My first princess phone...

[Sargeguy]

Reading his policy it looks like my only option is to return it for a refund minus shipping costs.  So I get my 99 cents back if I pay $9.80 to return it.  And I am still out the $9.80 shipping and $4.90 handling fee.   

I would be perfectly happy to negotiate if I thought it was an honest mistake, but this guy failed to mention some pretty glaring faults with this phone that are obvious to anyone, even to the non phone collector, and especially to a guy who consigns antiques to eBay for others.  I knew the phone wasn't "ivory" and the handset cord looks sketchy if you blow up the pictures, but the plug and line cord were my only reason for buying the phone.  The seller states "Even the plug has the old Bell System trademark embossed on it" without mentioning that there is a melt mark running through the middle of the trademark.

I think that this sort of thing is exactly what the eBay feedback system was designed for.  It might encourage buyers to scrutinize his items a little more carefully.

[Sargeguy]

I was having trouble getting the phone to light up.  I checked the plug and a couple of wires were loose.  Where does the white wire go?  There are two slots for each color except white.  Should it go with the black or the yellow or???

[TIPandRING]

I was having trouble getting the phone to light up.  I checked the plug and a couple of wires were loose.  Where does the white wire go?  There are two slots for each color except white.  Should it go with the black or the yellow or???

If the phone is unmodified and retains its original 5 conductor line cord, the wires are as follows:

RED= ring

GREEN=tip

YELLOW=ground (put this under the green wire terminal with the green wire at the baseboard jack connections to get the phone to ring)

Black--one side of the transformer output

White--other side of the transformer output

Black and white feed the dial light circuit. A princess needs 6 volts AC or DC to light up.

[bingster]

I don't have a Princess, but as a general question, can a 6 volt wall wart be used to provide this power? Could the plug be cut off and the two legs of the wire be connected to the white and black wires of the mounting cord?

[TIPandRING]

I don't have a Princess, but as a general question, can a 6 volt wall wart be used to provide this power? Could the plug be cut off and the two legs of the wire be connected to the white and black wires of the mounting cord?

Excellent question

Of course. There's no need to scour eBay and flea markets looking for Western Electric transformers. Any transformer capable of providing at least 6 volts and 300 mA (milliamps) will work. One transformer at that rating will provide enough dial light power for one princess phone.

[McHeath]

Being a known cheap scape with Scots-Irish blood, I managed to find a cast off transformer in the Drawer Of Forgotten Stuff to power my Princess.  It was from something made by Conair, probably in the 90s, and puts out just the right voltage and works nicely.