Find of the Month - October 2013

[WEBellSystemChristian]

My find of the month is my great  grandpas 9/53 Western Electric 500,   Its in rough shape,  used to sit on his workbench in his garage,  Has burn marks on it from torches and stuff like that.  Hooked it up I got dialtone,  just need to lube the dial and clean it up a bit.  Im gonna leave it pretty much as is,  because thats how grandpa had it.

<edit> Here's the link to the topic here on CRPF:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=10404.0  

My first phone (It apparently had traces of Phoneitis on the plastics) is my Grandpa's  1955 WE 500 (my profile picture). It's possibly the least valuable in my collection, because it has a Kellogg shell, and at least seven notable refurb dates, with several more covered up. It may not be valuable to collectors, but I would sell my entire collection before I got rid of that phone.

[unbeldi]

.

[Contempra]

nice color for a nice phone unbeldi

[unbeldi]

nice color for a nice phone unbeldi

Thank you, I'll count on your vote

[AE_Collector]

13 entries this month but I narrowed it a little to 11 entries. We started talking quite recently about making each forum member pick their favorite FotM to submit for voting thus only one entry per member per month now. Not to be too ornery about it,  you can hang onto a find for an extra month and submit it in the next contest unless of course something even better materializes by then!

I bumped two entries:
WEBellSystemChristian's Early Ivory 500 for $9.99 on ebaY
DavePEI's haul of Phones and tools from the Coastal Yard Sale - $150 total

Please feel free to resubmit these for November and thanks for understanding.

Time to Vote!

Terry

[AE_Collector]

Okay, I think we may as well put an end to this months competition! Some months are close and sometimes we have to do a run-off poll. This month...Not so much.

WEBellSystemChristian had a run away winner this month in his 3 10 button phones for a total of $4. It is pretty hard to compete with that. There were lots of other great finds this month as well including the first runner up - Unbeldi's dark Gray SC 1553 wall phone and second runner up - wds' early AE 40 with the grooved handset caps.

As always, thanks for entering your "Finds" and thanks everyone for voting for your "Find of the Month". 27 people voed this month, not a bad showing at all!

Enjoy the winnings WEBellSystemChristian!

Pictures of all "Find of the Month" winners can be found -> Here <-


Terry

[TelePlay]

I really need to remember to stop posting FotM entries at the beginning of the month.
Anyway, here are my actual GOOD find(s). Three ten-button Western Electric desk sets. Two of them are 1500s, and the other one is a Princess. My mom picked them up at an estate sale today, all for $4!

As an FYI, don't know if you or anyone was following this red 1500 10-button auction that just ended. The reserve was not me but someone was willing to pay at least $109 plus shipping for the phone.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/301010882736

[WEBellSystemChristian]

OUCH! That's a lot of money for one phone. Given, it IS red, and it IS a 1500...

[Contempra]

$100 for a red phone, yes OUCH !!

[TelePlay]

$100 for a red phone, yes OUCH !!

Red WE and possibly other branded phones command a premium price, dial or touch tone. Can't speak to the rotary dial phones but the touch tone phones, usually 12 button, are used to this very day as emergency back up phones in places like hospital surgical areas, security offices and while I've not been into the back of a police station, probably there also. If power goes down and they loose their PBX or whatever digital system they have installed, they still have an analog line to take and make calls. I see them all of the time, everytime I make a delivery to a Surgical Control Desk in a hospital. They are usually desk phones but I have seen wall phones. Touch tone is faster that dial so have really never seen a red "dial" analog phone in these areas. As for rotary, everyone wants at least one red rotary, don't they?

[Contempra]

yeah I understand . but $100 even for a red phone is a lot of money you know? .


I'm not ready to pay a red phone, touch tone for $100 for sure. however, As for rotary, yes everyone like me wants a red rotary. no problem TelePlay.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

I wish WE phones like the 500 had a lighter Pekin red instead of that darker, Burgundy red.