WE 'Soft Plastic ' early 500's

[Dan]

It seems like a lot of folks around here like the early WE500's with the leather feet and soft plastic. Is it safe to say 1958 was the last year of the soft bodies? I see lots of 1959 500's with neoprene triangular plastic feet (the feet that came after the leather ones). What specific month did they switch to the harder plastic or was it a gradual transition?

Can you "feel" a plastic base and tell if it is an early soft body, or do you have to pop off the housing and date the inside?

One last question--how rare is it to find  the early colored 500's with the original gray straight handset cords? I have never seen an original, only a replacement one placed after the fact by a phone restorer.

Thanks for your replies.

[HobieSport]

I think the switch was in early 1958 but I don't know what month exactly, and just from what I've read, the colors were white, beige, pink, green & blue (blue rare).  I could be off on that.  And I'm still unclear as to whether the switch coincided with the change from the six hole to seven hole earpieces.  But I'll shut up and let the experts here speak.  You could also email Dennis Markham, as he has so much experience with these early colored 500 sets.

[benhutcherson]

The transition for colored sets was around '58, but the black ones held on longer.

I have an all-original black 554, for example, from '65 which has a soft plastic shell, a metal fingerwheel, and a G-1 handset.

A good many soft plastic black phones also came with the triangular plastic feet. I have a couple myself, and even one with round plastic feet.

[bingster]

Can you "feel" a plastic base and tell if it is an early soft body, or do you have to pop off the housing and date the inside?

Tapping on the plastic case with a fingernail can show the difference.  Soft plastic has a deadened, "soft" sound, while the newer plastic sounds hard and brittle.  Soft plastic also has a very distinct smell to it.  Some people describe it as "cheesy."  The modern plastic doesn't have much of an odor.

Of course, if you're looking on ebay, you can't put a phone to such tests.

[McHeath]

Yeah you can really smell the difference!  Those soft plastic phones are a highly distinctive odor, once you smell one you will be able to just pick up the housing and use your psychic powers to tell.  ( or at least that's what you tell your friends)   

[Dan]

Well I'll have to go to my local antique shop and "do some smelling". Thanks guys!

[bingster]

Right church, wrong pew.  I got it, though. 

[Dan/Panther]

What's going on here, is Hobiesport tryimng to inject a subliminal winning bid into the wrong thread. Now I get it. O.K. all stops are out.
D/P

McHeath;
You are getting sleepy, very sleepy, you will inadvertantly list Hobiesports bid at $1157.95.
When you awake you will not recall this post.

[HobieSport]

Darn!  You caught me.  I was bidding on a tu-tu in a package deal on Ebay with a radio that was once owned by Eleanor Roosevelt.

[McHeath]

Gee for some reason I keep thinking about onethousandonehundredfiftysevenandninetyfive.  Hmmm.....

[Dennis Markham]

Dan,

I actually found an original soft plastic model 500 with gray cords on eBay a year or so ago.  The handset cord is a straight cord.  If you'd like to see it you can view the album I did here:

http://tinyurl.com/3uxphe

Dennis (aka Stillcatchingup)

[Dan]

Beautiful phone! I can only dream of fetching one like this @ a yard sale.