Yeah they must have over-produced the 1997 covers. Joe Maurath Jr said Fisher Pierce had a lot of PCs like this with the cover being from the previous year in the 90s. Some being off by over six months i think! I guess it was a Pacific Scientific thing...
My guess as to why this was at the ReStore was because someone thought it was a photocell (since the box doesn't mention open cap at all. In fact, it's the same box the PCs of that time used, just a numerical code that's the part number for the open cap but you wouldn't know unless you opened it up and the person might have thought it was just an orange PC. And when it "didn't work" they shoved it back in the box and gave it to the Restore lol. I know the box was opened because the flaps were a little bent up/damaged.
yeah they use the same covers for PCs and open caps. My FP shorting cap from 1977 say photoelectric control too. The box on this is pretty misleading too. besides the obvious orange color, the OPEN CAP text on the wedge sticker on the base is the only thing that tells you its an open cap.
Ahh, I figured they probably use the same case to save money. It would have been nice if they marked the OPEN CAP on it more clearly though. I'm sure someone has mistaken these for either a PC or a shorting cap before.
Manufacturers still have the same problem with the dates being off. I have gotten new photocontrols from both Ripley and Sun-Tech that have the date on the cover different from the date on the base. Like Darren said, they over-produce covers sometimes.
Joe; Yeah that's probably how it ended up at the ReStore, the guy probably bought it off ebay thinking it was a PC and when it "didn't work" the guy put it back in the box and gave it to the ReStore lol.
Ryan; yeah the dates are usually off for the first few weeks but some 90s FPs were off a lot! I guess they really overproduced them one year. I always thought they just stamped the date with a heat stamp on top. Makes sense to me.
Yeah. Well I have a Ripley New York City certified photocontrol that I ordered brand new from Ripley and the date code on the base is from 4-5-12 and the cover says "09"
My guess as to why this was at the ReStore was because someone thought it was a photocell (since the box doesn't mention open cap at all. In fact, it's the same box the PCs of that time used, just a numerical code that's the part number for the open cap but you wouldn't know unless you opened it up and the person might have thought it was just an orange PC. And when it "didn't work" they shoved it back in the box and gave it to the Restore lol. I know the box was opened because the flaps were a little bent up/damaged.
Ryan; yeah the dates are usually off for the first few weeks but some 90s FPs were off a lot! I guess they really overproduced them one year. I always thought they just stamped the date with a heat stamp on top. Makes sense to me.