Does anybody know anything about a Motorola 21C8?

[vintage.digi]

I found this set for sale on an online auction site for a very high price. I loved the look of it so I talked to the seller for a while to try to get some info. The story doesn’t really add up. He said it was repaired at a local antique shop. Do any antique shops repair vintage televisions? He didn’t know the name of the store. The listing was just one low-res photo posted twice with a filter on it. It seemed like the only way I’d have any idea if this thing really worked was to buy it and drive 6.5 hours to see it. He agreed on a slightly lower but still very high price, but he would not change the listing price. Then after waiting a day for a response, he says he’s not doing that price. So I say okay, I paid your initial asking price, but now he says he’s canceling that and asking more.

So obviously I’m done dealing with this guy. It’s like pulling teeth and I have serious questions about his legitimacy. But… I really liked the TV so this is a big disappointment, but I can’t find anything on it except for a service manual supplement. I figured I’d find a photo of one from an owner but I can’t find anything.

Does anybody know anything about these TVs or maybe just happen to have one for sale? I’d still love to buy one if I could but it’s clearly a dead end with this guy.

[vintage.digi]

Actually, the brochure that I found showing the model number “21C8” is slightly different from the one I was looking at, but very close.

[Electronic M]

It may be listed in Sam's 382-1. The model number is the cabinet the chassis is in. Most makes stuck the same chassis in several dozen different cabinets to match the furniture in your house...Some cabinets are less common than others despite being the same inside.

If an antique shop restored it then they probably mean applied Howard Restor-a-finish to the wood.
Restored and working can mean a LOT of different things to different people. I've seen VCRs listed as working then you read the description and discover the text "lights up, but I don't have a tape or TV so that's all I know"....

What state are you in and what's your taste in vintage and cabinet style?...Odds are one of us is close and has something that would float your boat we need gone that's been competently worked on.

[Tube TV]

Stay clear of sellers like that. Over paying can be bad enough but when you're also dealing with a unreliable seller or a scammer which makes it worse. Mark my words, if you drove 6.5 hours to see it he'd not be home or find some excuse for you to not see it, or request that you send him some payment.

Is this the TV you're interested in?


I would want to know the condition of the CRT and other details like the cabinet condition. I don't know what you define as overpriced, but I wouldn't want to go over $150 or 200, and there's many collectors that here that will say that's way over priced and they'd be reluctant if it was $50.

As for him not being able to provide decent pictures, it's 2023 and it's safe to say that anyone with internet access has a digital camera in their phone or a camera.

Take a step back and wait and a deal will show up. There are still 50's TV's around for resonable prices.

I'm currently dealing with the miseries of a seller like this on ebay. Zero feedback seller and he refuses to ship the TV from Ontario to BC. I had to start a claim on it to try and either get it shipped (which looks unlikely) or refunded through ebay. The only reason I bothered with him was the TV is a rather rare Canadian Marconi that I've been wanting to add to my collection.

As for it being repaired, The amount of knowledgeable tube TV techs is small, so small nowadays that all of us at here on Videokarma and ARF I would say amount to the majority of us still around.

[Electronic M]

+1

I just now saw a picture of it(missed the first PM). It's a stylish set to be sure, but I have a hard time buying that a restored specimen is worth more than $300 to a proper collector and most of us would only do $100 on something not known to be restored by someone competent (an incompetent electrical resto can be worse to fix than an original set). The MCM cat bed crowd may pay stupid money sometimes, but competing with people who have more dollars than sense is rarely a productive thing. Just because something is rare doesn't mean it's worth 4 figures...I've got a number of rare sets that are hardly worth anything because they are not in categories people want, and or are obscure enough that there isn't enough interest to create the competition among buyers that fosters value.

I will add the caveat that prices in California seem to be ~double everywhere else. So if you happen to live there the asking price is less crazy than it would be here.

PS: it's constant battle to keep open PM space...I prefer, where possible, to limit PMs to actual business dealings where private price negotiations and contact info are exchanged. Emailing me through Videokarma is possible and it's far easier to avoid that becoming log jammed.

[vintage.digi]

I managed to work it out with the seller, and somehow despite the red flags, he was telling the truth. I know I overpaid for this TV, but I don't mind. This thing has the most beautiful cabinet design I've ever seen.

Check it out here: https://youtu.be/SZYydO3tmiA

The model number of my unit is 21C9BD. It has the blonde oak colored cabinet. (It's a laminate) There was also a mahogany colored cabinet. The chassis is a MTS-551. The VHS tuner is CMTT-102. I'm unsure why no UHF tuner is included on this sheet. https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/ID...-Page-0080.pdf

I appreciate that people in the TV collecting hobby like to keep prices to a reasonable level. But if a TV collector wasn't going to be willing to buy this, then it likely could have been gutted and I certainly don't think that should happen to this TV. I feel like it's a museum quality piece honestly, and as far as I'm aware, it's the only one currently known to exist. I can find photos of a few other Motorola swivel models, but nothing near as modern as this. It's become a bit of a grail set for me although I admittedly didn't know it existed a few weeks ago. Rare Predictas can go for a lot even unrestored and I do think this thing is a bit cooler than a Continental and certainly more rare.

I think it will need some work though. I was able to get a pretty good picture after tweaking horizontal and vertical hold, but it isn't terribly consistent, especially when changing channels. If I change channels it often seems to lose sync. Also, there's sometimes a gap on the right side of the picture, and without a way to control h-size, I'm not sure how to improve it, other than turning brightness up until the picture looks gray. Sometimes it appears to have a bit of horizontal foldover. I don't have many working sets from this era, so I'm not entirely sure how much of this should expected.

[Electronic M]

UHF was introduced in 1952 and was strictly optional equipment until the mid 1964 UHF tuner mandate. So in that window sets from areas without UHF stations typically were ordered without the UHF tuner.

If there's no width control try swapping out the H output and damper tubes for stronger specimens.

I'd have a look inside and verify it's been recapped right...If it has and the set has its original selenium H AFC diode pack change that out for a pair of modern shottkey diodes. Those selenium AFC diodes were in everything from everyone and were infamous for causing weak or no H sync.
The first set set I fixed in this video had exactly that issue:https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b7AhGnlaOno

[Tube TV]

It really is a beautiful MCM cabinet. I'm glad that the deal worked out for you.
Considering it's unknown state as to what's been serviced it's got a really nice picture. X2 on everything Electonic M suggested.