Blessed by the God of collecting

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by TUD1

That RCA Victor is on the very top of my list for getting a vintage TV. I love the look of it!

IIRC your a radio guy. If that is so, you will want to work on a monochrome set before you even touch a tube color set to avoid opening a can of worms you are not ready for. Also CTC-5s are fairly rare....In the South unless you happen to live in a good area for vintage TVs you may be lucky to find any round screen color set.

[Sandy G]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

IIRC your a radio guy. If that is so, you will want to work on a monochrome set before you even touch a tube color set to avoid opening a can of worms you are not ready for. Also CTC-5s are fairly rare....In the South unless you happen to live in a good area for vintage TVs you may be lucky to find any round screen color set.

Yep...Around here, up til the mid '70s, anyway, a LOT of people were POOR... A Color Set was just about an almost UNIMAGINABLE Luxury... I remember going to my mothers' cousins place in the Sixties, because Johnny & Caddy had a COLOR SET... It was a sort of funky olive-green metal cased Zenith, IIRC. They HAD color broadcasting there in Kingsport, but I don't think their color set had ever been properly set-up, the screen was sort of a funky purplish/green color on B/W stuff..

[wkand]

Absolutely right Sandy!! Even up here on the left coast, before Seee-attle became a hip place people were losing their homes in the late 60's early 70's. My dad did not have a good job for 3 years, and dad was willing to not eat vs. not having TV.We kept our Zenith roundy as our only set from '65 through '75. we got a lot of snarky comments from neighbors because we had color and they did not. Our backup set was a '54 Admiral BW metal set.

[TUD1]

Yeah, that's probably true. I'd like to find an electronically restored RCA Victor from the late 50's. Those are my favorite. I wonder how much that would cost? I really only want to have one nice vintage TV.

[Electronic M]

A decent unrestored CTC-5 will probably run you $250-600 from someone that knows what it is.....Restored probably in the $400- ~1000 range. Roundys pre-1960 did not sell well back then and are not easy to find, thus the rarity makes them sought after and valuable. Unless you know how to test a CRT for gas don't buy one with it's original 21AXP22 unless it works enough to light the screen....Gassy CRTs test GREAT for emission, but will not display a picture (ask me how I know).

I'd recommend a CTC-7 or later for a first set. Cost and scarcity is lower and they use the all glass CRTs which are MUCH less likely to be gassy.

Don't think restored is a way to get around working on them. I've restored several sets and the ones that see regular use need at least annual maintenance.

[TUD1]

Okay, thanks for the advice. I have no problem with the CTC-7, 9, and 10 sets. I'm obviously new to the vintage (pre 1970) TV community, but a few years back, I collected 70's and 80's sets. My daily driver is a 1989 Zenith.

[Tom S]

I have the Same GE Porta color set. Great little performers