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Started by skucera, January 14, 2018, 01:43:23 AM

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skucera

My name is Scott, and oddly enough, I don't collect phones, although i've Been the recipient of classic phones and used them.  My stepdad was the phone collector, having worked as an installer for Pacific Northwest Bell from right after he got out of the army until he retired.  His name was Jack, and he died last summer.  He had a huge collection of working phones from the last century.  The garage and attic are stuffed full of phones that collected over 40 years.  My mom wants me to find good homes for them, so I figured I would lurk and learn here, and get an idea about what he's got.  I think it would be a terrible waste to just recycle them or donate them to a thrift store.

The old phones I've had, myself, were one I was given in college that Jack said was designed by Henry Dreyfus (a model 302, if Google is correct).  He converted it to a modern RJ22 so I could use it in a modern house.  Later, I rented a 150-year-old farm house (really rare here in Oregon) so I asked Jack if he had a wall phone for the kitchen, and he did.  He happily installed it the next Saturday.  People would walk into that kitchen and ask, "Is that real? Does it work?"  Yes, it really worked.

Thank you for letting me read and learn here.

Scott

.....

Welcome to CRPF, Sorry for your loss.
Post some pictures, I'm sure the members here would enjoy seeing Jack's collection.

LarryInMichigan

Welcome Scott.  Posting pictures of the collection here will allow us to see what you have and tell you what it is and what it might be worth.  There are likely some valuable items in the collection.  Before a $500 phone is turned into a $20 lamp/picture frame/etc., we can help you to know what it is.  Various other people have appeared here over the years with very similar situations to yours.  I bought a phone from one of them.

Larry

WEBellSystemChristian

Welcome to the forum, and very sorry to hear of your loss.

Yes, please post pictures of that collection! Post a really good picture of a bunch of them, and the Eagle Eyes among us would probably be able to pick out the desirable and valuable ones. Chances are, depending on what he decided to collect, there's at least one phone worth upwards of $1000, possibly more. Here's one story of a woman going through her own father's 40-year-long stash, who found this:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=7975.0

That phone ended up selling for 5 figures, but it was a very rare case. Worst case, you have a bunch of black 302s that could be worth $50 each if really cleaned up and working. It all depends on what he went after.

Again, please post sharp pictures of the collection. They don't need to be tidy, just sharp enough to see what he has. ;)
Christian Petterson

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right" -Henry Ford

HarrySmith

Hi Scott, welcome to the forum and my condolences on your loss. As already stated a few good pictures will give us a chance to let you know what you have. Also I am sure a few people here would be willing to buy some or all of the phones.
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

Dan/Panther

Scott;
Welcome to our forum. You will get all the information you may need right here.
Don't sell or give away anything, until you post here to get the 411 on what you have.

D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

AE_Collector

#6
Welcome to CRPF and thanks for making the effort to find us! You're instincts were correct, it would be (close to) a crime to send them off to electronic recycling thinking you had done the right thing by not landfilling them. Here is a topic posted by someone who did manage to rescue a load of valuable old Automatic Electric phones that were dropped of at the electronic recycling center he worked at:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=8960.0

This link below is the main topic posted by MagicMo about her dads stash of phones including basement and attic jammed full. The link that WEBellSystemChristian posted above was also a find in MagicMo's dads house but was a once in a lifetime find of a 1960's picturephone worth tens of thousands.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=7944.0

If you get some pictures together maybe start a similar post in this area below:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?board=1.0

Terry

AE_Collector

Thinking about this topic and the two from the past that I posted links to gets me thinking more about the topic of wherevour phone collections go when we leave. I think there is a topic here about planning for the future, maybe time to wake it up again. Good timing from my perspective as I've just started to work towards downsizing the majority of my duplicates and items that don't fit my collection.

Terry

TelePlay

Quote from: AE_Collector on January 14, 2018, 02:00:57 PM
Thinking about this topic and the two from the past that I posted links to gets me thinking more about the topic of where our phone collections go when we leave. I think there is a topic here about planning for the future, maybe time to wake it up again.

This one?

     http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=5850.0

AE_Collector

That's the one John! I did a few searches and couldn't come up with anything but I couldn't begin to remember anything about the actual discussion, only the ideas discussed.

Terry

Babybearjs

Scott, welcome to the forum. I'm In Boise, ID and have a friend and fellow phone collector who lives in Jefferson, OR. His name is phil Mc Carter. I don't know if your dad knew him, but he still works for the phone company... Centurylink Telecom. If you need someone to help you with your fathers estate items, the Phones... he can help... where are you in Oregon?
John

Jim Stettler

Hi Scott,
Sorry for your loss

I collect  clear, swirled finish and special finish telephones. I also like special purpose sets with extra buttons or knobs, Please keep me in mind for these type of sets--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please present your phones thru this forum first. we can help you understand what you have, And help you get fair value.
Jim S.


You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

skucera

Terry (and everyone else too),

This topic has come up several times in other collector forums I subscribe to.  I collect film cameras, and many collectors are older and are now realizing that their kids or grandkids don't necessarily share their passions for old cameras.  On one of the Leica forums I frequent, a few members have sold their collections of Leicas and other exotic cameras or are auctioning them off to maximize their return on investment; one fellow in Portugal did that but kept his library of books, and now wonders what he will do with those.  Same with another forum that focuses more generally on lots of makes of cameras, and one fellow there is giving away his more mundane cameras to forum members for the cost of postage.  Another has started giving his cameras to interested kids, a lucky circumstance.

Well, I'm going to see if I can pass on Jack's phones to collectors who will enjoy them, while providing a little more money for my mom.  Thank you all for offering to help with this.

Scott



Quote from: AE_Collector on January 14, 2018, 02:00:57 PM
Thinking about this topic and the two from the past that I posted links to gets me thinking more about the topic of wherevour phone collections go when we leave. I think there is a topic here about planning for the future, maybe time to wake it up again. Good timing from my perspective as I've just started to work towards downsizing the majority of my duplicates and items that don't fit my collection.

Terry

skucera

#13
Jefferson isn't so far from me in Harrisburg, but it is more than an hour from my mom's house in Gresham.  However, I welcome any advice I can get. :)

Thanks,
Scott





Quote from: Babybearjs on January 14, 2018, 11:50:13 PM
Scott, welcome to the forum. I'm In Boise, ID and have a friend and fellow phone collector who lives in Jefferson, OR. His name is phil Mc Carter. I don't know if your dad knew him, but he still works for the phone company... Centurylink Telecom. If you need someone to help you with your fathers estate items, the Phones... he can help... where are you in Oregon?

Babybearjs

Checkout his pictures @ www.Stepswitch.us, he is also the moderator for the Key Telephones section on this forum, you can Message him through this site with any questions you might have, since you live by him, you might be able to connect with him and show him what you have. Good luck!  John
John