Posted 8 years ago
sargeguy
(39 items)
Early circa 1895-1905 New England Telephone die-cut porcelain sign. These were used on the sides of public telephone boxes and other places to let the public know there was a pay station available.
New Eng Tel. and Tel. Co. die-cut Local and Long Distance Bell | ||
Telephones182 of 1034 |
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Posted 8 years ago
sargeguy
(39 items)
Early circa 1895-1905 New England Telephone die-cut porcelain sign. These were used on the sides of public telephone boxes and other places to let the public know there was a pay station available.
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That's neat!!! Have never seen one.
Very cool sign !
Roached but still very cool piece!
Thanks! I have been after one of these for a while-this will have to do until a nicer example comes along.
I have seen several of these signs in telephone collectors hands. The die-cut Bell logo Local & Long Distance is one of the harder signs to find.
How many have you seen with the N.E.T.&T. markings?
Most I have seen are from the East Coast collectors, several had work for NET&T or SNET&T. We don't see these signs on the West Coast. Going by the telephone sign collectors book, it states " This Bell shaped sign was used by AT & T all over the East Coast". It gives a value of this sign between 350.00 & 500.00 depending on condition.
Bob Alexander's latest book has them as $500-600 for both versions. The last non-N.E.T.&T. one I know about selling on eBay fetched $1125!!! And it had a few flaws flaws. It's hard to assign market value when so few come up on the marketplace, but I think I could recoup my $110 even in this condition.
I agree there not a common sign and 110 is a good buy for this sign.
Apparently $1525 is the going rate for near-mint examples!
That was Ebay and sold for a good price. Condition has a lot to do with the price.
Supply and demand as well. It is not a sign that comes up for sale very often ( twice in the last month notwithstanding). At least now I can justify having it restored to the wife!
I had the sign restored by a professional sign restorer. It looks as good as new. A restored sign will never be as valuable as an all-original one but considering how much these sell for I thought it was worth it.
I love this sign, my grandkids didn't know there were pay phones and I have some old wall and rotory phones and they look at me like how could you even use something like that. Thanks for good memiories.