My First Color TV! (RCA CT-100)
 

I took a 1,300+ mile trip yesterday and today and picked up a couple of sets. One of them was my first color set... well, not exactly my first ever color TV, although that was also an RCA. Having already planned a trip up north for another set, I spotted a CT-100 on Craigslist in Vermont listed for $200. I thought surely this couldn't be true.

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When I saw the ad had only been posted for 2 hours I thought I'd give it a shot. I called the number listed in the ad and talked to the seller. He was a TV repair man for his entire life and was the second owner of the set. I asked him where he got his asking price from and he told me "I just threw a number out there...why what do you think?" I told him I thought it was worth significantly more. He said that he liked being the guy who found the gem in the garage and paid too little for it and that he'd pay it forward and let me be that guy today. We talked a bit more and after asking him four more times if he's ok with $200 I sent him a Paypal payment of $215 to cover the fees.
After a ten and a half hour drive from Pittsburgh to northern Vermont I met Dan and his CT-100. He told me that the set was originally sold by a man named Stan Godell in Montpelier VT (I've yet to research the name). The couple to whom Stan sold the set kept it for only a few weeks, after which they traded it back to Stan for a B&W model saying that they hated color television. The CT-100 then sat in Stan's showroom for 31 years until he retired and gave the set to Dan. Dan owned Dan's TV Service from 1984 until 1993. After Dan retired from TV service he kept the CT-100 around in his house. Sadly Dan shared his home with a K-9 companion that didn't share my passion for original untouched cabinet finishes and left his mark on the lower left side of the set. The rest of the cabinet has the look you'd expect of an old TV that while worthy of saving, isn't looked at as a priceless piece of history. The sun's punishing UV rays fell on the left side of the set more than the right, and errant paint splatter dots the front.

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Incredible deal! There's been speculation about who got this set.

The chassis looks pristine, have you checked the CRT yet?

Yes, lets see how the CRT is. if that works... a steal is an UNDERSTATEMENT

I am sure there are some here...who would probably give 200 just for a good FLYBACK for one of those sets--so YES is a REAL STEAL--even if a dead tube.

WOW!! Incredible deal! You did great! Also very cool that you have the backstory on this set. I only know the history of a few of my things.

Waiting waiting waiting for something like this to pop up around here. Nice find. That yoke cover is immaculate.

wow , thats an even better deal than the CTC5 I found on the curb on the way to work

Great find. Looks like an early production set. When you can share the serial number we'll add it to the master CT-100 list on the ETF website.

Pete:

...

Wow. Nice score. I'd love to add one of these to my collection..:drool:

Sadly I don't own a picture tube tester so I don't know if the 15G is good or not. If anyone near the Pittsburgh area has a tester and would like to check it please let me know.

You could contact a radio/TV collector club in your area and ask if anyone can help you test the CRT. Here's a list of US clubs:

http://antiqueradio.com/clublist.html

Even if the nearest club isn't next door, they might know someone closer. Collectors live everywhere, not only in big cities

Great score, by the way, regardless of the CRT's condition. More evidence that there are still some great TVs still to be found "in the wild."

Regards,

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

Someone I think here is maintaining a database of known existing CT100 sets, with serial numbers of the chassis and the cabinet.

That would be this guy ^

You could also remove the yoke and check the getters, if they're white then no need to test, if they're still black or brown then there's hope.