What's it worth in your area?

[Stockdale]

Picked this up today in a tique mall while putzing around in the rain.  Had a $35 sticker, and I said yes.     Turned out to be 30% off, so I got it for $26.  I was happy!!!!     Got me thinking...What kind of prices are they getting in your area for similar?  Would this have been a good deal for you from what you see in your area?  Around S.W. Ohio, I have seen this particular phone go for as little as $12 bucks (bad shape - good for parts) to something like $100 & up for a nice one .  Will be interested in you opinion from different areas.  Let me know what you think.

[Phonesrfun]

The phone appears to be in pretty nice shape, and it has the fabric coiled cord, which you don't see that often on a 354.  I think your $26.00 was pretty decent.

With e-Bay, I am thinking that relative phone prices have become kind of "normalized" throughout the US and the world.  I often see these in antique stores for $50, $60, or $100, because I think many antique dealers follow e-Bay and try to peg their pricing on the higher priced sales they see on e-Bay.  Based on that, I think you did pretty well.

[Greg G.]

Antique stores around here are cluelessly overpriced.  Something like that would have around a $75-$125 price tag on it.  I ran into an antique dealer at a yard sale who had a booth at a local antique mall.  When I mentioned I was looking for rotary phones, he said he had a couple in his booth and told me his booth #.  When I went there, they were 80s modulars that he wanted almost $50 for.

[Kevin Lane]

You did very well.  Antique stores in the Chattanooga area overprice things like this.  For what you paid, I would have been thrilled to take it home!

Kevin Lane

[LarryInMichigan]

Stockdale,

I think that $26 is a great price, especially because of the coiled cloth cord.  If you clean and recoil the cord, it alone should be worth more than $26.

Larry

[Stockdale]

Thanks all,  We seem to agree it was a deal.  I agree that antique dealers are usually clueless.  They think every old phone is priceless and I seldom manage to pick up anything for a bargain.  But doesn't stop me from trying...     Occasionally they just want to unload it as they don't know what they have.  For me, once it gets over the $50 mark, it had better be something special.
Don't see many phones 4sale around this area it seems.  Guess people didn't think they were worth keeping and tossed them.  I know when I started working, I tossed so many of the 300's and 500's, it would have filled a box car.  People didn't want a rotary on there desk.  They wanted a NEW TT.    And who would have thought that anyone would want the 3, 4, 5, 10, 20 & 30 line phones???  Still have a bunch of the key cards and equipment for these that i need to do something with.  But as they say, if no one had thrown them out, the the remaining wouldn't be worth nearly as much now.   

[Dan]

Nice find, and I am also from Southwest Ohio. You can find good deals here, you just gotta be in the right place in the right time. I'd say most in this area are $50 or so.

[Sargeguy]

I have paid from $30-40 not including shipping for them off of eBay.  If I saw one at an antique mall for $60 in good condition, I would probably be $60 poorer.

[Stockdale]

Larryinmichigian
I was going to ask about recoiling the cloth cord.  How is this done?  I have read other posts on doing this to the plastic ones, but not on a cloth cord.  Will this work the same way? 
How do you all store or display your wall phones with the cords?  if you let the cords hang, they just get all stretched out.  Any good ideas?

[LarryInMichigan]

Stockdale,

First, clean the cord carefully with Woolite or something similar.  After it it dry, wind it around a dowel or something, and secure the ends so that it will not unravel.  I usually use a plastic clothes hangar.  Set it somewhere warm for a short while, but not hot.  I normally place them on the top of an oil-filled electric space heater for about 30 minutes.  Then stick it into the freezer for a few minutes.  This method has worked well for me.  With a cloth cord, I would not want to place it into an oven or into bright sunlight.

If this is too much trouble, you can always give the cord to me


Larry

[GG]

I'd suggest using the refrigerator rather than the freezer.  Especially with cloth coiled cords.  In the freezer, any residual moisture will freeze and expand, thereby damaging the cord.  In the fridge it'll just get good & cold. 

After taking them out of the fridge, let them warm up to ambient temperature before attempting to remove them or flex them in any way; otherwise they may be brittle and may crack. 

[Stockdale]

LarrynMi
Thanks for that tip. Almost the same as plastic cord's.  this will be most usful as I have numerious cloth cords that need some help.  I will give it a try.
And now I know what to do with all the old cords that are just to much trouble.   
Anyone have any tips on how to display so the cords don't get stretched out over time again?  If I mount the wall phone's before long the cords get a bad case of the sags. Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Thanks.

[GG]

Stockdale, re. wall phone mounting:  How'bout this: mount the phone to some kind of backboard that you can equip with a writing shelf under it at the proper distance for the cord.

What I've done on occasion is make up a straight handset cord of whatever length I needed to get around, using proper round-stock cordage and whatever strain reliefs were appropriate.  In a place I lived in years ago where I had a GPO 741 in the kitchen, the custom-made straight cord hung down to within a couple of inches of the floor.  Strictly speaking that's "cheating" and some of the folks around here will wince, but as a practical matter it works. 

Cords that get over-stretched can also be re-coiled "in the opposite direction" by a technique that's complicated to describe but easy to do.  Essentially it consists of rotating the handset about its lengthwise axis in the direction opposite to the existing coil of the cord, and then getting the cord to start re-coiling in the opposite direction close to the handset, and then manually assisting the cord to re-coil in that direction all the way back to the base.  Oddly enough this makes the cord "tight" again; and can be repeated as often as needed e.g. when the cord starts to stretch again, just re-coil it back in the opposite direction (back to its original direction) to tighten it up again.  Whether this technique works for coiled *cloth* cords, I don't know; it does work for rubber/plastic coiled cords.

[Stockdale]

GG,
Thanks for info.  I have managed to mount a lot of my wall phones close to some type of shelf, or something to lay the cords on so they don't stretch.  works ok if they are not hanging.  I have so many, i wouldn't have a place to put all the shelves.     See my "Phone Pole" pic below. 
Understand about the straight cords and cheating, but as long as you keep the original to put back on, then it doesn't matter.  Most of my phones are working, but I do not use any of them.  I use a cordless  for most of my in use phones. 
Will give the reverse coil a try.
Thanks.