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Today's Find - Soft White 500

Started by LarryInMichigan, March 20, 2012, 03:03:24 PM

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LarryInMichigan

I was on my way this afternoon to the house of an ebay seller to pick up some clocks that I bought, and I overshot his street by one block.  On the next corner was a small antiques shop I naturally stopped in.  Inside, I found a very dirty soft plastic WE 500, dated 11-57.  There was also a WE 305 with an On/Off switch in the left front corner.  I was told that the white 500 was $25 and the other phone was $45.  The 305 was not in great shape, and I do not know what one is worth, so I passed on it, but I couldn't turn down the 500 for $25, so now I have another project phone.  Besides being horribly dirty, there are some scratches in the plastic, the worst being a number of gouges in the dial bezel by the '3' and '4', but I expect that the phone is salvageable.



Larry

JorgeAmely

Larry:
The best soft plastic phones are in Michigan.

PS: If your numbers bezel is beyond repair, I think I have an extra one in my garage.
Jorge

LarryInMichigan

QuoteThe best soft plastic phones are in Michigan.

A large percentage of them are in a house about 22 miles from here ;)


QuotePS: If your numbers bezel is beyond repair, I think I have an extra one in my garage.

Thank you, I may need to take you up on that.  I just started dismantling the phone, and I see that the gouges are pretty deep.

This phone is also going to need the peroxide treatment.  Parts of it are yellowed.

The back of the dial does show the correct color code for white.

Larry

JorgeAmely

#3
Larry: That's right. In that guy's house.  ;D ;D ;D

I will look in my stash to see what I can dig out. Are the caps painted? Or are they just dirty?
Jorge

LarryInMichigan

Nothing is painted, but just dirty and yellowed.  Everything is dated 11-57 or 10-57, including the shell, handset, and handset caps. 

The guy with the soft plastic phones just told me very recently that white soft plastic 500s were hard to find, so I was excited to find this one.

Larry


jsowers

Quote from: LarryInMichigan on March 20, 2012, 03:48:10 PM
QuoteThe best soft plastic phones are in Michigan.

A large percentage of them are in a house about 22 miles from here ;)

Larry, that's a good one. The comment and the phone. That house is the Michigan Soft Plastic Repository and I hear that the grassy knoll is well mowed.  ;)

Seriously, you found a nice one and $25 is a bargain price. It has the original fat cords, which are hard to find. Yes, white is one of the harder colors to find. It was only made from late 1957 to mid-1959 in soft plastic. I don't know why it's rare--it just is. If you ever look at Leave it to Beaver, there's one in their living room.
Jonathan

JorgeAmely

Larry:

I have two of the white number bezels. Let me know what you want to do. Have you checked in the Soft Plastic Repository 22 miles away from you? Maybe the grass is greener closer to you.  ??? :o ;) ;D No shipping charges in that case.
Jorge

LarryInMichigan

Jorge,

Thank you.  I will have to check with the Soft Plastic Master.  In the mean time, the phone needs plenty of bleaching.  There might also be a possibility of sanding out the deep gouges, but that would take some effort.  How discolored are your bezels?  Are they both soft plastic?

Larry

Dennis Markham

Nice find, Larry.  With a little work I'm sure it will look great.  I'll check and see if I have a soft plastic dial bezel in that color.  It would save you on shipping....maybe.  44 miles, $4.00 gas........

Those White soft plastic phones are very difficult to find.  The one I have is thanks to jsowers.  They have eluded me during all of my searches for one.  I have bought a few White 500's thinking they might be soft plastic and turns out they weren't.  

Michigan Soft Plastic Repository?  Where is that located, Jonathan?  I'd like to visit there some day.

Sargeguy

How rough was the 305???  Was the case cracked or gouged?
Greg Sargeant
Providence, RI
TCI /ATCA #4409

JorgeAmely

Quote from: Dennis Markham on March 21, 2012, 05:52:46 AM
Michigan Soft Plastic Repository?  Where is that located, Jonathan?  I'd like to visit there some day.

I mailed something to Larry some time ago. 22 miles from that address could place the Soft Plastic Repository either under Lake St. Clair or Lake Erie. Could that place be so well protected?  ??? ??? ???
Jorge

LarryInMichigan

#12
Quote from: Sargeguy on March 21, 2012, 10:27:40 AM
How rough was the 305???  Was the case cracked or gouged?

I did not notice any cracks, but there were scratches and a glob of hard, thick residue from what was probably glue holding something to the shell (perhaps a tag of some sort) to the right of the switch.  I think that it had a #5 dial.  I offered $35 for it, but the owner insisted on $45.  Is it worth that?  One of our forum members lives about a mile from the shop.

Larry