New old stock: where does it come from?

[elmwood]

This weekend, I stumbled on the estate sale of a former New York Bell employee.  The garage had several boxes of NOS Western Electric handsets, receiver guts, covers, cords, dials, TT keypads, and the like.  I'm not what you might call a collector -- I like the idea of antique or classic items that you can use on a day-to-day basis, and using a phone that would probably outlive me by a few decades -- but I scrounged up enough parts to put together a few complete phones (Trimlines, which I know you guys aren't fond of), along with a black TT Trimline with both used and NOS parts.

Space is money in the real estate business, so I'm amazed to hear about large caches of old, never-used phones, computers, or whatever sitting in a warehouse for 20 or 30 years.  I'm curious about the sources of NOS. 

[Jim Stettler]

Trimlines are well worth collecting.


No one really collects them, so it is a ground flor op to figure out the good stuff.

A black Trimline is good stuff.
JMO,
Jim

[Sargeguy]

Steve Hilz

I have a few friends and relatives who worked for NyNEX/Bell System Verizon, etc. and they were always giving me phone jacks, wire, Yankee Drills, shears, wasp killing spray, wire staplers, etc. before I even collected phones.  I think the Bell System made an enormous quantity of stuff.  Employees just brought stuff home with them from work.  When the Bell System broke up and got out of the inside wiring business, the warehouse stock was sold off and probably ended up exchanging hands several times until it winds up in the hands of a collector.

[Sargeguy]

And wire fasteners, can't forget those. 

[KeithB]

I'd love to hear the story behind the NOS military three-conductor mounting cords I purchased from Cliff Sullivan ('celnout') on eBay last week.  They were still sealed in the original 1954 brown-paper wrappers and the rubber on the outside of the cords still smells new.  Fifty-five years later, and they're still "as-new".   Absolutely amazing.

[Sargeguy]

Maybe it was Cliff I was thinking of, not Steve.  I bought a surplus 211 body in its original box from him for $20 a while back, among other things

[Dennis Markham]

I bought some of those cords from Steve a while back.  I could be wrong, but I think the two live close-by and work together on some of their projects.

[Jim Stettler]

Maybe it was Cliff I was thinking of, not Steve.  I bought a surplus 211 body in its original box from him for $20 a while back, among other things

That was from Steve.
Steve and Cliff are both good to deal with. I have been dealing with Cliff 10+ years before ebay. I have delt with Steve probably as long.

Steve contacted me to offer my a  F# 1958 soft plastic 500 set, he did this because he knew I would appreciatte it. He sold it on commission for a very fair price. I would of paid $150.00 more.

Jim

[Sargeguy]

That's probably why I get them confused!

[Jim Stettler]

That's probably why I get them confused!

Last summer I heard of a military stash of NOS 302's. One of them sounds like it is soft plastic. These have been in a conditioned warehouse since the 1950's .
Just a tidbit,
Jim

[HarrySmith]

Yes, Cliff is "Celnout", Steve and Cliff do work together

Where is this stash of military 302's

[baldopeacock]

This weekend, I stumbled on the estate sale of a former New York Bell employee.  The garage had several boxes of NOS Western Electric handsets, receiver guts, covers, cords, dials, TT keypads, and the like...   I'm curious about the sources of NOS.  

"Fell off the truck" a long time ago, so to speak, and landed in someone's basement, shop, garage... ?   Has to be where a lot of the more unusual items come from.   

[paul-f]

Another source is small family-owned rural telephone companies.  Many of them sold their operating assets to larger phone companies years ago, but retained the phones that were removed from service (when the phone companies owned the phones) and the repair parts stock.  Some continued as independent phone refurbishers for many years.  Many just had the stuff in storage and never took the time to get rid of it. 

10-15 years ago or so there were stories in the club newsletters about members who were systematically hunting for these opportunities.  We still occasionally hear about huge estates, such as one a few years ago in Turtle Lake, WI that had hundreds of thousands of phones in several large warehouses.

[elmwood]

10-15 years ago or so there were stories in the club newsletters about members who were systematically hunting for these opportunities.  We still occasionally hear about huge estates, such as one a few years ago in Turtle Lake, WI that had hundreds of thousands of phones in several large warehouses.

Wow!  Quite the motherlode!  What happened to those phones?  Did the flood of those phones onto the marketplace, if they made it there, depress prices?

[Jim Stettler]

Yes, Cliff is "Celnout", Steve and Cliff do work together

Where is this stash of military 302's

In a secure warehouse. Hopefully I can eventually get my hands on them.
I forgot to mention they are "late" colored sets. The 500 had been out before the waare house was ever built.
Jim