I just thought it might be fun for us to write about some of the best bargains we've ever found in phones (Heath's idea, actually) so that the rest of us can turn avocado green with envy. Like Dan's white '73 Princess that he just picked up for 50 cents!
We don't have a lot going in the local thrift shops and yard sales in our area, so my bargains are just the occasional $5. older 500 on Ebay, but of course then there's the standard $10-12. or so for shipping...
So...what are some of our greatest deals?
Well, like quite a few things I have, my Mom works at a factory that's been in operation since 1949 and she keeps an eye out when they're tossing stuff and has often went dumpster diving for things for me, including a 2554 phone. Also, she saw a beige 2500 go in, she went after it, but couldn't find it.
My favorite so far has been my first phone, a 1978 ITT I payed 7bucks for.
I remember once I got a '57 500U for $35. ;D
Seriously, I think that's my only real bargain. Everything else I have has been bought for either a price that I would consider fair, or just below that.
I found a Mediterranean Blue 500 in great shape at an Antique Fair for $35. My biggest bargain is a Mahogany 500 I got off Craigslist for $12 plus shipping. Lastly, my Mahogany 554 that came in a "lot" of wall phones from eBay. I think there were six of them (only one Mahogany) that were in the neighborhood of $20 plus shipping. I didn't know about Mahogany phones at the time and the brown phone hung in my basement with a couple dozen others for over a year before I learned what I had.
http://www.vintagerotaryphones.com/?p=51
Many of you have seen this posting but for those that haven't here it is again. The brown 500 in this post is NOT the one I got off Craigslist.
I like that Mahogany Dennis, and that reminds me, I have some reading up to do on your phone site. :)
Quote from: bingster
I remember once I got a '57 500U for $35. ;D
Yep, and we've all been drooling over it today! :o
Dennis, your $35 Blue story is memorable to me (You gave him two 20's and your heart was pounding....). I like to visualize how I would have reacted in that situation.
I'd say the 50 cent princess was my cheapest deal ::)
My best oldie was a chrome banded AE40 that needed a little lubrication to it's stuck dial for $30. Gorgeous phone! My pyramid kellogg 1930's for $35 was a good deal too.
I went to an antique show this past weekend and a guy had a AE90 pink wall phone but he wanted $40. I waited 2 hours, had my WIFE and all her cuteness try to get the price down to $25,but he wouldn't budge. If it is there next month (its a monthly show) I will try to offer $30.
I've not picked up any rare phone for great prices, but I've managed to get several common phones for what I'd consider good prices.
My first telephone was an AE40, which was free.
I've had several other freebies, and gotten several for $5 or less. Probably the best of these was my first 302, which was $5 at a local antique shop. I also paid $5 for my Signal Corp 500.
Last weekend, I grabbed a Kellogg ringer box with a big 5-bar magneto for $25, also locally.
Finally, my 151AL was bought complete(save for the receiver) only in pieces for $40. Considering what these typically sell for, I figure that this was a decent bargain once it was put back together.
Hmmm, lets see, I've really overpaid on some phones so we will ignore that. (We won't talk about how much I've sunk into that 1968 WE 1500 in aqua)
My 354 came with the house, so it's sorta a free and sorta cost a mint, and I will be making payments on it for 20 more years.
A turquoise 500, birthday phone, with a G6 handset that cost about 14 dollars was a pretty good deal.
My 1951 500 was about 20 with shipping.
My Snoopy Design Line rotary was $7.50.
I've never paid more than $5 or $6 for any of my phones: 202's, 302's, 500's, 2500's. Some of them I got for free. But out of the ones I paid for, probably the best buy was the 10/50, which was like $4.99 at a thrift store back in 1981 or so.
Ralph
That would have to be the orange Contempra (dial type) that I think I paid 9.99 (pounds) for in good condition.
Quote from: rp2813
I've never paid more than $5 or $6 for any of my phones: 202's, 302's, 500's, 2500's. Some of them I got for free. But out of the ones I paid for, probably the best buy was the 10/50, which was like $4.99 at a thrift store back in 1981 or so.
