1554 -- with condition issues

[paul-f]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281032903513

"Non-working, nicely melted Bell phone.  Circuitry, push buttons and original phone number are intact. Handpiece will sit in cradle.  This is probably the only one of its kind in existence."

[twocvbloke]

Sooooo, is this the alternative to "Lamp art"

[AE_Collector]

Almost in good enough condition to still work! Too bad it didn't still work. One of us should buy it, fix it and resell it potentially for big bux.

But as twocv says, it may lead us to needing a "Melted Phone Atrocities" topic here on CRPF.

20 minutes to go and no bids yet. $25 starting price or $30 buy it now.

Terry

<edit>. Just ended, no bids.

[gpo706]

Shoot, need to buy a blowtorch and make some of mine errr "art"?

[LarryInMichigan]

"This is probably the only one of its kind in existence."

I sure hope so!


Larry

[LM Ericsson]

It looks kinda gross to me.

[LarryInMichigan]

It just occurred to me.  This looks like Gumby's phone

Larry

[Jester]

I recall seeing a Bell Systems magazine ad from the same era as the phone above that showed a Aqua 500 that had cooked in a house fire.  According to the ad, the phone startled all the firefighters checking for hot spots-- because it RANG!

[Phonesrfun]

There's a melted house-fire phone in the Seattle Museum. 

I remember in the 70's a TV ad by the Bell System touting their quality.  It showed a fire department combing through a smoldering aftermath of a house fire.  Just as the fireman goes through the kitchen, a melted and still smoking 554 starts ringing.  The fireman shoots it with a fire extinguisher, and then the announcer comes on and says something about reliability.

[poplar1]

There was also a post-divestiture AT&T ad showing people throwing junk phones out the window of an apartment building. Included in the "junk" was a Northern Electric Contempra (not junk IMO). At the time, AT&T was still selling leather-covered Contempras in their Phone Center Stores. Oops.

[davidbholcomb]

Brings back memories. From 1942 to around 1972 the Los Angeles City Fire Department had the Junior Fire Prevention Program. School children would be visited in the 5th grade and taught about fire prevention and fire safety. The program always included a badly burned/melted phone that would be passed around to each of the students. This common everyday object brought home to the kids the dangers of fire. I will have to look to see if anyone knows where they might be now. I am pretty sure they have all been disposed of.

[baldopeacock]

I was curious enough to ask the seller if the phone had been in a fire.

No, an "artist friend" of the seller did the modification.

[paul-f]

It was just relisted with a BIN of $30.

  http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=281036608667

If it had been listed on ebay without the artist's "added value" ...  $________

[baldopeacock]

It was just relisted with a BIN of $30.

 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=281036608667

If it had been listed on ebay without the artist's "added value" ...  $________

Identical 1554 (non-melted) sold on the 2nd for $78.77 with "a small crack in the case".   

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WESTERN-ELECTRIC-1554-554-GREEN-10-KEY-PUSH-BUTTON-1966-/261133873280

[AE_Collector]

Send the seller the link to it baldo....

Terry