shameless dude wrote: well i got a call today, i won the bid, i'll go pick it up next Monday.

Glad your keeping it in the family.  Hopefully the mechanics of the phone are still good so you can go fishing, best fishing pole ever made.  Just throw 2 lines and crank or so I've heard.

Great for getting worms for fishing too!

Glad you got it buddy!

I have what some would call a 'collection' of hand-crank phones, but I have them well-employed.  since we no longer have land-line to the house, I've repurposed the telephone wiring, and extended to the outbuildings, and installed hand-crank phones of many flavors in convenient locations everywhere.  I supply power to them using an old car battery (the kind that will not take a charge worth a hoot, but would show 5v or so) and a cheap, small solar cell.

pick up any receiver, spin the crank, and ALL phones ring.  Someone picks up any OTHER extension, and you can talk to 'em.  Doesn't matter if power goes out, doesn't matter if the internet is down, doesn't matter if it's dark, or you're wearing sunglasses.

There's no upper limit to what ordinary people will pay for an antique wall phone, but there's a limit to what a COLLECTOR will do, and the value starts, and usually ends, with what's inside.

If the magneto is missing, or the wiring has been cut up, bastardized, or removed, the value is less than about $80.  If the original finish is gone, same.  if the receiver is cracked or missing, the transmitter funnel is gone, it'll be less than optimal. 

To get the highest price, an original finish, no damage to anything (save for age rotted wiring) original markings intact, and all the wiring and internals still original.

Buying from a collector that's given the magneto, ringer, transmitter, receiver all thorough rebuilds, new handset cord, clean up and adjust the hookswitch, replace the DC blocking condenser (usually fitting a modern unit inside the original shell), and you'll probably be around $350.

Antique stores USUALLY overprice them.

All that being said, sentimental (family) value usually doubles the pricetag... it's all about your personal motivations.

ANY telephone can be used as an intercom, but the old hand-crank antiques do it easiest.

To make two phones work, just connect one wire from each phone together, and connect the OTHER two across a battery...  3-6v works pretty well for any setup of less than 300ft or so.  The 'proper' setting is whatever voltage necessary to yield about 20mA of current flow, but old crank-phones are very forgiving, as they had to operate under a myriad of wierd conditions.

Cellphones are nice, but when things go bad, a pair of wires is almost impossible to beat.  I've set up my neighbors to the north (empty-nesters about a half-decade older) with phone-intercom between their house and their outbuildings, and there's a simple switch that'll connect them to us, or us to them, when we need to holler next door.  No telephone company required.