Ralph
Wow Ralph that's pretty amazing. Were they mostly from yard sales and/or thrift stores?
well for me my bargain phones are the LM Ericsson type 51 and an AE 186 which I got both for free. The craziest is the red pay phone which I recently acquired for $140 ;D
I've been collecting for so long, I can't remember all the deals I may have made out on. Just a few that come to mind right now. $10 for a mint condition 151AL W.E. "stick", 25 for a real nice 51AL. $15 for 5 or 6 metal 302s in nice shape. $10 on a real nice W.E. B1. Keep in mind, most of these deals occured 13+ years ago.
Yeah Matt, I was doing most of my collecting in the 70's and early 80's. Thrift stores and garage sales, maybe a flea market visit, or just a friend who wanted to unload a phone were the ways I got all of mine. Back then I would pass over 500's--except for the 10/50 which I knew was worth grabbing. This forum has got me thinking about all the matching dates 500's I probably could have snagged for under $5 but I was prejudiced against the 500's because at the time, they were in fact the phones everybody had in their homes and had no collectible value for me. 302's were my main focus. My collection isn't big, just a few of each and only one 202, but they all work and I hook 'em up when there's a need for a particular look in a room. It's only been about a year since I've gotten into the 500 series. I like their functionality and that's the only type of vintage phone I've got connected around the house currently. Four of them to be exact. Three black ones and one beige. The other types are all wrapped in a box waiting for their turn again.
Ralph
I wish the bug had bitten me earlier in life. Who knows how many phones I'd have piled up next to the pile I have now! A few years ago I was visiting in the Bardstown, Kentucky area and spent a day looking for phones. I figured they would be all over the place. I only drug one home and it was a black 500 in pretty rough shape but I could see some potential. It was a big indoor flea market but people had stuff set up outside too. A guy was seated next to his pick-up truck, tail gate down with a bunch of stuff. I saw the black phone and after being skunked every place I stopped I was going to buy anything that even looked like a phone. He had a price sticker of $1 on the phone. I handed him the buck and picked up the phone. As I started to walk away he asked, "...don't you want your change?" Being the cheapskate that I am I held out my hand. He put two quarters in it and said everything was half off. Heck the dial was worth 50c! That was the only phone I found on that trip. Being an out-of-towner I just didn't know where to look.
Quote from: Dennis Markham
I found a Mediterranean Blue 500 in great shape at an Antique Fair for $35.
I guess y'all saw this one recently:
http://tinyurl.com/d6var8
That's really not a bad price for that phone with the gray straight cord. Looks like the first bidder and last bidder were one in the same.
I just got a 12/55 black 500 in good shape for 10 bucks. I won't know if it's matching dates 'till it arrives. I'm happy. 8)
Post pics please, I love the old black metal dial ones.
Quote from: Dan
Post pics please, I love the old black metal dial ones.
Here's a pic. Just your standard mid-50s 500. 8)
I also prefer the black metal dials over the plastic ones, not only because they're older, but I just think they look a lot more classy on the black phones. Though lately I've been getting some newer 500s with the plastic dials from the later 1960s and even the earlier (pre-modular) 1970s, as I figure they may become somebody's birthday/anniversary phones someday. :)
Even if I coulda hung onto these phones a few years earlier in life. I know my parents had like 5 in our house and they tossed them all. I think they were all beige ones however. And I also remember, being a very mechanical little kid, taking them apart with the screwdriver set when I Was about 5. And oh, the garbages and such just full of dial telephones. It makes me sick just thinking what i could have saved!
I have had a few good deals on some common phones. The best was an eBay auction of handsets that I won for $16. The picture was blurry, but looked interesting. The lot included:
Pristine seamless E-1 handset with cord
Pristine early F-1 with cord
Pristine G-1 with cord
Graybar G-6
WECO-G-10
AE handset with brass retainers(?)
