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My first AE880

Started by Pourme, December 05, 2017, 04:59:20 PM

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Pourme

This was on my want list. I watched this phone being listed and relisted, so I offered $50.+ shipping (across the country).

I was very curious about it because it looked to be in incredible condition. I thought it could have been re-manufactured, I still don't know that it wasn't.

     https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Telephone-Automatic-Electric-Speakerphone-Model-880-Executive-Monophone-/202106201769

All I have done is clean it with my cleaner/wax so I could tell what was stained and what was surface. There are no scratches or cracks. The question I have is the felt on the bottom of the phone (see EBAY pics). There is discoloring only on the handset cord side of the phone in a unusual pattern and a thin line on the front. It looks like it was from storage and not usage. I can't find any sign of it having been used at all. Handset cord is still wrapped in plastic, looks NOS.

I tested it and it works perfectly.

What looks like an original Styrofoam packaging is mostly in tact but is dirty.

No paperwork at all came with it.

Any observations?

Benny

Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

HarrySmith

#1
Nice! Great buy! Looks like a good candidate for peroxide treatment.
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

rdelius

Might be rebuilt.The fingerwheel is the last kind AE used with the sticker for the number.Most of the 880s I have seen had the earlier fingerwheels.Nise find in any case

Pourme

I forgot to mention its a '74 model...How long did they make these?..
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

LarryInMichigan

Mine is from 1965 (forum link.  I use it regularly.

Larry

Pourme

I read your entry when I knew mine was on the way. I too haven't seen one in person until today. I plan on using this one for a daily driver too. So many times attempts to create a hands free phone fell short and AE succeed with this one. That makes the 880 very interesting. I'm pleased to have found this one and checked another phone off my want list!

Benny
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

stub

#6
Benny,
            SWEEEEET find !  Your's should have the same material on the bottom of phone as the speaker has. It looks and feels like some type of anti-skid gasket material 0.125 thick . Some have the other gasket with the small square on the right of last pic. Here's how to hook it up to a POTS line . Link + Reply #9   Hope this helps.  stub
                                                                  https://tinyurl.com/y7gb572n
Kenneth Stubblefield

Pourme

Thanks for the info, Stub. I'd like to find one of those bottom cork looking pads for the phone. I used your instructions in the thread you linked to to test mine yesterday. Thank you for that! The wires were already grouped together in exactly that configuration on the wall piece when I found your comment, but I didn't know where to go with it. 

Benny
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

LarryInMichigan

#8
You can certainly make a cork pad for the bottom using something like this: link.

Larry

AE_Collector

Yes that cork from a Home Depot should work well. I finally found in the listing that piece is 18" by 48" so you should be able to make 8 or 10 new cork bases for 880's with it, less if making speaker bases as well.

I never saw an 880 packaged from the factory but sort of doubted that it would be in styrofoam. But...that 880 is a newer one being from 1974 so maybe? But, the base on it can't be Factory. Early 880's had black dense foam rubber base pads but some of them turned to goo with age. Later models as well as refurbished units from our shops had the cork bases.

I suspect that AE phones had the screw on fingerwheels from the factory by 1974.

I just unpacked a white 192 wall phone that had been through our shops rehab process. It was packed in a plastic bag and it had discolouration like your 880 looks to have.

White is a tough color to find in decent shape. I had a dawn gray one before I finally got a decent white one. Nice find! Find of the Month?

Terry

Pourme

Here is a thread of Brinybay's beautiful black 880 in the box with the same Styrofoam packaging, from 2011. It's the only other one I've seen with the Styrofoam.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=5558.msg67450#msg67450

I will look into making the bottom piece with some Home Depot cork.

It's such a small area that is discolored, I may just sand it to restore the color. It will only take a few minutes.

Benny
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

AE_Collector

Well I'd say that confirms it (the styrofoam packing). Brinybays Phone was 1964 and black where as his box is for a white 880. Maybe a newer white one was installed in place of the older black one. So the styrofoam could be more of a 70's rather than 60's packaging.

I don't know when the last one would have been made. By the early 80's a replacement 881 model was out.

Terry

Pourme

That garnet red painted 880 in the older threads is striking! Did you ever get one of those? Did you ever post a picture of your 880 collection together?
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

AE_Collector

#13
There doesn't appear to have ever been a Garnet Red 880 made except for being painted. I basically bought one on eBay which I was told that was for certain red plastic. Wrong. In the end I wound up without a red 880 and without something like $235 dollars. Only bad eBay experience I've ever had and whatever ebay/PayPal says about your satisfaction being guaranteed is a lie. Somewhere in tiny print the guarantee is null and void if you pick the item up. In my case I paid with PayPal, went to pick up, saw it was painted, didn't accept it and never was refunded. PayPal just said "Werecsorry, you picked it up in person". Ridiculous. Quick, someone change the subject!

It is surprising that they didn't make a red one. Also no ivory, yellow, blue (light Or dark) or pink. They made white (which now most of them are mistaken to be ivory), Beige, gray, black, greens or turquoise.

I should do some group photos as I think I have every colour that 880's were made in as well as 80's, 90's (except Colonial Blue), & 183's.

Terry

Pourme

Put that group photo on the list of things to do whenever you don't have anything else to do!....

Thanks for the help...Benny
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service