Can you still buy rotary telephones?
Asked by
Yellowdog (
12216
)
October 24th, 2015
I am particularly hoping that reproduction antique or period telephones are available. Most antique-style phones have buttons / are touch-tone— which are okay in their own right, resembling elevator buttons perhaps— but I like real rotary phones. They are nostalgic and authentic. Any leads? Discussion?
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11 Answers
Try eBay. There must be tens of thousands of the things still around. That Bakelite was rugged stuff and those phones were built to take a beating.
Second hand, they proliferate.
I know where I can get you a really cool, stainless steel clad, rotary wall phone for about $30 and shipping.
Rotary desk phones are going begging. People don’t even know if they will work with the new phone systems.
You can, but they are hard to find, and often no cheaper than they were back when they were technologically relevant.
As for whether it will work with your phone line, that is another matter entirely. If you have an old POTS line, you’re golden. If you have VoIP, good luck. Some lines will support old rotary phones with an adapter, some will support only the voice part (no dialing or ringing), and some just plain won’t even.
Some phone companies no longer support them, and the FCC says that telcos no longer have to support them. Those in rural areas will have a better chance of having old phone switches that can handle old phones. Where I used to live was too old to even handle 56k dialup let alone DSL or VoIP, but that old equipment would be compatible with an old rotary phone. Here in Seattle… not so much.
Also, the rotary phone will pretty much make it impossible to call any company that uses an automated system; many don’t have operators, so hanging on the line waiting for a voice won’t do any good; press 0 or give up.
Look in the larger flea market gatherings. Also storefront antique/flea markets. Tucked away booths. These phones with the dials were so good looking. Classic.
I always wanted a Princess telephone. OMG. Even Barbie and Francie had a pink version. You could talk on it anytime you wished, without waiting for siblings to stop yapping with their friends.
Honestly, I had no one to call. I was little. Nothing pressing. but, ohhhh, a blue one would’ve been perfect.
I used one the other day to prop a door open
I still have an old princess phone that I have plugged in during power outages over the years when the cordless house phones are down and there is no cell reception in my rural foot hill zone at the bottom of a canyon. I am sure you can still find them and thrift stores would be a good place to look.
Flea markets usually have them at about $10.
What, no blue Princess models? I knew Patty Duke had gotten the last one!
@Rarebear I’ve always had enough trouble with Google’s shopping recommendations that I generally don’t trust it beyond finding out if an item actually exists. YMMV.
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