Feeder II

Four years ago I had the chance to buy 26 Ericofons in one sale. Most of them were complete and it was my biggest buy so far.

Last week I was able to buy another lot. It is quite a huge lot, not containing many complete Ericofons, but quite some shells, chassis, dials and a diversity of other parts. It feeds my lifetime supply of Ericofon spare parts. And of course there is the opportunity to put some complete phones together as well.

Early 2023 I got in contact with the famous General Dare (not his real name) from the United Kingdom. We met online and we have been talking about our shared passion for Ericofons in some long phone conversations. In the end we agreed that I could buy his old stock remains and last week we went to to collect it all.

In the late 1990’s General Dare reworked original Ericofon shells with his own designed digital DTMF keypad/chassis. A modernized Ericofon that said goodbye to the pulses permanently. Unfortunately his business stopped after a few years. In the end of the 1990’s digitization was going very rapidly and it was hard for small companies to keep up the standards. Also the weight and balance of the General Dare Ericofons was not optimal because of the new (better) speaker and the heavy, partly metal, chassis.

So we booked a ticket for the Eurotunnel and a B&B for 2 nights and off we went for a nice weekend to the UK. It was a good excuse for a short trip, from Friday to Sunday. A drive from The Netherlands through Belgium to the north of France is only a few hours. In Calais we put the car on the train and 35 minutes later we arrived in Folkestone, UK. It is true what they say about rain and England.

On Sunday morning we visited General Dare on his farm on the English countryside. His geese were welcoming us with a lot of noise once we approached the fence. After a tour through the premises it was time to check out the “merchandise”. He had quite a large pile of Ericofon parts in a barn; 3 dirty and dusty boxes with even dustier and dirtier parts in them. Not even looked at in the past 25 years I expect. We had a bit of trouble getting it all in the trunk of the car, but with some squeezing we managed. Once all was packed we had a delicious coffee on the porch of their lovely farmhouse and had some nice conversations about a lot of things. I even learned that there was a thing called a Bug a Salt 3.0 Orange Crush 😉

Thank you for your hospitality J and S! It was a pleasure meeting you both.

This is just a part of what was there… In the top of the picture there are a few nice colors and some complete sets. But most of the lot are parts: shells, chassis, dial faces, ear-caps, finger wheels, and much, much more. So if you need anything…

Here you see 3 generations of keypads/chassis of the General Dare that I found in the lot. The one the left almost weights 400 gr. This is the most common version, either with a white of a red button (which resembles the original red button). The one in the middle is 300 gr and the version on the right only 180 gr. The keypad from the latter is very similar to the Ericofon 700. I haven’t seen many of the middle and right keypads. As said, weight and balance were some drawbacks of the General Dare version. But also rapid electronic innovations and an open market were not helping General Dare as a small enterprise.

Unfortunately J did not want to include an unopened box with an Orange BPO Ericofon inside. But I knew that already upfront so it was not a disappointment. When I saw the box, it was a bit of a Schrödinger’s cat experience. You do not know 100% sure what is in the box. If you open it you will know but then it is not unopened anymore… 🙂 Nice.

My goal with this set is to restore as many original Ericofons as possible. The first sorting already has been done the evening I arrived home with my stuff. But first I need to get me a few bottles of soap and start cleaning…

I am very happy with this lot, it was all worth the ride and a good excuse to drive ot the UK!

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