AE transmitter and reciever elements
Operators headset
The shipping was free and I sold about $40+++ worth of stuff so far from that lot while keeping the E-1, F-1 and G-1.
Well, I just paid about 5 dollars for
Rose-Beige 500 - 1959
Black 500, no handset - 1963
Beige 500 - 1968
Starlite - 1975
ITT Trimline
Also, came with two of the old cordless phones with the space-age telescopic antennas.
Was it rose beige or light beige, Tom? Rose beige was discontinued in 1957.
Was at the Springfield Ohio phone show today (and antique show) and bargains were to be had everywhere. I got a pink WE500 from 1965, all dates matching for $8. Two NOS WE 500 fat cords (white) for $2 each. A hardwired Ivory princess for $2. My favorite find was a match to my first black WE500. I bought the phone two years ago for $2. It had the straight receiver cord CUT OFF and no handset.
Well luck was on my side as I found a black G1 handset, six hole cap, WITH ATTACHED original STRAIGHT cord . All dates matching from 3-55 in a bag marked $2!. I went home and flipped over my phone, and it was dated 3-55.
I think I am jealous!
No, I am jealous.
Lucky dog you. :)
If I can get in touch with Dan/Panther I'm supposed to buy his green Starlite phone for $5.00 and that'd be my best bargain ever except for my free phone which doesn't count.
No doubt about it, I gotta check me out some phone shows and go prepared to pick up a few things. It sounds like you can find a primo 500 or related parts at bargain prices, presumably because many collectors still don't consider them all that collectible.
Ralph
Well, I said my free phone doesn't really count, but I just got another free one, and I didn't even have to leave home to get it. On Sunday I'm just chilling out while waiting around to go to work and strangely, my brother's father-in-law stops by. I ask him what brings him by and he hands me a dusty red Carlson Stromberg 500. He said he remembered me mentioning that I tinker with old phones a while back and he picked this up at a garage sale. I asked him how much - he said just take it. After thanking him, I went inside and immdediately pulled it apart. Its a hardwired model from 1975. After a good washing and some polishing this sucker is looking quite nice. The only bad things are the dial is a bit sticky and the wall cord don't match - it's white. I only mention this phone because I wasn't looking for another phone, wasn't planning on buying another phone (for a while) or even thinking about a phone and it just shows up at the house, for free. I don't think I could find a better deal than that. I'll try to borrow a camera and post pictures this weekend.
My first: an "autoparts" centre I guess you folks would call it, just up the road from me was now closed and being gutted internally for convertion to another use, through the demolition site fencing I sees an old black bakelite sitting on a shelf at the dispatcher booth.
I asked one of the workers if I could buy it, he said it belonged to the post office, and no-one could sell it, I then seen all the skips (dumpsters) lying round the corner full of debris. (gulp).
Later at the following weekend I scaled a 10 foot spiked gate armed with a set of my dads wire cutters and a shopping bag, cut it out and errrr, "rescued" it.
It was a 332, and my first acquisition, I started to tinker with it at home and it was chock full of brick dust, dirt, probably asbestos particles etc.
The dial was jammed solid, I just took it all apart and cleaned with a paintbrush.
Of course I couldnt get it to work this being 1984 ish and me being 15 and knowing nothing about telecoms, but I still have it here as a central battery receiver connected to a linesmans test phone, Its not the prettiest example having had a hard working life, but I wouldn't sell it for the world.
Since then, well thats a another story between me and my psychiatrist and the accountant in bankrupcy...
Kinda depends on what you mean by "bargain". Best buy for the buck, or just the least amount spent? If the former, it would be my NEC Type 3 that I got for $30. If the latter, it would be the 1971 Stromberg-Carlson I got for $1.99.
That NEC sure is a beauty, BB. I didn't know you got it for only 30 clams. Fine deal!
I agree with Hobie, that's a good buy for only $30. That SC was a heck of a deal too for under $2.