Another village yard sale

[NorthernElectric]

I'm pooped!  I did another village yard sale today and must have gone to 40-50 sales.  Phone pickings were slim.  I bought 1 500, passed on another, and missed out on another that had sold earlier.  I was trying to keep moving so I could get to all the sales so didn't get the opportunity to ask about phones at all the sales.  Some that I did ask at had phones that I might have liked that were not for sale.

The one I bought is an early one with a 57 dated base and sort of a 2 tone.  Beige with ivory handset, cord, and number plate?  Or just uneven discoloration?  Not a matching dates phone with most other parts dated 58 or 59 except the handset dated 66.  There are 3 attempts at smudged refurb? dates stamped in orange which look like possibly 66 also.  The clincher for me was the old dial card.  I got it for 5 bucks.

Cool/camp vintage bargain of the day was a Popeil pocket fisherman for 25 cents.  I couldn't resist!   

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Very nice, I'm certainly jealous!!

The housing may be a painted Rose Beige, judging by the '57 base date. The paint that was used rarely faded, whereas the bare plastics faded pretty badly, so you end up with a sort of two-tone phone.

Check the inside of the housing, the color may be a bit darker than the outside if it's Rose Beige painted. It would have to be dated from '54 to early '57 in order to be Rose Beige; a light beige would be some time before '58 and on.

[NorthernElectric]

Well, it does look darker on most of the inside.  I'm not sure the picture shows it well because the original photo was taken outside in waning light and may be a bit underexposed, while this batch were taken indoors under halogen lighting and may be overexposed.  To the naked eye there is a distinct difference though.  Plus I've included a photo showing wear in the cradle which may be revealing.  The housing has a 1958 date though so does not fall within your date range.  But it's a Northern Electric, not WE; would there be a difference between the 2 in years that various colors were offered?

[WEBellSystemChristian]

That definitely looks like Rose Beige, Cliff! Well done! Look up "Rose beige northern electric" in the forum search box, there was someone here that supposedly had a 'very rare' rose beige NE 500. It's the only one I've ever seen personally.

It's likely that the Rose Beige used on NEs were probably used longer (into '58) than WE.

P.S, check the caps too. They look painted to me.

[WesternElectricBen]

Looks like the dial faceplate has been replaced. Although, it still is a very nice find.

Ben

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Here is that topic. He diesn't have a picture, but he says his was from '58, like yours!

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=2921

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Looks like the dial faceplate has been replaced. Although, it still is a very nice find.

Ben

Yeah, it was. My med blue two tone originally had the exact same dark/light scheme as this one has; later bezel and handset+cord with painted earlier caps and housing.

[NorthernElectric]

Thanks guys.  Would Easy-Off be what I should try 1st to remove the paint?

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Thanks guys.  Would Easy-Off be what I should try 1st to remove the paint?

Honestly, if it's painted from the refurb shop, it's best not to touch it. I've learned from experience that the paint that was used professionally won't even be touched by products like EasyOff. Instead, use some LA's Totally Awesome in a giant mixing bowl. I used it on my med blue two tone (although it took so long that I started to get sick of the smell ) and it worked well for the most part. The best part is it isn't labor-intensive, like sanding. The problem with that is, you will probably never find the correct bezel or handset for it.

Another thing you could do is just polish the paint and display it as-is. Soft Light Beige NE must still be pretty hard to find, so it wouldn't be bad to leave it as it sits.

[Stubbypylon]

Rose Beige dial bezels had white numbers/letters so if this is a Rose Beige phone the bezel has been replaced. I have a NE Rose Beige from 57.  The colour code was usually stamped on the back of the dial.

[Greg G.]

I'm pooped!  I did another village yard sale today and must have gone to 40-50 sales. 

40-50?! They must be much more condensed in a smaller area than around here!  I get bored and discouraged after just a few, especially if all I'm seeing is nothing but a lot of used kid's crap.  I'm talking about individual yard sales at different residences, all random, not organized.  The format you're doing sounds more like what we call a "swap meet", all in one big lot on tables?  Even then, I couldn't do that many, I would get tired and grumpy after a couple dozen or so.

[NorthernElectric]

I'm pooped!  I did another village yard sale today and must have gone to 40-50 sales. 

40-50?! They must be much more condensed in a smaller area than around here!  I get bored and discouraged after just a few, especially if all I'm seeing is nothing but a lot of used kid's crap.  I'm talking about individual yard sales at different residences, all random, not organized.  The format you're doing sounds more like what we call a "swap meet", all in one big lot on tables?  Even then, I couldn't do that many, I would get tired and grumpy after a couple dozen or so.

These are individual sales at people's houses.  At a few of them, it seemed like maybe 2 or 3 close neighbors got together at one house, but I'm only counting those as one sale.  Seriously, I was out for about 6 hours and by the time I had made the full circuit a few of the sales had packed it in or were in the process of doing so as I visited them.  This village has been having this event for years and it attracts people from all over; it is difficult to drive on the streets for all of the bunches of cars pulled over everywhere.  This year, for the first time, they did have a 'trunk sale' in a parking lot I guess so people that didn't live in the area could come and sell stuff, but there was only 4 or 5 vendors there.  Plus, the 'village' really means a big chunk of the whole township as not all of the sales were in the village proper.  It is organized to the extent that the chamber of commerce publishes maps and puts up signs with big green arrows pointing down streets that have sales and sets up some sort of portable food concession.  The participating sellers pay a small fee to get put on the map and there are usually several opportunistic sales that take advantage of the traffic so probably half again as many that aren't on the map.

[DNO]

This is downright bizarre but I think I just found a very similar phone in a local thrift store today!  It seems to be a grizzled Northern Electric veteran but for $5 how could I resist.  The base and network are both 1957.  The ringer is 1959.  The shell is soft plastic, dated 1960, and appears to be painted (not sure...it's the first painted 500 I've encountered).  I'll post a close up of an area on the right side and on the cradle that seems to show a darker beige.  The inside of the shell looks darker as well.  The dial is a 7C dated from 1967 and the handset is a 1979 replacement.  Am I dealing with a Rose Beige shell?  1960 seems pretty late, if it is. 

[Waterland]

To remove the paint from these refurbished painted phones, all I use is 91% Isopropyl rubbing alcohol.  I just finished stripping one phone and am in the process of doing a second phone.  All I do is soak a corner of a paper towel in rubbing alcohol and start rubbing, the paint rubs right off after a few passes.  You have to put a little elbow grease into it, but it works pretty well and doesn't harm the plastic.  You'll go through a lot of paper towels because the alcohol evaporates quickly, but I finished the phone over a matter of a few hours in the period of two days.  Keep in mind, I've only tried this on hard plastic phones though, not soft plastic, so I'm not sure if the alcohol will damage the soft plastic or not, but for hard plastic it a sure deal.