Find of the Month - May 2014

[AE_Collector]

Post your "Find of the Month" for May 2014 here.

A "Find of the Month" is an item that you acquired within the last month or so that you are particulatly excited about either because of its rarity, the difficulty you had in trying to find one for your collection or the exceptional "deal" you got on it etc.

Please pick your best "Find" to submit for the month limiting your entries to one Phone item OR One "Find" that might include multiple items. If you have already entered for the month and come up with something even better either submit your new find indicating that it replaces your previous entry OR you can enter your new Find for next months contest.

TelePlay has grabbed pictures of all of the "Find of the Month" winners since we started this back in 2010 and he has put them into albums on PhotoBucket. Thanks John.

To check them out, click --> HERE <--

Terry

[sammytheboyboy]

Found this beauty yesterday at a local antique shop buried in a box of junk. Got it for $7.50! A little cleanup and adjust the ringer it works like new! 1966 ITT. Love the color!

[Sargeguy]

I nominate LarryinMichigan's Red 500U for $15

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=11833.new#new

[@img width=1000 height=768]http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=11833.0;attach=100492;image[/img]

[LarryInMichigan]

I nominate LarryinMichigan's Red 500U for $15

Thank you.  If I had known that I was going to be nominated, I would have bathed first

Larry

Here, this looks a bit better:

[Fabius]

Found on the Goodwill auction site: Automatic Electric dial wall phone. Mercades dial, Switch hook with the "A" and nice early transmitter. Looks like it could be the one also used for the Strowger 11 digit wall or candlestick. Not sure about the receiver. North with wrong cap? Price was very reasonable at $109.

[Fabius]

Could be wood. Luckly the correct receiver shouldn't be too hard to come up with.

[DavePEI]

I would like to nominate my Phillips Electrical Works Z 5196 wall Monophone.

There is a long story to this one. In 1970, I had three of these obtained directly from the Automatic Electric plant in Brockville, the successor to Phillips Electrical Works. The phone was built in 1945, and the phone operations at the Phillips plant were closed down and moved to the new Automatic  Electric Plant at 100 Strowger Blvd in Brockville in 1954 when the new plant was built. The Phillips plant then became part of the British Calendar Cables Co., and was then called Phillips Wire and Cable.

Previous to the move, Phillips was owned by the Gary Copr., just as AE was, and produced AE products in Canada.

When I went to college, my parents discarded all of my phones, including my three of these, and several 11 digit Strowger phones. I think their reasoning is they were scared of the "phone police", and they saw these only as obsolete items simply awaiting trashing.

So, in the intervening years, I have been searching unfruitfully for another Z 5196 in good shape, built at the Phillips Electrical Works. Some 40 years later, I finally have found my bucket list item, the Z 5196. It is in incredible shape outside and inside. The magneto doesn't have even one spec of dust, and the phone still bears its inspection tag: The tag reads as follows:

Type Number: Z 5196-A5
Amount 19
Tested 27/12/1945
By
Tester # 2933
B.E. Johnston
Order No. 10-019-3

So the phone is the result of a 40 year search. The war-time Phillips wooden monophones are very rare, obviously. I paid quite a bit for it, $200.00, but I wasn't going to let this phone from my childhood slip away.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=11635.0

Dave

[WesternElectricBen]

Some great nominations, and so early!

Ben

[TelePlay]

I would like to nominate the Statuary Bronze 304C that Doug Rose bought in an eBay BIN or Make an Offer listing for something less than the $199.95 BIN price. Even at the $199.95, this would have been a great find.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=11872.0

Here, for quick reference, is a side by side before and after photo of this great find.

[poplar1]

Two rare color phones--red 500U and statuary bronze 302--purchased on the same day (May 9), and only a few miles apart. (302 was from Harrison Township, MI.)

[sebbel]

I think I'll nominate my lot  of phones.

- 1 complete N293GX with 4h dial
- 1 partial N293G with 5h dial
- 1 partial N393G with 5h dial
- 1 spare N series N14MF dial
- 570 emergency phone box
- 1 Spare receiver

I've already sourced the missing parts for the 293 & 393 and I'm at $125 for the lot so far with the cost of the missing part. I think thats a pretty sweet deal

[TelePlay]

Sneaking this one in under the wire (at least it's before midnight in my time zone), I'd like to nominate cchaven's 1955 red WE 500 with gray cords that he found in a little antique mall for $22.00 total. It was a very nice find and worthy of being nominated for May's Find of the Month.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=11989.msg127256#msg127256

[AE_Collector]

Okay everyone, time to vote for your TWO favourite "Finds" from May 2014. Some nice phones here this month so give it a bit of thought and vote for the ones that you most would have liked to find yourself!

Everyone try to use BOTH of your votes. If you inadvertently vote for only one, delete your vote and then vote again for two.

Good luck to all of this months contestants!

Terry

[TelePlay]

Anyone else want to vote in this month's poll for Find of the Month? If so, do so withing the next 3 days.

Voting has slowed and if it stays slow, this months poll will close on Sunday, June 7th.

Thanks to all who have voted so far, and thanks to those who do so over the next few days.

[TelePlay]

Well, it's Sunday night and only one bid came in over the past few days so it's time to put an end to the May poll with just a little over one third of all votes cast.

As such, LarryInMichigan's red WE Co 500U for $15 is this month's Find of the Month!

Lots of great finds in May with two frontrunners but in the end, Larry gets the lifetime satisfaction of having the May 2014 Find of the Month!
Congratulations Larry!

Thanks to everyone who submitted or nominated finds and to everyone who took the time to review the finds and vote.

. . . for Terry, Teleplay

PS: Terry is busy trying to clear the deck outside his cabin of snow with whatever he can find in his stateroom - he forgot his shovel at home