Since many things have changed here in the last couple of years, I will post these "memorable" finds of mine from the past.
Here is a huge find of phones from Michigan State University that I rescued from the SCRAP PILE! Yes, they were going to scrap all of them, but allowed me to salvage them. They wanted me to pay $ .50/ea., but I countered with $ .25/ea and got them. MSU has a "Surplus Store" where they sell literally everything the university no longer has use for. I have seen Electron microscopes, MRI machines, Steinway grand pianos, all forms of vehicles, and once in awhile, PHONES!
I believe I ended up with about 900 phones/with handsets & LONGGGG cords (for students no doubt). I honestly had ALL sold before I even got home with them, and kept a dozen or so for future projects. The cords were all tangled and stretched, so I sold them to the local metal-recycler for $ .50/pound, and there was literally 345# of them!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/SoHYRXij6lTaBo5H2
They probably came out of dorm rooms. The keypads, ringers, transmitters, and receivers were of some use.
Larry
The cords could have been saved.
Just repair them as you needed them. Replacements are from $2.00 to $7.00, and many will still need some straightening.
D/P
were they all single line phones? any key phones?
All were single-line phones; no key phones.
I only sold the cords for scrap; all of the rest of the phones were sold to a telephone restorer who had literally 100's of NOS color-change kits, complete with new matching handset cords, so we were all happy! I think I actually got $5.00 each for them as memory recalls, plus the $300 or so I got for scrapping the cords......
When I am restoring phones, I almost never re-use the old cords unless they are nice and cleanable; I have always been lucky enough to have NOS replacements, and still have a large quantity of earlier, hard-wire/round coiled cords in colors.