Rarity Survey Top Five

[Dan]

I would like to ask the more experienced guys out there, especially since I have been collecting 4 years or so, to rank the sets from 1948 on from Western Electric as far as rareness. This is only rareness, not value, which doesn't necessarily  go hand in hand.  I only have ebay and phone shows to go off of for my experience. Feel free to list your top five  or reshuffle mine and maybe we can get a consensus....1 is the rarest down to 5. I am sure I may be forgetting something, especially since I don't know the "clear" sets very well.

1. 1948 or 1949 WE500s.

Dan Panther found THEE prototype, and I have yet to see a curly operator dial or one like Dan's unique dial yet (besides his).


2. Colored 5302's .

To me, these seem especially hard to find. I have seen a picture Dennis or Dan/P (I can't remember) had posted  where four were sold in the same auction. I was lucky to get a pink recently.

3. Mushroom 500's  (WE 500 U, We 500 P/U, WE 500 P). I would say pink and black are the most seen out there , but red, green, blue, rose beige and grey are really hard to find.

3.  1950  WE500 's.

Were there only 50,000 or so of these with the date on the bottom edge? They rarely are seen.

4. 1964 one year only Turquoise WE500 with an open soft center fingerwheel.

This is a hard one to find, really.

5. WE554's in Oxford Grey, Medit. Blue, or Mahogany Brown.

Any early soft plastic wall phone to me is harder to find than a 500.

Honorable mention--1950s thermoplastic 302's (especially Blue), ten button princesses, and early soft plastic princesses from 7-59 or earlier.

[stopthemachine]

Cool topic for discussion, fellow Dan,

I would say that although the 1702B Princess phones are difficult to come across, the 10-digit TRIMLINE phones are even scarcer.  I am fortunate to have one 10-digit Princess and a 10-digit Trimline.  That's all I can really add at 1 AM EST.  Haha     ...1959 Princess sets too!

Dan

[Jim Stettler]

I am looking for a clear 10 button IC based trimline.
Jim S.

[Dan]

What does IC mean Jim?

[baldopeacock]

Clear 302 has to be on the list somewhere.

[jsowers]

I'm not sure I'd compare prototypes to regular production phones. All prototypes and test market phones will be rare as hen's teeth. There were Princess, Trimline and wall phone prototypes that are just super-rare and you could get a top five of just those phones like the Shmoo, the Carafe and the Demitasse. Paul's site has a very large page devoted to them. I would also have to put the clear 302 in this group because it wasn't available for installation or regular production.

In regular production phones, I think the 500P and 500U in the dark colors like dark blue, dark gray and brown are so rare that I don't recall ever seeing more than one on eBay. Does anyone on the Forum other than Dan have one of these or know someone who does? That would be #1 for me.

That's followed closely by the early 554 in the same three colors. I know of examples of those in all three colors, but they just don't come up for bids at all any more. Those would be #2.

Many of the 10-button phones are very rare. The 1750 Panel Phone is a rare bird. I know one collector who has one installed in his house. That would be #3 in my book.

The color 5302 is also rare and I would rank it maybe #4.

The 1220 10-button Trimline is also fairly rare, but they do come up for bids every now and then. They're #5, and light gray would be very hard to find.

Also, certain colors of certain phones are hard to find. I don't think the turquoise 64 500 is super-rare. Maybe just rare.

Funny you should mention that particular phone. I happen to have a turquoise 63 500 I just purchased for $7.15 plus shipping. It's about as ugly as homemade sin at the moment. Here is the auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320650342731 ( dead link 04-09-21 )

It's also filthy dirty and broken in two places! I planned to reveal it after I cleaned it up and removed the paint, but this seems as good a time as any. Below is a picture of the date of the housing and the phone. Someone painted it red. Yuck!

All the parts in this phone date to 10-63. Considering Paul's site says Turquoise was introduced in 1964, this one is about as early as it gets. As with Princess phones, I suppose they were made for a while before they were introduced.

[paul-f]

I agree with Jonathan.  There are undoubtedly prototype and field trial sets we don't even know exist that would probably top any rarity list.

