Western Electric F58554 card dialer

[phonium]

Got this Western Electric card dialer a couple weeks ago for $6 at an estate sale.
Stamped F58554. This version uses square holes instead of round ones.

[HarrySmith]

According to Paul's site it is built to "provide extended life for high usage applications" and uses a modified card type.
More info here: http://www.paul-f.com/we2500typ.html#F58554

[oldguy]

Great find😀

[paul-f]

OUTSTANDING!
Especially including cards and the index dividers.

[phonium]

Thanks guys! Anyone know how much its worth?

[Jim Stettler]

Thanks guys! Anyone know how much its worth?

My guess is that you could get over $500 for it.
Jim

[Dave F]

This phone is a winner!  You are very fortunate.

These were test-marketed by the Bell System in the mid 1970s.  The cards were manufactured to be the same size as bank credit cards.  They hoped to convince the banks to issue cards that had data encoded in the card holes.  Unfortunately for the Bell System (but very fortunately for lucky phone collectors) mag-stripe card readers came into use and this project never went into production.  Very few were produced, and today they are really rare.  Elsewhere on this forum are pictures of others in my collection.

DF