A lot of boxes from over the pond ;)

[Haf]

With the great help and a lot of effort from Harry Smith finally all the phones I bought in the US in the last few month arrived. Harry generously offered his help for sellers not willing to ship outside the US. He unpacked everything, tested some of the phones, did some repair work too and at the end repacked everything again carefully, bundled for lower shipping costs. And after some arguing with German customs officers all turned out satisfying and I am in the posession of all the packages.
So it is like Christmas in July  sitting in front of all the boxes and unpacking them. Seeing what I bought with my own eyes. Many phones and parts to work on, polish and making functional for use again. No bordedom in sight for quite a while
I will describe in detail what is inside one at a time. Will start with the first one later today


Haf

[Ktownphoneco]

Haf ....    I'm looking forward to having a look at what you bought.   It's amazing that all those packages could travel all the way from the U.S.A., to Germany, and still look like they didn't go any further than across town.    Nice job Harry ! 

Jeff Lamb

[HarrySmith]

I was happy to help, plus I got to play with a really cool set I am sure we will see later.

This is what it looked like before the journey across the pond.

[FABphones]

Can I ask what shipping method was used?
And that lot just in shipping must have cost, like, loads.

How how how? Tell me more!

I feel your excitment Haf. 

ETA: Well done both you guys. Good work.

[HarrySmith]

The packages were all shipped USPS Priority Mail. Cost was much less than if each individual item was sent over. I have a lot of experience from selling on eBay with overseas shipping so I packed them up to get the best price. Packages under a certain size and weight except for one that could not be broken up.

[Pourme]

That's exciting....Can't wait to see your bounty!

[Key2871]

Nice work, Harry.

[Haf]

OK, here we go and just to tease Harry a bit and to leave some highlights for later, the real cool set has to wait for a while and I'll start with a Western Electric B1 202 and  684A subset with 156A backboard. Phone is dated I 30 and just had to be cleaned up, no polishing just a little waxing for protection. And I had to replace the cut receiver cord, luckily I had one in spare. The subset, dated I 37 was polished after a good clean and turned out very nice and shiny, no cracks or damages at all. The backboard I'll keep for later use. Phone and subset are hooked up and according to persons I talked to over it  all confirm that it has a very good voice quality. Very pleased.

Here are some before and after pictures.


Haf

p.s. Still renovating my apartment, so please don't look at the walls etc

[compubit]

I can't wait to see the finished product(s)!

I had the honor of visiting Haf in April, and he's got a great collection so far and it's only going to get better. He's also a stickler for classics and authenticity - no touch tone models in view that I recall (save for pay phones, if I recall correctly...)

Jim