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Show us your Thrift and/or yard sale finds

RetroToday

A-List Customer
Messages
466
Location
Toronto, Canada
I'm trying hard NOT to start a phone collection but I just couldn't resist the lovely light grey Northern Electric 500 that I found at a thrift store today. Curse those thrift stores!

Screenshot2013-03-20at55327PM_zpsb70ba16d.png

I'm fairly sure you've started a new collection! ;)

Nice find, you don't often see this era of phone in good shape. That's the kind of phone I remember growing up with in the 1980s, same colour too; my parents played it safe with beige everything in our house.

Does the number on the card really read 666-1088?, an odd number for Toronto.
 

Stearmen

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,202
And never mention the car noises either. :plol lol
Thats the most childish thing I have ever heard! Real men would never do that, real men sit on their half done 35 Harley's and make motorcycle sounds! Now excuse me, I have to go play with, I mean work on my 35. :eyebrows: :D;) ;)
 

DNO

One Too Many
Messages
1,815
Location
Toronto, Canada
I'm fairly sure you've started a new collection! ;)

Nice find, you don't often see this era of phone in good shape. That's the kind of phone I remember growing up with in the 1980s, same colour too; my parents played it safe with beige everything in our house.

Does the number on the card really read 666-1088?, an odd number for Toronto.


It was the beige era. I now avoid beige like the plague! Actually this phone is an attractive light grey with a definite green cast. I had bought a beat up beige 500 a few years ago so my son could experience using a dial phone. He was amused but ultimately not impressed!

666 is also a Durham exchange. It is, appropriately, my mother-in-law's exchange in Whitby. There was a little homemade sticker with a postal code stuck on the back of the phone when I got it. I looked it up. It was in Oshawa. All of these are quite outside the 416 area code, but there you are!
 

Shangas

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,116
Location
Melbourne, Australia
I bought this wooden box at the local charity-shop for $8.00. It looked the right size, and I bought it, sides-unmeasured, for the specific purpose of housing my inkwell and pens and other such nicknacks...

IMG_0821_zps4697efff.jpg


As you can see, the results are excellent. My inkwell fits into it as if the box were made for it! Perfect!

IMG_0822_zpsf23ba171.jpg


IMG_0823_zps3dbd3e2c.jpg


IMG_0824_zpsd582a41d.jpg


Pretty neat, huh?
 

Shangas

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,116
Location
Melbourne, Australia
I'm not entirely sure what I have here, but I know that I like them. Perhaps someone here can tell me more about them? Whether I got a deal or not, etc.

I bought these at a thrift-shop today for $8.00. They're Florsheim Outdoorsmans, that's about all I know. They fit, of course! Otherwise I would never have bought them. They're in, so far as I can tell, mint condition. I don't think they've ever been worn. Or if they were, then only for a very brief period of time. The outsoles are in PERFECT condition. No wear-down or abrasion anywhere.

Here are the photos:

IMG_0854-1_zpsc1070310.jpg


IMG_0855-1_zpsae6625df.jpg


IMG_0856_zpsecea5b83.jpg


Anyone who can give me more info on them, please post in the "Show us your Shoes" thread in the General Accouterments board. Thanks!
 

Shangas

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,116
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Bought myself a neat little mechanical, glass, German-made mantel-clock today. I cleaned it up and oiled it, set the time on it, and I'm currently regulating it for accuracy. Was $25.00 and it's a little beauty :) Fits perfectly on my desk.

Here's some photos. I'm not a clockmaker by any means. I bought this as a restoration-piece. Not bad, I reckon. Of course, the real proof is in how well it keeps time, once I've finished the fine-tuning.

This is what the clock looked like when I got it home:

IMG_0862_zps41194754.jpg


As you can see: Covered in crud. And the movement was so gummed up, it didn't move at all!

Next came the fiddly process of pulling the clock apart...

IMG_0864_zps3d0b9efd.jpg


IMG_0865_zps010933a9.jpg


I dumped the glass shell into a sink of hot water and scrubbed it all over with toothpaste and a brush, to remove the caked on crud. It looked like this when I got it out:

IMG_0866_zps085f67f8.jpg


IMG_0867_zps1ab6f8e9.jpg


Removing successive protective plates and screws finally got me into the movement...

IMG_0868_zps8c59237a.jpg


IMG_0869_zps8ca76688.jpg


I ran the movement and its various components through an ultrasonic bath, disassembling it as far as I dared. Once the movement was out of the bath, I dried it thoroughly with towels and puffers and air-dryers. Then I started putting the clock back together.

I had a couple of mixups and woopsies, but I got it all back together again. It's now on my desk:

IMG_0870_zpse0dac69f.jpg
 
Last edited:
Bought myself a neat little mechanical, glass, German-made mantel-clock today. I cleaned it up and oiled it, set the time on it, and I'm currently regulating it for accuracy. Was $25.00 and it's a little beauty :) Fits perfectly on my desk.

Here's some photos. I'm not a clockmaker by any means. I bought this as a restoration-piece. Not bad, I reckon. Of course, the real proof is in how well it keeps time, once I've finished the fine-tuning.

This is what the clock looked like when I got it home:

IMG_0862_zps41194754.jpg


As you can see: Covered in crud. And the movement was so gummed up, it didn't move at all!

Next came the fiddly process of pulling the clock apart...

IMG_0864_zps3d0b9efd.jpg


IMG_0865_zps010933a9.jpg


I dumped the glass shell into a sink of hot water and scrubbed it all over with toothpaste and a brush, to remove the caked on crud. It looked like this when I got it out:

IMG_0866_zps085f67f8.jpg


IMG_0867_zps1ab6f8e9.jpg


Removing successive protective plates and screws finally got me into the movement...

IMG_0868_zps8c59237a.jpg


IMG_0869_zps8ca76688.jpg


I ran the movement and its various components through an ultrasonic bath, disassembling it as far as I dared. Once the movement was out of the bath, I dried it thoroughly with towels and puffers and air-dryers. Then I started putting the clock back together.

I had a couple of mixups and woopsies, but I got it all back together again. It's now on my desk:

IMG_0870_zpse0dac69f.jpg

If that says Unicorn, you did well. That was one of the brand names that Rolex produced watches under in your area of the world before Rolex went out of the agreement with Unicorn in 1937. If it is pre 1937 then you did very well. :p
 

Shangas

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,116
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Hi James,

It says "UNICORN", and underneath, "MADE IN GERMANY".

I'm ASSUMING that's pre-WWII Germany, since stuff made after then would've said "Made in W/Germany", or something to that effect.

I'm not sure how old it is, but I was attracted to the style of the clock. It's got a beautiful simplicity and artistic look to the glass case.

Oh yes, the hands (and to a lesser extent, the indices) glow in the dark :)
 
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The Rag And Bone Man

One of the Regulars
Messages
163
Location
Australia
Shangas.. thats a nice find, I don't know what the charity shops are like in melbourne, but here in Sydney its out of control.
The prices here are rediculous, on the North shore expect to pay anywhere from 15 to 25 dollars for a shirt, and anywhere from 50 to 300 dollars for a suit. If i would have picked up that clock here in my local i think it may have been double what you paid, so well done buddy.
 

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