Have you ever bought a phone for parts..

[280Parka]

Have you ever bought a phone for parts, but then after receiving it decided it was too nice to take apart?  I needed parts for my princess phone and found a reasonably priced 1984 AT&T 702BM.  I don't care much for modular phones, beige phones, or ones from after the Ma Bell break-up, which were all factors in my consideration of this phone as a likely cannibalization candidate.  But it not only is in great condition, it came with the original box, instructions, and an original bill of sale from the AT&T Phone Center.  It even has the two original plastic packaging bags for the body and handset.  Even the poorly hand cut and pasted-on dial card that is covering the original is only one digit off of the original recipient's (from the receipt) phone number which makes it curious and worth keeping.  I have almost all of the history of the entire phone's life.  *sigh* 

I'm on eBay now looking for another donor Princess...

[Key2871]

You got a piece of history, I would leave as it is my self.
What princess part do you need?

[jsowers]

Yes, I've bought several phones for parts, especially Princesses. Princess ringers and dials are not the most durable and sometimes you can find groups of them cheaply for parts. Also their plastics can yellow badly and the light socket can go missing sometimes.

I've gotten what I call "phones of many colors" before where all the parts were Tenite but mixed colors and gradually used most of the pieces of those put-together 500 sets to repair others. It's amazing how, in those old days of more plentiful 1950s phones, I was able to keep finding phones that needed the parts I had on hand. My first dark gray phone was made up of parts from two phones that someone had combined dark gray with red. When you get one of those color Frankenphones, you have no reason to keep them original like one in the box. The many color phones didn't come that way. Two-tones were the only official combination.

Phones that come NOS or almost NOS in a box should be preserved and not taken apart or used, in my opinion. You don't see those often. You have a lot of history with that 1984 phone. Keep it all together and it will be worth more someday if modular phones ever reach "rare" status. That may not be anytime soon.

[280Parka]

I've decided to only do minor cleaning on the '84 Princess and leave it as-is.  My '69 Princess is working again.  It only had a bad mounting cord that I discovered when I disconnected it to take it to the work bench to troubleshoot.  So no need for parts.

[FABphones]

I have a GPO phone which many would have used for parts due to a break on the side of the body. It needed plenty doing to it and was my first renovation project as I thought if I make a bad job of it, nothing lost. It fixed up really nicely but the crack in the side, although tidy, does bother me a bit so one day it may receive a new body shell...

[Butch Harlow]

I have bought a couple phones for parts, but that hasn't worked out quite yet. I end up keeping them all and fixing them up. I did manage to buy just an upper housing of a payphone for necessary parts, but that doesn't really count.

[RB]

I too have bought phones for parts.
one of my first, a federal 804, i think, was purchased for the purpose of transplanting the network, and handset
into my switchboard. It seems, that if you build it yourself, it does not come with a lot of the stuff you need...

[Pourme]

~

I recently stumbled on what I thought to be a very interesting PTT phone with a busted up & unusable dial. I took it home and began looking for a dial. A few days ago I found a "donor" phone with a intact dial but busted case. I waited for the end of the auction, with only one bid, I bought it for $1.25+ $17.33 shipping. I almost passed because of the shipping. But I now have a fully functional PTT, nice looking phone, and I saved one phone of two, that may have ended up in a land fill.

[Sargeguy]

I have bought parts phones hat I ended up restoring and new phones that I intended to restore but ended up parting out.

[Greg G.]

Have you ever bought a phone for parts, but then after receiving it decided it was too nice to take apart? 

No, because all the phones I bought I intended restore OMS (Oh Maybe Someday) but never did, hence I never looked for donor phones.  The deepest I delved into restoration was a 5302 that was kinda nasty, but it fully functioned as is, no parts needed, just deep cleaning.  I had rusty screws and other small parts carefully laid out in my bathroom when I was still single and living alone. 

[Zombie Dave]

Have you ever bought a phone for parts, but then after receiving it decided it was too nice to take apart?  I needed parts for my princess phone and found a reasonably priced 1984 AT&T 702BM.  I don't care much for modular phones, beige phones, or ones from after the Ma Bell break-up, which were all factors in my consideration of this phone as a likely cannibalization candidate.  But it not only is in great condition, it came with the original box, instructions, and an original bill of sale from the AT&T Phone Center.  It even has the two original plastic packaging bags for the body and handset.  Even the poorly hand cut and pasted-on dial card that is covering the original is only one digit off of the original recipient's (from the receipt) phone number which makes it curious and worth keeping.  I have almost all of the history of the entire phone's life.  *sigh* 

I'm on eBay now looking for another donor Princess...

I'm creating my own problems and constant need for parts phones as I seem to be buying any phone that has the right price at garage sales or facebook. I figure if the price is right I can always use it for parts, but end up wanting to fix it too.  Also what I'm finding is I really like phones I didn't at first think I would. 

I like that each make and model is individually different with unique dials and rings. The WE 302 or Galion ( and others ) with their big handset. I'm just so fascinated!

[Doug Rose]

If the price is right, I always buy phones for parts. I am a WE guy and I am always picking up damaged 302s and 5302s for dials, F1s, cords ..etc.

You can't refurb phones without parts..Doug