Look what I found for $3

[WesternElectricBen]

What a fantastic phone!!

Have you checked if the bias spring is in the correct notch?

Ben

[Dennis Markham]

What a fantastic phone!!

Have you checked if the bias spring is in the correct notch?

Ben

Good point, Ben.  That was my thought too.  It looks like the bias spring is to the left (looking from the back, between the gongs).  Try moving it to the other position, Scot.  I'll bet it helps. 

The phone looks great.  Congratulations again on that great find.

[persido]

Thanks Ben and Dennis, that was it, got it ringing, so the only thing that is not original to the phone is the wall cord, what would be the value of this telephone, I am not really into 500's, 302's are for me, I have never sold anything on Ebay this might be my first telephone for sale.....Thanks

Scot

[Doug Rose]

Nice find Scott.....I didn't come close to that in my yard sales today.....Home Run!!!....Doug

[Doug Rose]

Scot ...I would put it on eBay for $1. You will be pleasantly surprised. I would guess $500 easily....Doug

[Matilo Telephones]

Great find! Congratulations!

[Under Dog]

  How do you get to $500 from a mis-matched color phone? (says the new guy with no idea what he is talking about other than his OCD cringing from mis-matched colors)...

[LM Ericsson]

Earlier Model 500 telephones were two tone like this, while others were one color.

[Kenton K]

Gray is also a VERY rare color. Probably the hardest color to find of the 500 sets.

KK

[Doug Rose]

  How do you get to $500 from a mis-matched color phone? (says the new guy with no idea what he is talking about other than his OCD cringing from mis-matched colors)...

Doug...the dates are what give it away as a real two tone and not one made in someones basement. The is one of the tougher WE colors as the oxford gray was not made for a long time. I am not a 500 guy and there are more knowledgeable folks than me on the Forum on 500s.

If Scot does list on eBay, it will be a fun auction to watch. No question is a bad question. Its how were learn about our hobby....Doug

[unbeldi]

There still seems to be some confusion.
This is NOT A TWO-TONE SET.

This is how colored 500-sets in gray, red, yellow, and blue looked in 1954, they simply have a black dial, because the colored bezels were not yet available. Brown, ivory, green, and beige had matching bezels and the rest of the colored dial face plates were available in 1955.

Two-tone sets were distinctly different having a black handset and were available at least until 1957. In fact, two-tone sets were identical to black sets, including cords, on which the housing had been replaced with a colored one.

[jsowers]

First, thanks for clearing up the confusion. When more than one color screams two-tone, it sometimes wasn't in the eyes of Western Electric and the Bell System. A yellow phone with a black dial and gray cords was "full color" even though it looked like someone raided the parts bin.

Second, this is a very small detail, but I'm a detail person and I have to ask. Notice the next to last column on the BSP Unbeldi posted above. It says "Chrome Card Holder Frame." Sometimes these phones are found with that chrome ring holding the number card and sometimes, like this one, they're found with a black number ring. To me the black one looks better and matches the dial, but there's no doubt to their intentions when it says "chrome" in the BSP.

I have a dark gray black dial phone like this, from 8-54, that came with the chrome ring and I changed it, thinking it was incorrect. Little did I know! At that time (2007) I thought that the chrome rings were only for manual sets, because black didn't look good next to a color dial blank. I posted it below, for comparison, before I made any changes. Sorry it's such a lousy picture. It was right out of the shipping box. I also attached some of the phone dates.

So Scot's phone came from out in the field somewhere and it has a black number ring and looks totally original. Can we consider both to be correct? Do you think that sometime between August and November they changed their minds?

I think Scot's phone looks like a million bucks cleaned up with that MUrdock number card. Congratulations on a stupendous find.

[unbeldi]

You are very right about the chrome ring. Color sets had such distinguished differences. Another is the use of gray station cards which most restorers are ignoring, and which was apparently ignored by telephone installers at the time.

Whether Western Electric changed their mind is unknowable, IMHO. For one, we have only such a small sample of original 1954 sets. These number card holder frames are missing so often, and in that case they were most likely replaced with black rings.

Six months later these dials were no longer used anyhow, as all had clear plastic finger wheels. So, only by finding more original, never refurbished samples will we know the history better.

It should probably also be noted that the BSP in which this table was published, is dated December 1953, when as I believe no colored 500-set were mass-produced or issued yet. As unreliable as historical timelines may be, the AT&T Events in Telephone History states that colored 500-set production was started June 1, 1954.

[poplar1]

Is it possible that the "chrome card holder frames" apply only to the apparatus blanks in the adjacent column? Chrome frames are listed for all 8 colors, but obviously were not used on ivory, green, brown or rose beige sets, which had 7C dials and P-19B524 Lucite finger wheels.

[unbeldi]

The table and the specification in that BSP is inconsistent at least not comprehensive, w/r/t the card frame for the sets that already had plastic FWs.

Even black sets with an apparatus blank instead of a dial, had chrome rings, so this was not just a colored feature.

Another inconsistency of that table relates to the two-tone sets, as it states that parts should be ordered by the numbers of the first chart. A bit confusing because it doesn't state that handset were in fact black.  This confusion was cleared up in an AT&T addendum in March 54 (C30.011 AD i1 5403--Colored Station Sets).

I think what is more significant is that you actually found a chrome ring on your set and that should be taken as proof positive.  The finding of a black one, doesn't prove the opposite though.