Happy Father's Day Flea Market Find!!!

[Greg G.]

I don't think Jorge is joking. 

Jim

I don't think so either, I know I wasn't!

[LarryInMichigan]

If the guy who sold the phone to Dan at the flea market were reading this thread, he would be crying the most.

Larry

[JorgeAmely]

Jorge, I'm a tristate (Ind-KY-Oh) collector. I'll be hitting the south in two weeks.
Where are your stomping grounds again?


Jester-- thanks. I can't believe I am that close to getting the colours done. I need the oxford grey (I don't count the two-tone). Nice meeting you the other day!

Dan, I am from Southern CA. There are no old phones around here.

Stephen, Dan: Any horses traded?

[Dan/Panther]

Dan;
Great find, I wish I had luck like that....

D/P

[Dan]

Dan/P you didn't really luck into your '48 or '49 but it was a great find with your eagle eye.  SO I'd say the good luck phone gods were with you.

This beats my 1950 I bought  last year! (or was it two years ago?)

[savageje]

Wow!  Congrats on your amazing find!  It's those incredibly unlikely discoveries that make collecting fun and exciting.

[Dan/Panther]

Dan;
Of course I said that tongue in cheek, I'm very blessed, every day.
D/P

[McHeath]

Holy Cow!  40 bucks for THAT phone!!  Out here we pay 40 bucks for 1978 beige 500s with badly yellowed shells, a thick gooey coating of sludge, partly melted handset cords that are from a 1993 GE office phone, a large sticker for Walt's Funeral Home and Towing, and a taped on sticker for the phone number. 

It will also be missing the left rear foot.

And have a giant crack running from the left front foot to the right handset cradle ear.

And you will be happy to see it because you haven't seen any other rotary phones in the stores since late January.

And you will consider buying it.

But you found a sweet med blue 500 mushroom instead.  Congrads on finding one of the rarest of 500s for a spectacular price!  It's great to know that they are out there and that phone collectors are finding and saving them. 

[Doug Rose]

Okay folks, educate me. I thought all of the 500 Mushroom phones had a switch on the lower front left for an on/off for the light. Like a two line phone.  I was so amazed at this fantastic phone that I didn't even notice it was missing the first time  around. ....Doug 

[Dennis Markham]

Doug, the 500/P is one of the early versions.  The lamp works whenever the handset is lifted.  On the later versions, 500/U (500 P/U) the key allowed the lamp to be turned on so that it was dimly lit when the phone was not in use.  When lifted off hook the lamp would become more brightly illuminated.

Paul F has them listed here:

http://www.paul-f.com/we500typ.htm

[Doug Rose]

thanks Dennis...I appreciate the information.....Doug

[Dan]

Dennis, do you know when they switched over from the "P" to the "P/U" models?This one is 1-57, so I figure there are no P/U mediterranean blues out there, since they stopped making them in 1957.  I only used novus 2 on it and a little Turtle wax F-21, and it cleaned up nicely. The dots on the mushroom cap are flash reflections.
I left the cradle stickers on for originality too.

[jsowers]

Dan, that's the phone find of the year. What a bargain you got! Both the 500H and the later 500P were made without the dimmer switch. The 500P was made before and along with the 500U, but the ones I've seen and own don't go past 10-58. And some 500Ps, a very small number, were made in the old colors like yours. I've yet to see a 500P in dark gray, dark beige or brown. But who knows? The 500U, I think, came along sometime in late 1957.

Here is a post I made showing a 6-58 aqua blue 500P I own...

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=1217.msg15548#msg15548

Here is the only other dark blue one I've ever seen, and yours tops that one because it's not faded at all and has the original mounting cord attached and no cutout.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=1991.msg27154#msg27154

Now for a story I have to share. I did have a picture of a moss green 500P I own posted in that above post, but an eBay seller got the idea that he would use that picture of my phone in his grab bag auction, so Dennis took the picture off to prevent its theft. I hope the same thing doesn't happen to the picture of your 500P. I just ran across that auction one day and said "Hey, that's MY phone! And MY picture!" The seller, who evidently found the picture on the forum, took it off his auction and was very sorry about it. There was no way anyone was getting anything like that phone in his grab bag auction.

Back to your phone, have you taken off the fingerwheel yet to see if there's a hidden original number card? I hope that's what you find.

[Dennis Markham]

(Jonathan posted his reply while I was typing this)

Dan, I do not know the dates involved in the manufacturing.  My info came from Paul's site.  Perhaps he will comment.

The cleaning and polishing did wonders.  It looks great!  

Just curious about the dial card.  Did you remove the finger wheel?  Is there a "bonus card" underneath the one being displayed.  I would think that the number being displayed could be a later version of an original number....with the addition of the Area Code.

I picked up a phone yesterday at a flea market that had an area code dial card displayed.  It is one of those adhesive paper cards that was stuck on the top of the celluloid.  When I removed the dial card ring and looked inside the original black and white card with the exchange name was there.  I call that a "bonus card".  The exchange card was in essence the same number, minus the Area Code.

[Dan]

Thanks again for the kind words guys. There was no bonus card underneath. There wasn't even the metal card support, just the brass nut and the clear card protector.