Similarly, a quick look down the list of production sets in the charts on my site (link in the block below) shows many models that most of us have seldom or never seen including the 501H/P/U, 512, 513, 516, 529, 536, 552, 592, 596, 597, 543, 568HT, 691, 1500Y, not to mention finding them in an uncommon color.

There are also some Call Director models (especially those with the early 2-piece faceplate or those used as PBX consoles), Autovon sets, Design Line sets like the Glow phone and other specialty sets like the 103G data set with card reader worth considering.

I don't think we'll run out of things to look for any time soon!

[Jim Stettler]

What does IC mean Jim?

Integrated Circuit.  I believe there was a production model as well as the engineering models.
I will try to post a photo later.

Jim

[stopthemachine]

Yes, prototype phones cannot individually be added, phone by phone, but definitely as a category of phone: prototype. 

I agree with Paul, too, about some of the different Design Line phones.  Speaking of Design Line phones, Paul, ATC/Decotel made the chest phones phones with the scenes on them too--such as the hunting dog scenes in faux marble?  I didn't see one on your site, but I figured it was just under the "chest phone" umbrella.

[paul-f]

ATC/Decotel made the chest phones phones with the scenes on them too--such as the hunting dog scenes in faux marble?  I didn't see one on your site, but I figured it was just under the "chest phone" umbrella.

True, I just included the ones I've seen in BSPs or other Bell System literature.  ATC/Decotel sold most of those through other channels.

I've collected photos of a bunch of their variations, but haven't decided whether to put up a reference page for them.

Jim,  Here's a photo from the cover of Radio-Electronics magazine (6/69) showing the IC Trimline.

[stopthemachine]

ATC/Decotel made the chest phones phones with the scenes on them too--such as the hunting dog scenes in faux marble?  I didn't see one on your site, but I figured it was just under the "chest phone" umbrella.

True, I just included the ones I've seen in BSPs or other Bell System literature.  ATC/Decotel sold most of those through other channels.

I've collected photos of a bunch of their variations, but haven't decided whether to put up a reference page for them.

Jim,  Here's a photo from the cover of Radio-Electronics magazine (6/69) showing the IC Trimline.

You should totally add a reference page!  I have a really obscure one to add too-- it's what looks like a pirate ship in faux marble?  Anyone else ever seen one of them?  I've never seen one since, but I think it's pretty nifty. 

[Adam]

The rarest telephone is the one I happen to be looking for right now (no matter what that is).

[paul-f]

You should totally add a reference page!  I have a really obscure one to add too-- it's what looks like a pirate ship in faux marble?  Anyone else ever seen one of them?  I've never seen one since, but I think it's pretty nifty. 

It will be a while before ATC/Decotel comes to the top of my project list.  In the meantime, I've started a topic for all to share photos of the chest phones we've discovered (either sets or photos).

The first post shows several ship theme chest phones from my photo collection.

  http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=4419.0

[Dan]

Congrats Johathan, on the We turq from 1963. I saw that ugly auction and now am glad a collector got it!

[Jim Stettler]

ATC/Decotel made the chest phones phones with the scenes on them too--such as the hunting dog scenes in faux marble?  I didn't see one on your site, but I figured it was just under the "chest phone" umbrella.

True, I just included the ones I've seen in BSPs or other Bell System literature.  ATC/Decotel sold most of those through other channels.

I've collected photos of a bunch of their variations, but haven't decided whether to put up a reference page for them.

Jim,  Here's a photo from the cover of Radio-Electronics magazine (6/69) showing the IC Trimline.

Thanks Paul,
That is the Engineering model.
I took some photos today and misplaced the camera, (It should show up soon).

I can find  an enginering model and 2 production sets. I know I have another production set that has a different meathod of protecting the chip.

The model # is 2220B-1 for the IC based trimlines.  I have a production model from 3/76 w a mostly clear chip and one from 4/76 w a grey chip.

The enginering model is a 12 button from 1968


Very early in the trimline life they determined that the handset or base to be Field replaced vs repaired. Therefore the BSP's don't cover some of the difference in the trimline network boards.  



The Round button sets were made until the breakup. The late Fat Mod Dial Trimlines had LED Dials.
Jim