I've only been into this new hobby of restoring old phones a few weeks...started out buying an AE50 for my old 1952 house, but now, find myself reading all the back pages on all the collector sites, searching e-bay at late hours looking for rare phones at good prices....
I just bought my second old phone, an AE-40 in good shape for $35...Stop me before I buy another!!
I've barely started on my AE 50 restoration...now I have it's matching desk phone...
I have the sickness. Wife is gonna kill me...
Same thing happened to me, I found a 1937 302 in the trash.....and now I have phones all over the house :)
Scot
Someone should organize group visits to the homes of hopeless collectors to scare away beginners, along the lines of the programs which bring troubled teenagers to visit prisons. If only these naive aspiring collectors could see how collectors have to deal with the rooms (and rooms), shelves, cabinets, and even floors filled with old phones, the ridicule of spouses, relatives and friends, and the constant scouring of ebay, craigslist, flea markets, garage and estate sales, and antique and resale shops, they might be scared into changing their ways before it is too late ;) Perhaps someone could get a government grant to pay for such a program.
Larry
BTW, phones can be a dangerous stepping stone to other things like radios, clocks, electric fans, and who knows what else!
Larry
In my case, phones were a "logical" step from books, slide rules, typewriters, mechanical calculators, digital watches, hydrometers,...
What next?
Quote from: paul-f on March 05, 2014, 03:24:40 PM
In my case, phones were a "logical" step from books, slide rules, typewriters, mechanical calculators, digital watches, hydrometers,...
What next?
Antique radio collecting naturally. Also if you're not already a HAM operator, you get "Radiomania" disease which causes you to spend thousands of green backs on HF related gear and other goodies :p
Owww, Icefire, and I really thought: well lets not bang on about phonitis in his introduction thread. He has one phone. Lets not overdo it.
Anyway, a good way to win over the wife, is let her pick out a model she likes and get it for her.
Quote from: Matilo Telephones on March 05, 2014, 05:55:22 PM
Owww, Icefire, and I really thought: well lets not bang on about phonitis in his introduction thread. He has one phone. Lets not overdo it.
Anyway, a good way to win over the wife, is let her pick out a model she likes and get it for her.
Some wifes are not so crazy Arwin.... no...lol .. Sometime they are intelligentes and not blondes hey !..sorry for the blondes, it's just a joke... I love you don't worry ;) ;D
It's not too late for you-you only have two phones.
I usually warn about our disease fairly quickly but I saw you only had one phone so I backed off. Should have spoken up.
Greg is right, you only have 2, you can still be saved! Go check out some of the collections pictures. Show them to your wife.
That should do it ;D
Icefire:
After 200+ phones, all I can tell you is that there is no way back!
Icefire feel free to show your newly restored phones to your friends as hopefully one(possibly and antique admirer) will be so taken as to join you. You may find the beautiful oak wall phones interesting also.
My wife only required me to put her up at a nice hotel for our first phone meeting this June in Lancaster. She refused to drive with me to the Michigan meeting for 11 hours. I hope her price won't rise with time.
Bob
Quote from: rfkimba on March 06, 2014, 12:36:32 AM
Icefire feel free to show your newly restored phones to your friends as hopefully one(possibly and antique admirer) will be so taken as to join you. You may find the beautiful oak wall phones interesting also.
My wife only required me to put her up at a nice hotel for our first phone meeting this June in Lancaster. She refused to drive with me to the Michigan meeting for 11 hours. I hope her price won't rise with time.
Bob
More phones = much money lol the more you buy some phones, the more your wife will want something expensive ..... Normal heh !.. it's the life :D
Yeah, I think it's too late, I just bid on another AE40 for a good price, will know in an hour. That's 3, should be enough to keep me busy for projects for a bit. I'll post pix of my progress, pic of my first AE50 is over in the introduction thread, in "hello from Northern California".
Edit: yep, confirmed. I have 3 old phones now. Just nabbed a nice AE 40 for under $16.00. They didn't know what it was and needed to sell to move.
Now I'll stop....
You're hooked. We corrupted you. No going back now! Not even a 12-step meeting.
I heard when people try to quit smoking, or drinking, they start up a hobby like cars or something like this...
But, not the issue is, your breakthrough hobby needs a breakthrough. hehe
Ben
Many will buy several AE 40's and 50's on ebaY and then start looking for chromed rings for the handset caps. They are not easy or inexpensive to find on their own plus shipping etc. It is much easier and probably less expensive over all to pay a bit more for one that comes with the chromed caps. I like to have some on display with and some without the chrome accents.
Terry
I figured that out about the rings. Are they hrs to put on if you heat the rings and freeze the handset?
Quote from: Icefire on March 10, 2014, 02:08:25 AM
I figured that out about the rings. Are they hrs to put on if you heat the rings and freeze the handset?
Actually they are quite easy to install or remove. Once the caps are removed, the rings slide on or off without any heat or cold. However, you must use caps that were designed for added rings.
That's what happened to me. If you're going to get more phones, don't make the mistake I made, and restore the phones you have now. Before long, you'll have fifteen phones awaiting restoration, with only six finished phones ;D
Quote from: Icefire on March 05, 2014, 11:56:58 AM
I've only been into this new hobby of restoring old phones a few weeks...started out buying an AE50 for my old 1952 house, but now, find myself reading all the back pages on all the collector sites, searching e-bay at late hours looking for rare phones at good prices....
I just bought my second old phone, an AE-40 in good shape for $35...Stop me before I buy another!!
I've barely started on my AE 50 restoration...now I have it's matching desk phone...
I have the sickness. Wife is gonna kill me...
Heh. Glad I'm not the only one. ; )
Already have a hobby of restoring old electronics & have a garage full of 40 pound 'donor units' that I just can't bring myself to throw away. I'll need a part the day after I toss one.
Where am I going to start putting old phones? At least they take up less space!