bought the phone for the soft center finger wheel for my Continental and was surprised to get the matching date 1961 Aqua Blue in great condition.

I picked up a white 554 for $7 + BIN a few weeks ago and it has similar marks on its handset but not as deep, or bad.

The colors on both are faded but the photos that follow do not have good color registration - the blue looks white and the white looks yellow - bad lighting used for these quickly taken photos.

The blue phone almost looks like teeth marks, a parrot for example. The white looks like a disk sander. Don't know. But, yes, both will be filled, sanded and polished. The close up photos make the blue look worse than it is. The marks aren't that deep and the white damage is quite shallow.

[HarrySmith]

I agree with the description of teeth marks. Looks like some rodent has a snack!

[david@london]

i was just reading this slightly vintage post again, and realized there isn't an image from the 'NOS in box' sale mentioned above............

in case the ebay listing expires, i think this classic package should be seen.

[david@london]

soft plastic 500 / jan '58 ........just bought it for 89 bucks.

[Dennis Markham]

Nice looking phone, David.  The color is very nice.  Looks like it once lived in the Denver, CO area (Area Code 303).

[david@london]

hi dennis -
yes i thought the colour looks good on this one. the ebay photos show some scuffs and scratches but i'm hoping it'll clean up well. it has nice clean suede feet.
the shell is jan '58.

........the friendly + helpful seller is fairly close to the denver area, as you said.
(- fraser, colorado ...up in skiing country she tells me). could the 303 code be from fraser, about 100 miles to the north-west, or more likely denver itself ?
i will have to ask her a bit more about the phone's history.

[poplar1]

David,

All of Colorado was in NPA 303 in 1958.

[LarryInMichigan]

Originally, 303 was the area code for all of Colorado.  It has probably been mentioned here before, but the original area code assignments were made with the lowest numbers going to the most populous areas (eg. New York City area: 212, Chicago: 312, Los Angeles: 213, Detroit: 313), and states/territories with only a single area code were assigned codes with '0' in the middle.  States/territories with multiple area codes were assigned codes with '1' in the middle.  That is why Washington DC got 202, Connecticut 203, and Colorado 303.

Larry

[AE40FAN]

It will clean up well and seems you lucked out with no UV damage......Post after pics!

[david@london]

thanks........+ yes i'll post pics later on when it's spruced up a bit.   [see below]

interesting info on the codes.

the seller has said that though her code is different now, she thought that years ago colorado used to have the 303 code throughout.

[david@london]

David,

All of Colorado was in NPA 303 in 1958.

what does NPA stand for ?

thanks.

[poplar1]

NPA=Numbering Plan Area Code
NXX=Central office code