"Pekin Red" 302 questions

[Sargeguy]

I just won an auction for a thermoplastic "Pekin" Red 302 on eBay that was missing its handset.  It is in pretty good shape except for a couple corner cracks and the missing handset.  Questions:

1. Does anyone have an extra Pekin Red handset?
2. What type of cords did the thermoplastic version come with originally?
3.  What was the handset made of?  I assume it was plastic, unless it painted Bakelite as with the early metal color sets.

I will post pictues later, point-and-shoot digital camera is acting up on meright now.

[Steve K]

I have two Pekin 302's but unforunately not an extra handset.  The handset was plastic like the body of he phone and the cords (both handset and line) were red cloth.  My red phones both have straight cords but I have a green one and an ivory one that have matching cloth coiled handset cords.

Steve

[Dennis Markham]

Steve, show us a photo of those phones.  I'm wishing I had a red one!

[Steve K]

Dennis:

Here is a picture of my colored 302s.  This is the first time I'm uploading a picture onto this site so I hope it works.

Steve

[Dennis Markham]

Very nice Steve!  I do have an Old Rose like yours.  It has a damaged corner in the back but despite that it's a nice phone.  My friend did his repair job magic on the damage so it doesn't look too bad.  You have a nice collection there.

[Steve K]

Thanks Dennis:

Actually all but one of the red ones have a few cracks in the corners.  In fact, if you look closely at the green one there is a piece missing in the front corner.

Steve

[Dan/Panther]

Nobody should have two Red 302's you have to,
"by law", sell one. Since I mentioned it I'll take it off your hands.
D/P

[HobieSport]

Yes, I've heard of that law.  It's called the "Pekin Red 302 Fairness Act of Dan/Panther"
Nice collection Steve.

[mienaichizu]

nice colorful phones

[Steve K]

Gee guys, I was not aware of that law.  I'll tell you what, I'll trade one of the red ones for a blue thermoplastic 302!

Steve

[Dennis Markham]

That would be a good trade indeed!  (For You!)

[McHeath]

I just happen to have a blue 302 that I will gladly trade for your extra Pekin red job. 

Can you wait a day for the paint to dry before I ship it to you?   

That's a durned impressive collection. 

[Dennis Markham]

Drifting off topic a bit from the Pekin 302 to the Blue 302, I know a guy that is a phone collector.  I have attended a couple of phone shows with him.  He has an extensive collection of sticks but also collects some plastic phones, especially the 302's.  He told me about having a contact from rural Michigan that bought and sold antiques, went to estate sales, etc.  When he saw telephones he would call my friend and he'd drive up to see what he had.  He almost always charged him $5 for any of the desk phones.  One day he bought several from him and one of them was still in it's original box.  It was a blue 302.  He paid $5 for that phone.  He said on the drive home we lifted the lid on the box only quick enough to see that it was a blue 302 and quickly closed the box again in his excitement.  There was a dial but it had never been installed.  So in his collection he has a $5 dark blue 302...not a painted one.  I'm not sure when this was but I got the impression it was in the not to distant past.

Once again, it's just another example of the fact that there are some phones still out in the world.  They're just hiding on us!

[winkydink]

Lets talk Dollars and Cents for a second.

What is a fair market value price for one of the colored plastic 302's

What would the difference in cost be between a 302 (colored) with corner cracks vs a phone with no cracks.

The same would go for the 354 what is a reasonable cost for a colored one of those and did they only come in black and white(beige) ?

I have been window shopping for a colored 302 / 354.  What should I look for in these phones, and how can I spot phonies (no pun intended) vs the real thing.

[Steve K]

Wink:

I can not say much with regard to fair market value for these phones.  Dennis is correct, there are still plenty of them out there to be found at a good price.  My red one with no cracks I got for free.  The others were mostly under $50.  The pink one I got on eBay and paid about $100 for it.  I still can't believe that I paid that much for an old plastic telephone!

As far as I know the 354s only came in black and white.  If there were different colors they were probably painted.

Steve