I searched for ‘old,’ ‘vintage,’ ‘retro’, and ‘modern’ mailboxes on ebay starting in early September, after reading the Atomic Ranch modern wisdom section where the Editor said: “…the retro market seems to be wide open.” I even searched ‘mailbox.’ Yikes, lots of images!
Finally, after more than a month, I found one! The listing: “Vtg Large Retro Leigh United States Country Metal Rural Mail box Letter Flag.” Condition: Used. The best ebay listing photo is shown here. Used is perhaps an understatement. But, it had the shapely design.
Design note: the top does not over-hang the door, like the one shown on the modboxusa.com website. The manufacture is the same though, Leigh Building Products. Note too: Leigh was listed on the U.S. Postal Service approved list back in 1970 (prior blog: any manufacturers left?).
After searching every day for a month, I was more than willing to pay the ‘Buy It Now’ price of $70 plus $21 economy shipping.
Looking back, I’m glad I bought it quickly, as another mailbox with the similar design was not listed until late November, and there have not been ANY since!
As of late February, I have not restored the mailbox. Instead, the mailbox joined me for numerous meetings. A metal fabricator marked each part and a design engineer has the mailbox while he develops a CAD solid model using SolidWorks.
mid-century modern mailbox 