Old Telephones Make Great Gifts and They Work, Too
Many people had a collection of some type when they were children – baseball cards, Barbie dolls, comic books or the fad of the moment such as Beanie Babies, Pokemon and the latest, Silly Bandz. I was going through some old things not too long ago and found some Garbage Pail Kids cards that my son had. Remember those?
At some point most of this stuff finds its way to the dump. then years later they become worth something because they are now rare. most everyone has bemoaned the fact that they have discarded something only to find it to be a collector’s item years later. There is a collector’s market for eight track tapes and the original Atari game consoles. Don’t throw your Ipod away because it might be worth something to your great grandchildren.
One interesting area of collectibles is antique telephones. Not only have cell phones been displacing land lines, but existing landline phones just don’t have the style and history of older phones. Phones from the 1960′s back are collectible and considered to be antique phones or vintage telephones. in some cases some phones from the 1970′s are. as time goes by phones from the 1980′s will achieve some type of collector status, but they will not be as unique and stylish as older phones.
Of course the older the better. Country junction phones – the ones that were made out of wood and had a hand crank – are available, but are rare.
The design of older phones is intriguing. I can remember some phones from the late 1950′s but I never thought about their design. the design of a phone was no more interesting to me than the design of a plate. Yet if you go back and look at the styling of older telephones you will be impressed. Styling was important back then and there were even telephone manufacturers who would compete based on style much like car manufacturers do. that is why there were phones that were shaped like toasters, jukeboxes and one that even resembled Batman. many were ornate with brass parts and those old rotary dials that were so annoying to use look great in hindsight.
Even old payphones seem to have regained a sense of style. many of the earlier ones deserve it. the rotary dials and the little speaker that you spoke into instead of a handset make them unique and worth integrating into your home dcor.
You need to be careful that what you are buying is authentic. There are a lot of knock offs of old phones. There is nothing wrong with this as long as they are labeled as reproductions or clearly are just not old. in fact many reproduction phones are quite nice and much cheaper. They just aren’t originals and won’t have the value of an original.
One tip is to check the materials that the phone is made of. many older phones did not have any plastic since plastic was not invented at the time. When plastic was first used it was very heavy. it was not the lightweight plastics that we are used to today. the most common plastic compound in older phones is called Bakelite which was first commercially used in the late 1920′s. Because Bakelite did not conduct electricity and was heat resistant it was commonly used in telephones and radios.
Falling somewhere in between original antique phones and reproductions is a hybrid. many old phones have been damaged or have deteriorated over time. There are a couple of companies that restore these phones using as much of the original materials as are available. These are generally considered to be antique phones and not reproductions, but sometimes it is hard to draw the line.
Many antique phones have been updated with modular plugs so that they can work with today’s networks. however, there is one problem. most old phones have rotary dials and are not equipped with a touch tone pad for tone dialing. Usually this is not a problem, but if you are running your phone through the internet, a rotary phone will not work. You will need to get a Pulse to Tone converter to make it compatible.
Think about getting an antique phone or giving one as a gift. even the older ones are not prohibitively expensive. They are unique and add a nice touch to any dcor.
