[compucat]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

At the flea market, I saw a Sears console color TV that looked fishy to me. It is a 25" solid state set with a touch tune varactor tuner with the channel buttons arranged vertically. They had $75 marked on it and the tag said it was from 1972. I said to myself, "No way this is from '72, maybe late '70's or early '80's. Then, I pulled the set around to look at the back as best I could; and, sure enough, I found a "MANUFACTURERED xx, 1972" sticker on the back. I was trying to look for a chassis number to see if the set was made by Warwick or Sanyo; but, it was too dark. I did, however, find the "No user serviceable parts inside" warning; so, that tells me that it's not a tube set.

I'm convinced that the date sticker that I saw was one that someone printed up in order to make the TV appear to be 40 years old to the untrained eye. I could be wrong; but, I know of no Sears touch tune color TV's from the early '70's. The closest thing I've seen was a Warwick build hybrid console from the mid '70's that had the buttons in a horizontal row above the CRT face. I've also seen some warwick and sanyo built Sears consoles from the mid to late '70's that had the touch tune buttons in a horizontal row to the side of the screen; but, these sets were all solid state.

So, what are your thoughts? Is this flea market Sears legit or is it one where someone is trying to pull a fast one?

The best way to know for sure is look up the Sams using the model or chassis number. The Sams folder will have a date on it. I don't think pushbutton varactor tuning was around until the mid Seventies at the earliest. Even then, one didn't see it too often. In 1972 most TVs still had tubes except for small screen sets.