Please Explain the Fading On Pink 500 sets

[Doug Rose]

I have noticed on Pink 500 sets that I see at Flea Markets and on eBay (150463896201) that they sometimes get an uneven fade. Body and handset will get a faded look, but the dial will remain the same. Sometime the caps fade, sometimes they don't. Handset cord will fade to an almost bleached out white color. This seems to be mostly on the softplastic, but I have seen it on newer sets. Any clues?....Doug

[Jim Stettler]

I have noticed lack of fading on most dial rings.
I have always assumed it was a slightly different plastic they used on dial rings, I asssumed this was because of having to do the injection lettering.

Just a guess,
Jim

[jsowers]

The particular phone in the picture may not be all soft plastic. Do you have the dates handy? After 6-59 they used up the soft plastic pieces until no more were left, and the dial faces lasted the longest. So you get a soft plastic dial, which fades lighter, combined with a hard plastic housing and handset, which fades to a more orangey pink. I call these phones combo phones because of their combination of plastics. They're tough to get back to matching.

The cords suffered from unstable dyes, I think. Pink was the worst, but light beige, dark beige and yellow also suffered from this early on. The later 1960s cords were fine, but I think pink was the toughest to get to be fade-proof because I've seen faded cords on early 60s phones too, including early Princesses.

Different factors, like smoke, could fade things too. You can always tell smoke fade because it gets to every nook and cranny, inside the housing and the handset caps. But UV fading hits where the sun shines. So where there's a shadow, you have no fading.

At least that's my 2¢ worth. I've seen many a 500 and 554 from late 1959 and most of them look like the pink one in your picture.