News:

"The phone is a remarkably complex, simple device,
and very rarely ever needs repairs, once you fix them." - Dan/Panther

Main Menu

How much are early colored 500 worth?

Started by Jim Stettler, January 18, 2016, 10:56:34 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Jim Stettler

I haven't followed prices on colored Tenite (soft) plastic 500's and I was curious on how much the early color 500 sets are bringing.

I would like to hear some opinions on the early 500 values with the following cords:

The  cord categories are:
w/straight grey cords
w/curly grey cord
w/straight color matching cords
w/curly matching cords

Thanks,
Jim S.
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

jsowers

Recently an eBay seller has sold Tenite phones in almost every color, so here are those results. Some are very high and others are not.

Brown, with matching brown straight cord: $1,053.88
Dark gray, with damaged matching coil cord: $518.88
Red, with matching coil cord: $52.35
Yellow, with matching coil cord and crack in the front: $67.66
Green, with gray straight cord, close to NOS: $898.88
Light beige, with matching coil cord: $85.00
White, with matching coil cord: $338.33
Pink, with faded matching coil cord: $83.00
Aqua blue, with matching coil cord: $40.99

The last phone is not from the same seller as the others. Here is a link to the seller's completed items if you want to see more...

http://www.ebay.com/sch/westerncollectit/m.html?item=181984844344&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc&_trksid=p2046732.m1684

A contrasting dark gray handset cord would add a little to the value of a phone, and a straight cord would add even more value. Light beige, light gray, pink, aqua blue and white never came with straight or dark gray cords. Brown and ivory also came with matching (not dark gray) cords, but they also came with straight cords until 1957 when coil cords were made standard across the board. Dark blue always came with gray cords.

Phones with matching color straight cords are rare enough that one hasn't sold within recent memory, so there is no indication of value. These would be red, yellow or dark beige phones from 1956. We recently covered that in another thread and it was all speculation.

Below are pics from the above auctions.
Jonathan

jsowers

The last three auctions...
Jonathan

Jim Stettler

You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

LarryInMichigan

My early ivory 500 with matching straight cord sold for $454.  I would like to know how that guy who sold those phones managed to get so much.  He is only about six miles away from me.


Larry

andre_janew

I think it has to do with the reputation of the seller combined with luck.  Sometimes you get lucky enough to attract the attention of two bidders with more money than sense!