What do you think about stickers and number cards on phones?

[Cole]

Noticed some of the fresh finds on the forum and seen some on eBay also have stickers applied. Such as numbers for police, etc. What do you think of these? Tacky or tell a story? To me if they're not to obtrusive, and applied neat and straight, they do kind of tell a history of the phone, how long it was in service, etc.

Some of the phones I'm obtaining also have the old number cards on them? Do you leave these intact? I think I'm going to leave mine, since again they tell the history of the phone, what state it was used in, etc.

[Key2871]

I don't like them, I like my phones as they came out of the box. I remove stickers and 911 labels always.

[Russ Kirk]

They do tell a story, but I agree with Ken, I don't like them. They do not enhance the story or add to the appeal.

[Doug Rose]

I agree, I can't stand them. Worse when you finally  remove them and the color of the phone is not the same as the rest of the phone  ....Doug

[HarrySmith]

Agreed, I do not like stickers. I always remove them. Number cards are a different story. As long as they still look decent I keep them. I do not keep hand written or nasty ones though. I also do not put original number cards on phones I sell unless it is something special, usually just a generic Bell logo(with my initials on the back so I know it was mine if I see it in the future)

[Doug Rose]

If you watch eBay you can find a good deal on large quantities of NOS dial cards. That's what I put in phones I sell. Usually around .20 a piece. Looks nice with a pristine REAL dial card. ..Doug

[Key2871]

Oh yea, if the number cards are decent I'll keep those because of orinanaity. I've got beige dirty crappy stickers galore, but I remove those stickers cleaned up the set up, and what a transformation. ( dang phone)

[HarrySmith]

If you watch eBay you can find a good deal on large quantities of NOS dial cards. That's what I put in phones I sell. Usually around .20 a piece. Looks nice with a pristine REAL dial card. ..Doug

You were right Doug! I just snagged a box of "about 1,000" dial cards for a little over $10.00 shipped! They are even the right area code for South Florida, 305 is Miami.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/About-1000-Number-Cards-for-Rotary-Dial-Telephones-Bell-System-305/223672324778 ( dead link 04-09-21 )

[FABphones]

.....I just snagged a box of "about 1,000" dial cards for a little over $10.00 shipped! They are even the right area code for South Florida, 305 is Miami.

Wow Harry, that was a great buy. Of course now you have to buy 1000 Bell phones for them... 

The GPO issued various models of self inking stamps to add phone numbers to dial cards, do you have the same type of thing there?

[Doug Rose]

You were right Doug! I just snagged a box of "about 1,000" dial cards for a little over $10.00 shipped! They are even the right area code for South Florida, 305 is Miami.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/About-1000-Number-Cards-for-Rotary-Dial-Telephones-Bell-System-305/223672324778

Outstanding Harry....a lifetime supply! A penny a card....Wow! .....Doug

[oldguy]

Great find Harry.

[HarrySmith]

Thanks Guys. Now I have to find a numbering kit. I have looked at some kits in the past but without cards it did not seem like a necessary buy.

[Key2871]

Harry, I found a numbering kit years back... But the band's were dried out and cracked. Yea it sort of worked. But to use it for numbering with differant numbers, it would not have lasted for that use. So I went to McMaster Carr and found a numbering stamp that the numbers could be changed.
It cost me under ten bucks, only thing I had to do is change the forth band with one with a dash on the band. It was a bit of a pita but I did it, and it worked like a charm.
Just an idea to have you think about, a number kit is fine.
Just those are getting older all the time and rubber dries out and could just fail.

[Russ Kirk]

Here is a phone with stickers I forgot I had. It was given to me by a friend that serves in the US Air Force reserves. The story he told me was this simple WE 500 set was used in the control tower on an air base in Arizona. It was used to notify emergency services in case of an airplane crash.

While I do not like stickers, I will keep these on the phone because of the unique story it tells.

[Dan/Panther]

I remove all EXCEPT those with Funeral Home numbers. of which I have 2.

D/P