Introductory thread with pics

[HobieSport]

I wouldn't ignore Bwanna. Some say that she strips live high power lines with her teeth, and for recreation, plays frisbee with a manhole cover.

[Dan/Panther]

My kinda Gal, you go girl.
D/P
Matt;
The first few words of your post, I wasn't sure where you were going with it?
D/P

[HobieSport]

Just a silly running joke.

[McHeath]

Nice little collection.  I really like very early 500s, and the more unusual models like the T are high on my list of wants.  Interesting how the cords are obviously thicker on the 2/51.  Any parts on it dated 1950?  The handset on it seems to have a good shine still.

If your yellow 500 is soft plastic you have a real rare bird there from what I've gleaned off this forum.  Too bad about all those sticker marks.

Welcome.

[foots]

Mike, keep on chanting and it will come. I hate to burst your soft plastic bubble, but this ivory one looks like a hard plastic refurb. You can tell by the dates on the plastics. 1954 to mid-1959 is soft plastic. Anything later is hard plastic. The newer cords, 505A 4-prong plug and solid center fingerwheel with area code and phone number indicate that this is a 1960s or early 70s refurb of a 9-57 phone. They re-used the base and likely replaced everything else. So something as involved as a foot replacement may not be worth it, but you can still try.
[/quote]

I have a refurbed '58 545 and the only thing that was replaced is the dial - its from 4/59 and the other stuff is 12/58. Its possible that the cover wasn't replaced on the yellow phone, unless the date on it was mentioned and I missed it.

[Dan]

Welcome!  I also love the early black ones (I have a 12/50 and 1/51).
I also agree with the other folks your yellow is not soft. Yellow seems to be rare, since they continued that color so long and refurbed them and took all the soft tenite away with them . Even an auction like this, which looks like an old yellow, shows the set was refurbished (I'd say the cord and the housing)

http://tinyurl.com/n76mhx

[mienaichizu]

From the Philippines, welcome Mike

[Dennis Markham]

Mike, as Jonathan mentioned, the dates tell the story.  Just lift off the housing and look along the front inside edge for a date.  If there is one there and it's pre July 1959 it's more than likely soft plastic.  If the date is molded underneath the housing into the plastic with a letter over a number the number will indicate the date of manufacture...like C/68 would be from 1968.

[The Operator]

Thanks everyone.

The yellow phone has the base stamp 9 20 57 01. I haven't checked the cord but I do know everything else is dated 9/57. Being well accustomed to the hard plastic era you can feel it's soft plastic. You can hear it when you clunk the handset down.

I won't disappoint with more pictures of each of these as we go. Particularly the "guts" and details of the early 500's, because it's only by enough of us comparing observations of the phones we have access to that we can glean to understand the big picture. ~The Operator

[The Operator]

On the one dated 2/51, is there a "bonus" card under the adhesive sticker? Not to suggest you should attempt to remove the adhesive sticker, but is there another under that?  That GIbson sticker is cool because it is for a phone number with only 5 digits.

There doesn't seem to be a "bonus" card underneath as the hunk that's missing shows to bare metal. I will definitely get the plastic on there to protect it. ~The Operator

[Dan]

From your housing  date, congratulations are in order, you have a soft tenite yellow!Your fingerwheel is a later replacement (it has a hard center, not a soft one). The cord maybe a replacement, look where it connects to the base, it will have a 57 on  the metal connector it if it is original or a later date if it is replacement cord. Even so, that's a valuable rare bird, and if you put an old fingerwheel back on, it will be visually -period-correct.

[Phonesrfun]

To Mike (a.k.a. Operator):

I don't think it has come up in this thread yet, but did you notice that the very early 500 black phones had a smaller "OPERATOR" under the zero than the later phones?  Yours has that smaller wording.

I guess there was yet an even earlier version where "OPERATOR" was not only small but instead of being kind of bent or wrapped around the zero, the real early version was simply horizontal.  Another one to go looking for in your quest.

Welcome to the forum.  I have only been here since May and not only has everyone been real nice, but I have also enjoyed myself and the great things many have done in their restorations and experimentations of restorations.

[The Operator]

Yes I'd seen in other photos that the Operator type is much smaller. That's one of the unique things about the early 500 sets that I really like, so utilitarian. Been getting some practice trying to spot that small type in the typical 10 foot away, blurry, back lit, e-Bay auction photo too.

I will definitely get the proper soft dial for the yellow '57. ~The Operator

[McHeath]

My 12/51 model 500 came with the smaller lettering on the bezel, and it was broken in shipping. 

I like all that black on the very early 500s, the small lettering makes for a much more stealth mode like phone, in my opinion, whereas the bigger lettering of the later bezels is much more friendly feeling but less dramatic.

Congrads again on having a soft plastic yellow 500. 

[The Operator]

My 12/51 model 500 came with the smaller lettering on the bezel, and it was broken in shipping. 

Dang, of all things. Were you able to fix it?

Thanks for the congrats. I'd read the soft yellow and pink were tough to find but I didn't realize how tough. I knew these were popular colors so I didn't quite get why that would be so. It was only with the explanation given here that it finally made sense. Ahh, it's because these colors were so popular that they've mostly been refurb'd to hard plastic.

Dial is 8-60, handset cord is 70, plug cord is '66 so I should have more correctly stated that everything I could see was dated 9/57. The date stamps on the plastic are in yellow, except the handset which is black. My first thought was yellow on yellow... someone wasn't thinking there. But the stamp is a much brighter yellow and isn't hard to see. So my second thought was... that looks right classy! You'll be seeing more of this phone. ~The Operator