NE Contempra from Flea Market

[LarryInMichigan]

The flea market here is nothing like the ones that Janet Rose visits , but I did buy a NE Contempra this morning (because I couldn't find anything else to buy).  The seller wanted $10 for it and wouldn't budge, so I paid $10.  It seems like a slightly less common color.  I cannot tell if it is supposed to be blue or something else.  It has turned a bit green from sunlight exposure.  The base is marked "Made in Canada", but the handset shows "Made in USA".  The inside of the base shell plastic has "70" on it, and the handset plastic has "72".  I am assuming that those were the years that the plastic parts were molded (or moulded for the Canadian part).  The base seems to be missing a ringer.

I was able to make a call with the phone.  How badly did I overpay for this?

Larry

[twocvbloke]

It's interesting to see the differences between Canadian Contempras and "British" Contempras (despite both being made by Northern Telecom, but the latter supplied/altered by GEC), the latter has pretty much all-GPO parts, despite appearing to be the same phone...

http://www.britishtelephones.com/tsr8002.htm

Picture borrowed from the above link...

[AE_Collector]

I have two blue contempra's just like yours, discoloration and all. We didn't use Contempra's here but we did use Northern Electric SG1 PABX's in the 70's and early 80's. The story I have heard here a couple of times was that in the early days of the SG1, each SG1 came with two blue Contempra sets to use for testing.  SG1's and SL1's (much larger NE PABX) had steel cabinets painted a medium blue color quite similar to the blue Contempra color.

Seems kind of odd that they would come with two phones but not out of the question either.

Contempra's have handset cords that you definitely want to save rather than look for a replacement for. They are 5 conductor.

Terry