Find of the Month - November 2012

[AE_Collector]

November is running out and only 4 Find of the Month entry's so far. There must be some more out there. I'll throw my ebaY Buy it Now purchase in for the fun of it.

An Ivory AE 40 with Gold trim. It is in pretty nice shape though not perfect. I stumbled upon it an hour after it was listed with a $275 Buy it Now plus $14 shipping so even though it wasn't a case of "no idea what they had", I felt $275 was a pretty decent price for a good Ivory 40 considering it had Gold trim rather than Chrome trim.

Terry

[kleenax]

Very Nice Terry!

Strange that the dial doesn't have a gold-plated fingerstop though.

[poplar1]

I nominate DaveF's WE prototype F-54665. Perhaps he can provide a photo with the faceplate turned around the right way.

[George Knighton]

I've only been here a few days, but I'm going to add this eBay "find" anyway.  I'm sure it pales in comparison to what most of you are doing, but I'm glad to have found this because I didn't think I'd be able to find one that I could afford.

The first time I look for an ivory 302, I was horrified to find an eBay auction that appeared to have concluded at $2500.00.  (You've got to be kidding me.)

I found a few more auctions that were way too high, and I found an old hand renovator and retailer in Canada (I'm sure you guys know him) who apparently regularly sells them, renovated, for $999.00.

The eBay auction for this one finished at $229.67.  I placed a very high bid on it, and it stayed at $175.00 or so until the last few seconds when somebody entered it and drove the price up to where it finished.

Supposedly, this is all original on the inside.  And, supposedly, all it needs is cleaning up.  :-)  We'll find out.  The housing is stuck to the base, so I'm in no hurry to get inside it.  The last thing I want to do is crack an OEM ivory housing that's managed to hold itself together all this time.

It'll be cleaned up and used as a display/decorator item until I have the time to address it more fully.

Including this ivory one, I've got a total of 7 Model 302's that I've collected over the past few days.  Two of them will be in everyday operation. 

This is fun, and I know I'm wasting a bit of money.  But compared to my other hobby (track driving), this is very cheap.

[Dave F]

I nominate Dave F's WE prototype F-54665. Perhaps he can provide a photo with the faceplate turned around the right way.

Thank you for the nomination.  I haven't had time to take pictures of the inside, but here are a couple with the faceplate installed correctly.  More complete info and pictures will eventually be available at the forum thread here:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=7942.0

[AE_Collector]

Okay, you have run out of time to submit your Finds of the Month. Now it is time to vote. TWO VOTES for everyone this time.

Terry

[Greg G.]

A couple more days to vote for your favourite Find of the Month for November.

Terry

Did it close already?  I don't find a way to vote, none of the choices are clickable, and there's no designated winner yet.

[AE_Collector]

Oh crap....sorry, looks like somehow I locked the voting. Unlocked now so everyone can get their last minute votes in. Will close Sunday night.

Thanks for pointing that out Brinybay.

Terry

[AE_Collector]

Okay, that's a wrap. It looks as though MagicMo and her Magic Picturephone have cleaned up on this months Find of the Month. DaveF and his prototype 10 button TouchTone set put up a good challenge but in the end the competition between the two early 60's telephone devices was won by the Picturephone. (Unlike what really happened in the real world for Bell!)

Congratulations Maureen! What is new with your vast collection of phone apparatus?

Terry

[MagicMo]

Thank You!
I have been moving everything to my house and sorting the treasures. I did find a few more small goodies. I will post pics when my sorting is complete.
PS, The Picturephone is still a member of my family!
Happy New Year from Chicago,
Maureen