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new GPO 706 two tone

Started by Tom B, March 17, 2011, 06:07:11 PM

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Tom B

I've just won a Best Offer option on eBay for £10, which is about $16.00. It's a "mint condition" two tone grey GPO 706; nice....
Tom

AE_Collector

Nice score Tom! You are in UK aren't you? So shipping won't be bad. I want a two tone gray - brown and two tone green 700 series phone but never am willing to spring for the shipping from UK to Canada!

Terry

Tom B

Thanks, Terry.
Shipping is £7.00 which is $11 and some change which isn't so bad. I bought the majority of my US phones from American eBay, and the shipping charges are starting to rise steeply, so I'm now being extra picky.
On the subject of GPO phones, I was in a local antiques shop last weekend and the price of the phones in there was outrageous... £58 for a standard red 746 :o
Tom

gpo706

#3
Tom, looks immaculate, chevron number back, matching fingerwheel cover, is it never used?

Even has the correct dark grey line cord, if you want a GPO soapdish to connect it to PM me.

As an aside, my mother said there was a "dial phone" in the window of a local charity shop, so I went along and its a boring ivory 746, so I asked the bloke if I could see it, he plucked it out the window, and I asked him if I could have look at the insides, (armed with my screwdriver), he looks rather astonished when take the back screw out, asked him for some sellotape to remove the dial card "opal" removed the fingerwheel and eased the case off.

It was a really rather nice 8746 (PST converted) ivory, practically no marks/cracks, no sunburn, so I gave him the 15 quid the charity shop valued it at, I would have felt guilty at trying to knock down a couple of quid for such a nice example.

The bloke was so impressed he took my name and number in case they had any more "antique phones" that came in, he then said they had another one in the window which sold first day for 12 quid, then complained about his till phone, - it was the 3rd of the three donated and was the dirtiest of them all but still used - he said it was a pain in the arse for dialling out to mobiles etc...

It is a 1982 refurb, with underneath the the remains of a sticky-on lable dial on the opal revealed it was from Duns in the Scottish borders with a 4 figure number, so got a freebie dial lable thrown in!
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

Tom B

Hi Scot
I haven't received it yet, but I'll let you know all about it when it comes. Thanks for the offer of the soapdish, but I've got the correct one in my spares box. I picked it up a few weeks ago off eBay for a quid - thought it might come in handy :D
I like the idea of the finds in the charity shop - makes the hunt worthwhile
Tom

Dennis Markham

A very nice looking telephone, Tom.  I look forward to your photos when you get it in your possession.

Scot, I enjoyed reading your description of your trip to the charity shop.  I know you've probably mentioned before but I'll ask again.  How much is a quid as it relates to the U.S. dollar?

AE_Collector

Quid is slang for 1 pound and 1 pound is worth $1.62 US$ at the moment.

Terry

gpo706

Thank you Terry for doing the maths, far too much effort for me!

Anyway I'm running out of dials, even if it was scrapper the dial alone would have been worth 12 quid.

(sorry about the quid thing, but this darn keyboard I have doesn't seem to like the "pound" sign!)
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

AE_Collector

Quote from: gpo706 on March 20, 2011, 07:29:04 AM
(sorry about the quid thing, but this darn keyboard I have doesn't seem to like the "pound" sign!)

Don't worry about that Scot! Likely almost none of us can get the "pound symbol" to work on our computers either!

Terry

Tom B

#9
Looks like its been a good week for me. I just won a nice red GPO 706 for £14.50 (about $23.50), which to my mind is cheap. These babies usually go for a lot more from what I've seen in the past. ;D
Tom

GG



Nice one.  I have a red 706 with the numeric-only 746-style dial setup, that had some kind of intermittent trouble and has been sitting on the "fix this one of these days" area of my workbench.  I should try to come up with the parts to put the dial back to original 706 type per your example. 

The 2-tone gray set at the top of this page was used at one point: the handset cord appears to be coiled more tightly than when new, and the front of the set appears to be slightly faded. 


Tom B

I'll post photos of both phones when I receive them, as before and after shots. I am also looking at a two tone green 706 at the moment .....
Tom

gpo706

You sure are lucky!

The red set - I have one looks exactly the same, but has a plain red fingerplate, no chevrons, it also has a "fatter" handset coil than your GPO standard, I think these were unique to Plessey variants.

It's a 706L PL 62/1.

You will be able to suss it immediately, those Plessey cords are nice and fat, far better than the GPO sets.



"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

Tom B

#13
That two tone green 706 I've been keeping my eye on - just acquired it for the princely sum of £15 ($24.00). Been lucky this last week definitely. As I said before these 706 phones usually attract higher prices.
Tom

gpo706

Nice!

I had to frankenhone my 706 green, it was bare scrapper chassis, then I got NOS green body, a green fingerplate, then bought a spare handset minus RX/TX which came from another scrapper.

Oh and a new green line cord.

Still not got round to getting the green blanking button, then its done.

Probably (definately) cost more than the whole unit, but hey who cares, its a project!
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"