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  #1  
Old 06-22-2013, 01:15 PM
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radiotvnut radiotvnut is offline
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'72 (?) Sears touch tune console color TV

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?
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Old 06-22-2013, 02:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by radiotvnut View Post
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.
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Old 06-22-2013, 02:57 PM
Rod Beauvex Rod Beauvex is offline
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Did the TV actually work?

I'm guessing it is not a re-badged Quasar works in a drawer.

A Google search only turned up a 1975 ad for a sears varactor set for me, which say solid state tuning, with no indication the entire set is solid state.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...g=3032,4322270

Last edited by Rod Beauvex; 06-22-2013 at 03:01 PM.
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Old 06-22-2013, 04:41 PM
egrand egrand is offline
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Maybe an older back got put on a newer tv?

These are from the 1979 Christmas catalog. Did it look like one of these?

I think I'll start a new thread showing where these Christmas catalogs can be found.
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File Type: jpg SearsWishbook_1979C_P406.jpg (108.6 KB, 56 views)
File Type: jpg SearsWishbook_1979C_P407.jpg (113.0 KB, 56 views)
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  #5  
Old 06-22-2013, 06:35 PM
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The controls looked like what's in the picture to the right. From what I could tell, the back looked original.
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Old 06-23-2013, 01:06 PM
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Maybe the date was faded ? I dont see Warwick doing
an early varactor although they did over engineer the 19"
dog with a RCA jug. Sanyo may have, but thats way early
even for a big outfit. Toshiba had one but was around '75
IIRC. Dont even remember working on a Warwick SS console,
guess I shouldnt complain ! Did they make one ? How was it?
BTW were there pots & switches for the tuning ??

73 Zeno
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Old 06-23-2013, 01:31 PM
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The Warwick SS consoles I remember were not the best and I haven't seen one since I was a teenager. It seems like the tuner was similar to what Sanyo used, except maybe the warwick sets may have had actual click buttons. In fact, I think I remember reading that Sears dropped Warwick as a supplier in either '76 or '77 because their quality had gone down the toilet. It wasn't long after that Sanyo took over Warwick.

If I could get them down on the price of the flea market TV and if I knew it had a good delta gun CRT, it might be worth getting just to strip out the CRT. Of course, during the time I think that set was made was the era when they were switching from delta gun to inline gun CRT's.
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Old 06-23-2013, 09:31 PM
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I used to have the set that Rod shows in the newspaper ad. It was my grandparents' set... the first color TV they bought in '75. Story goes, when they first bought it, it went thru two picture tubes in the first year (each replaced under warranty). After the 3rd tube was installed, my grandfather got tired of Sears telling him they couldn't find anything wrong with the set that would cause the tubes to fail... so my uncle took the set and played with it for a few days. He found what he felt like was a poor solder connection and corrected it. The set was fine after that... never having a CRT issue again.

In 1985, they bought their second color set (which is still in their living room today) and gave me the old Sears set. I used the set for 6 years and then bought a new set. My girlfriend's mom was having a garage sale and we put it in the sale. No one bought the set, and it stayed under the carport that night. The next morning, the set was gone!

The set had a slight design flaw... the tuner did not like humid days. The tuner was touch activated. If the humidity was high, it would always get stuck on channel two. If you touched another channel tab, it would go to that channel, but then go back to 2 when you removed your finger. To deal with this problem, my grandparents would put a penny in the little space between the tab and the frame for the channel they wanted to watch.
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Old 06-24-2013, 07:19 AM
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[QUOTE=Charlie;3073111
The set had a slight design flaw... the tuner did not like humid days. The tuner was touch activated. If the humidity was high, it would always get stuck on channel two. If you touched another channel tab, it would go to that channel, but then go back to 2 when you removed your finger. To deal with this problem, my grandparents would put a penny in the little space between the tab and the frame for the channel they wanted to watch.[/QUOTE]

To fix the channel sticking on these pull the selector & clean
the little buttons, clean the holes they go through. Always worked
for me. They also get int sound, an IC socket on the selector.
If you see the set again I would give them your ## & tell
them $20. Thats a big thing to lug around & it wont take long
before they give up.

73 Zeno
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  #10  
Old 06-24-2013, 08:40 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zeno View Post
To fix the channel sticking on these pull the selector & clean
the little buttons, clean the holes they go through.
The set did this from brand-new out of the box. The penny trick was told to my grandfather by the Sears service man that came out.

This could have all been avoided if my grandparents used the central air/heat all the time. If it was 68 degrees and 90% humidity outside, they would have all the windows and doors open. Someone get the penny jar!!

Quote:
Originally Posted by zeno View Post
If you see the set again I would give them your ## & tell
them $20. Thats a big thing to lug around & it wont take long
before they give up.
Really, it was okay that they took it. I didn't want to lug that big heavy thing home again. We were just surprised that someone would come back and steal a 15+ year old TV from under the carport!
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  #11  
Old 06-24-2013, 08:09 PM
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..slightly off-topic, but the "sticking-on-channel-two" issue reminds me of the old Zenith color TVs of the early-to-mid-'80s, where they'd revert to channel 2 on powerup due to the non-remote hard power switches. They figured that this was fine, since it had a keypad for channel entry, I suppose. volatile memory at its worst IMO
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  #12  
Old 06-24-2013, 08:52 PM
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Jon A. Jon A. is offline
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Man, I would love to have a set with vertically-arranged varactor tuning buttons. Not for that price though.
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  #13  
Old 06-24-2013, 10:05 PM
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I wouldn't give no where near that much. Frankly, I can't get those kinds of prices for my TV's; so, no way I'm giving someone else that much for theirs.
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