Oxford Gray (code 52) 12/55 500 came home with me today

[baldopeacock]

Found several pretty nice phones at an antique mall today.   The 500P was out of my league but I did take the plunge on an Oxford Gray 500, dated 12/55.

Just opened it up to look at dates.   Everything matches and dates to 12/55 inside, it has the straight gray handset cord.   Both handset and line cords show '55 dates.   Original dial card FEderal 7 - 1899 is in place.  Other than needing a good cleaning and polishing, it's pretty nice.   The suede feet are still clean and not matted.   Don't have my camera handy but I'll try to snap some photos of it.

Seller had this thing tagged on his shelf as Moss Green.   There's enough yellowing to make it not look perfectly gray, but I'm still scratching my head about how he came up with green.   The color code (52) is on the back of the dial.

Believing that the Oxford Gray has some value as well as the straight handset cord, matching dates and lack of refurb stamps, damage, I bit the bullet and paid $100 for this.    So.... dumb move, OK move,  

It works perfectly.  I've made two calls on it and it sounds as good as a 500 ever sounded, far as I can tell.

[KeithB]

Don't know about the price you paid, but I'm certain there are a few folks here who will envy you having a really nice Oxford Grey 500 set.  Be certain to post your pictures in the Grey Phones thread!

[Kenny C]

I would say a great move. Congratulations

[Jester]

If I saw one for $100, I wouldn't hesitate--nice find!!

[baldopeacock]

Don't know about the price you paid, but I'm certain there are a few folks here who will envy you having a really nice Oxford Grey 500 set.  Be certain to post your pictures in the Grey Phones thread!

I will do that soon as I get the chance.

They've been multiplying on me.   A few weeks ago I snagged the lighter gray, 3/59 which is also unrestored original, which turned out to be a good buy at $10 and change.   Between that one and this one my average doesn't stink - yet.   Now all I need is time to work on them.   Meanwhile I may as well snap a couple of pics of the two as-found for the gray phone thread.

[Dan]

Nice job and a great price. If you get an extra (since grey  seems to be finding you) , maybe we could make a trade!

[Dennis Markham]

I'd say $100 was a great price for that phone!  Lucky Dog!!

[Jim Stettler]

$100 was cheap for an oxford grey. $400 for the pink mushroom is more than I would pay.
If you really want the Mushroom you could probably sell the oxford Grey for enough $ to buy it 
JMO,
Jim

[Dennis Markham]

I agree with Jim.  I wouldn't pay $400 for a discolored "mushroom" phone.  But I'll bet you'd get that much for the Oxford Gray with matching STRAIGHT handset cord if it were listed on eBay.

[McHeath]

I'd bite for a hundred, so I think you did good.  You can always do the sanding route to remove the yellowing, a lot of work but it's a phone that's worth it.

[baldopeacock]

I'd like to remove the yellowing, which really isn't all that bad anyway... but it would look better with the color restored.   I may try a light compounding first with progressively finer polishes to see if that gets the yellow.   If not, then I'll try something more aggressive.  

This dark gray is pretty cool, and it's the first one I've seen in person in this color.  It looks better than I had imagined.   This is the second gray phone I've come across in the last month where the seller had mis-identified the color.   The light gray 3/59 was listed as blue on eBay.   This one is tagged specifically as Moss Green, which it definitely is not.   Color code on the back of the dial confirms -52.

We'll see if I end up keeping it, or shining it up and reselling.   It might be interesting to see what it would do on eBay.   But I'm getting too attached to it already.   I really like the straight handset cord, you just don't see them so often.   I could always list it with a high reserve, just to see what the interest level would be.   Christmas is coming, after all.

Will try to make time to shoot some pics of this thing outdoors in the morning before work.  Natural light just works better in my experience.

So is this color as hard to find (in good shape) and/or desirable as the Med Blue or Mahogany early 500s?   

[JorgeAmely]

Looking forward to see pictures of your 12/55 gray.

[baldopeacock]

Looking forward to see pictures of your 12/55 gray.

by the way, Jorge, you were right on the 3/59 code -61 light gray -- there was a bonus card under the stick-on number card,  however the new paper card had been glued to the old one and did not come off cleanly.   The original card was the perforated variety, wish it had survived.

After polishing carefully on the 3/59 I'm starting to think I should try Retrobrite on a piece or two and see what I get from that.   No experience with it, so this should be an adventure.

[Jim Stettler]

It seems (to me) that gray is the hardest, then brown, then blue.
This is my experience. Then again in my experience yellow is a lot harder to get then rose beige.
Jim

[baldopeacock]

So here it is.   Photo quality sucks, I'm running out of daylight and should have used my better camera.   I'll have to wait for the weekend to get better pics, and I'll get some under the hood then as well.   I think it's going to clean up really well.   Condition of the feet seems unusually good, they appear to have their original color and almost no matting.