Old Days of Phone Collecting

[Doug Rose]

Back in the old days of collecting, long before Al Gore invented the internet; it was really hard to get information on telephones. Let alone telephones! Yard sales and flea markets was it. I have been collecting over 30 years and I felt I was the only one who collected telephones. I think many of the old timers can second this. Boy was I surprised when I found the ATCA.  Parts were literally nonexistent so you had to rely on Phone-Co or Gerry Billard. Good and bad experiences with both. The smarter I got with collecting telephones, the more I felt abused by these "stores." Upgraded dial were refurbs. The parts that made a phone valuable; dials, receivers, cloth cords etc were removed and replaced with reproduction parts. Yes, I learned the hard way. I made a conscious decision to never deal with these places again. If I need a part, I would just have to wait. Then the Internet, eBay, ATCA List serv, TCI List Server and finally home sweet home, the Forum. Collecting certainly changed for the better and has found a broader base than ever. For you new collectors, life is good. BUT be forewarned when dealing with the "phone stores." A little knowledge is dangerous. There is a huge difference between a #2 and a #6 dial in value and collectability on your old WE stick. Educate yourselves. I have learned the hard way. You have the perfect place; here, to educate yourselves. Ask questions and do not be trusting of the phone stores, they are in business to make money. I will now step down from my soap  box....Doug

[HarrySmith]

Don't fall off on your way down

All great advice

[AE_Collector]

There was one antique store that I knew in the Vancouver area selling reproduction transmitter and receiver type parts back in the 1970's. THey probably were getting the parts from Billards in Cupertino California. I bought a little bit of stuff from the antique store but didn't really like the stuff very much. As you said Doug, before Al Gore invented the internet, that was just about all there was.

Terry

[LarryInMichigan]

Just imagine how difficult antique phone collecting must have been in the 1890s

[Phonesrfun]

Just imagine how difficult antique phone collecting must have been in the 1890s

Kind of like a garden hose with a funnel stuck in each end.

[AE_Collector]

Just imagine how difficult antique phone collecting must have been in the 1890s

You had to order them by mail order from Alex Bells shops, wait for them to arrive and then distress them yourself and maybe toss a few parts into the river so you would have some restoration work to do. The bright side was that you could order the parts that you needed from the same place...

Terry

[bingster]

Collecting was difficult in the 1980s, that's for sure.  I found a handful of phones in antique stores and thrift stores, and got burned by Billard once, too.  After a while, I just couldn't find anything so I gave up on collecting phones.  Even after ebay had come along, I still didn't avail myself of the telephonic treasures--phone collecting was in the past for me.  Then one day a couple years ago, I stumbled on Dennis Markham's site and all it's eye candy, and it got me hooked again.  I found the forum through a link on his blog, and the rest is history. 

[jsowers]

I also began collecting phones at yard sales and flea markets in the early 1980s. I couldn't find much, but I managed to outfit my first house with two black WE sets, a 554 and a Signal Corps 500, in 1984. By 1985 I had enough to install 6 rotary phones in my new house and I ran the wiring myself, borrowing the electrician's drill to drill my holes. Several of those phones are still installed and working in the same spot 25 years later.

I got a catalog or two from the stores Doug mentioned, but I balked at the prices. My interest has always been in the 500s and Princesses, and I was able to source a few parts from the local electronics store. I did part out a phone or two that couldn't be repaired and they served to fix others.

Thrift stores were great for finding rotary phones in the 1990s. I bought a few phones from eBay early on, starting in 1999. Around 2000 I bought a red 1702 with a 2702 housing on it. The seller sent it to the wrong buyer. The buyer contacted me (you could do that back then) and we exchanged phones and sent the seller the shipping bill. Something great happened from that accident. I found out that buyer who I exchanged phones with collected the same phones I did. I was like Doug, who thought he was the only one who collected telephones. It was great to have a "partner in crime" so to speak. Ever since then we've kept in touch with our phone finds and emailed pictures back and forth of our phones when they arrived. Sort of like the forum, but with only two people. We are on separate coasts--California and NC.

I also bid against Dennis Markham a lot and he bid against me several years ago. We still managed to get a lot of nice phones between us, and that was when we knew who was bidding when it was all over. I said many times after the dust settled and I didn't win, shaking my head, "that Dennis guy has great taste in phones." There were never any hard feelings. We just liked the same phones.

The old days were nice, but it's great that we now have the internet, email, eBay, phone shows and the Forum to bring all the collectors together from all over the world.

[JorgeAmely]

Jonathan:

I still remember Dennis talking about Yellow 500 with Yellow straight cords that went to the guy from NC. Those were the good old days (2008). But I started collecting phones in 2007. 

[Dennis Markham]

Great post, Doug!  It is interesting to hear the stories from collectors about the early days of collecting phones.  Even with membership in the phone clubs, things moved slowly when all that was available were the Ads that appeared in the monthly newsletters.  

Bingster, I'm honored that my blog posts may have re-ignited your long-time interest of phone collecting.  I thought I was the only one reading my posts and was always excited when someone would stumble upon my blog site.  (By the way there is a web site called www.StumbleUpon.com).  I do remember you making a few comments on some of my  entries.  

Jonathan is right about the competition on eBay.  It was more fun when we could see who won an item, or who was bidding.  I might have had a few choice words for him a time or two when I lost an item to him.  But when I saw that he had bid on a particular phone I knew that it was a good one and that I was on the right track.  It was only just over a year ago that I contacted him via eBay's messaging system to ask a question.  We began to e-mail back and forth and have since exchanged many e-mails and photos of our phones.  I urged him to join the Forum and since then his experience has helped many.  

The Forum is yet another place to exchange information and share our interest in telephones....and other things too.

[Dennis Markham]

Jorge, I WAS thinking about that phone but wasn't going to mention it!

[JorgeAmely]

OK Dennis, let's keep it a secret!

[Jester]

Parts were literally nonexistent so you had to rely on Phone-Co or Gerry Billard. Good and bad experiences with both.

I'll second that emotion, Doug.  It was bad enough to bite the bullet & pay a high price for something you felt you needed.  What really griped me were the occasions when you mailed a specific, detailed list--in the case of one of these suppliers, with their assigned inventory numbers copied directly out of their catalog-- and they sent you the wrong part.  Or, even worse, the occasions I called to get a price quote, ordered the part, and discovered the price was three to five times higher than what was quoted to me over the phone!  I generally didn't send things back because of their policy on the buyer paying return shipping--even if the supplier was the one who screwed up!  I kept doing business with them for a little while--they were basically the "only game around" for these parts.  I finally gave up using them after being charged $150.00 for used plastics to fit a WE 1500--made in 1971!!

[KeithB]

I can't speak for the "old days" unless you count the two ancient desk sets I had in the late 1970s as a teenager.  

What I can say apropos this discussion is about talking with Steve Hilsz a few nights ago, to order a few WE302 parts for tinkering.  It was quite a pleasure talking with a real live human being who would actually put his hands on the merchandise to sell it.  Steve was as professional as anyone could possibly expect, and friendly too.    The real pleasure was talking with someone who *knows and understands* their inventory, and appreciates talking with a customer who appreciates it, too.

Ahhhh, for the "good old days" . . .

[Doug Rose]

Steve Hilsz is truly one of the good guys. Mention the Forum to him. I have tried a couple of times. His knowledge and experience would be perfect from us. Did I mention he is a great guy.....Doug