Best places/areas to collect old tvs?
 

Ive noticed where i live in siskiyou county CA that pre 1980 tvs are now pretty much non-existent now. I've heard on one post that some places are hard to find old tvs due to certain factors such as storms that occasionally destroy everything or economic factors like rich areas being quick to get rid of old technology or poor areas that couldn't afford it to begin with. This made me wonder what areas or even specific types of places where the odds of finding an old set may be higher?

Old population centers where people had at least enough money to be comfortable buying tech. The rich did sometimes hold on to their TVs but it depended on the generation and mindset. Some well to do wanted the finer things and wanted them to last into antiquity, others wanted to always have the latest and greatest. Middle-class homes with attics and basements are good hunting grounds (middle-class folks tended to hold on to their stuff to get as much out of it as possible).

I hear LA is good hunting grounds in CA.

Thanks for the reply! I figured it would be a good topic for discussion. I had even considered driving 4 hours down to Sacramento for a portable tube Zenith i found on Ebay but unfortunately the listing ended. I may have to post an ad on craigslist in Medford OR since its probably the closest town with a good sized middle class. Of course I did score a GE Porta-color from the town waist transfer station and the guy said I could just have it so maybe I may have some more luck there.

Birmingham is a barren wasteland for old sets. I'm lucky to find a 19" set from the 80's. Most of my sets have to be imported from Atlanta.

I think Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York have the most vintage TVs. I lived in Virginia outside Washington DC for 20 years and everytime I went to get a TV in these three places the seller would have at least 20 other sets. I moved back to southern California after I retired. There usually is a pilot or Philco Predicta at the monthly Long Beach swap meet but few other sets pop up on a regular basis. I brought 100 TV sets with me to California which I accumulated while iiving in Virginia. I did find a RCA TT-5 Prewar set in Long Beach for sale but I found out about it through word from a Videokarma member in Pennsylvania.

I think ideally you would look for houses big enough to keep stuff that was no longer needed; old farmsteads, close enough to a city to have TV reception early, can be promising, as can the nicer homes of the 60's/70's with a garage & some rooms that weren't often used. It's not unusual for an old console to get moved to a basement or upstairs bedroom & then it's too much trouble for anybody to ever get rid of it (especially as they get older).

A farmer friend of mine, now deceased, had saved most of the radios & TV sets he ever owned. As his kids moved out he just packed their bedrooms with stuff instead of tossing it.

Here in Buffalo NY, I trip over them non-stop. I have to pass on some because I just don't have the space....so I can afford to be choosy :)

Keep looking, they will find you. On Craigslist, search for old TV, Vintage TV, cabinet TV, antique TV, etc. Maybe you won't find an RCA 630, but you will definitely find some mid 60s consoles, and 1950s metal table top TV sets. Old TV repair men are good to find, sometimes you can find them via ads for test equipment and it turns out they have some TVs too.

It's almost a blessing in discuise for your storage space and spousal acceptance of your hobby to be a collector in an area which isn't saturated, I personally prefer giving lots of attention to a new set every few years over mass acquisition.

Lets not forget Chicago and Milwaukee, lots of stuff to find around here.

I do extremely well here in Detroit. We had TV starting in 1946 with WWDT (WWJ-TV starting in 1947, today WDIV), which was the tenth station in the entire country to sign on.

The occasional 621TS pops up, 630s galore, lots of late 40s stuff, and then we had two stations carrying color programming starting in 1954, so we have more than our share of early color stuff as well. I've unearthed two CT-100s and one CTC-4, and others have found everything from a 21-CT-55 to a rare Sentinel color set.

TV caught on more quickly here in Detroit for two reasons I think: first and foremost, we had an extremely large, and relatively wealthy, middle class thanks to the auto industry. At one point in time over 90 percent of the world's cars were built right here in Michigan, and a commonly quoted figure says that for every one job in an auto plant, there were seven other jobs in related suppliers and supporting industries.

The other factor is weather. We have cold, harsh, relatively long winters that most people don't seem to tolerate very well, though they've never bothered me. Turning on a television set was much preferable to dragging your ass out to the car, going to a movie, etc in 10 degree weather.

hmmm...its beginning to sound like i need to plan a road trip:scratch2:

That's probably why where I live is so dry most of the time. I'm sure you've heard of "The 1%"; here it's more like .1%. I got the set I use every day from a lady who was obviously well-to-do. She even tried to sell me a late-80s Trinitron console. My set was originally purchased to match a set of furniture and may be the only solid wood cabinet set I have.
I'm with you on that one. For me the worst thing about winter is hearing the complaints.