Pay phones

[MMikeJBenN27]

For the past year, I have been regularly seeing Automatic Electric payphones that are scripted as "Western Electric Company, Inc." on E-Bay  You can see that they are AE, or are reproductions of AE, but most sellers, of course, think that they really are Western Electric.  Where are these coming from?

Mike

[rdelius]

Phoneco made new metal housings marked western electric company  ,these are the grey mfg pattern so ae parts will fit

[MMikeJBenN27]

Phoneco made new metal housings marked western electric company  ,these are the grey mfg pattern so ae parts will fit

Greybar is similar to AE?  Never knew that.  Why in the heck is PhoneCo committing this type of fraud?

Mike

[Jim Stettler]

Many old 3 slots are a mix of parts.
Their design makes many parts interchangable.
The originals went to rebuilders that assembled them into other payphones.
The rebuilders didn't care if parts matched. they were just creating payphones.
That is why an unmolested 3 slot is a very cool phone.
JMO,
Jim

[MMikeJBenN27]

Many old 3 slots are a mix of parts.
Their design makes many parts interchangable.
The originals went to rebuilders that assembled them into other payphones.
The rebuilders didn't care if parts matched. they were just creating payphones.
That is why an unmolested 3 slot is a very cool phone.
JMO,
Jim

Still, its a shame that PhoneCo is doing that, as it is plain as day that an AE payphone is not a WE payphone, just like a Galaxie 500 is not a Chevy, and a Belvedere is not a Ford.  Guess that's why I never got rich.  I refuse to defraud people.

Mike

[poplar1]

For the past year, I have been regularly seeing Automatic Electric payphones that are scripted as "Western Electric Company, Inc." on E-Bay  You can see that they are AE, or are reproductions of AE, but most sellers, of course, think that they really are Western Electric.  Where are these coming from?

Mike

They are not AE, other than the dial and maybe the chrome hook?, maybe the coin gauge? maybe the handset. They are 90% reproduction, as stated in the Phoneco catalog.

The coin chute is newly manufactured using 2 old gongs from a single line desk or wall phone.

The repro lower housings (LH) stamped Western Electric can be distinguished from the real 1934-1939  160-series WE LHs by the lack of parallel troughs on the bottom.

The biggest red flags are the hand-drawn instruction cards and the early Bell stickers on the dial.

[FABphones]

Could we have some comparison images.