Curtis Mathes circa 1980

[julianburke]

When I was selling used color sets in the 70's-1991, I bought used and usually non working CM's from a CM dealer. I actually liked them as they were easy fixer uppers and had plenty of parts for them. Chassis' were made by NEC and the most common problem beside weak CRT's was a shorted HO transistor in these trade ins. I also worked in a local picture tube rebuilding facility so I always got $30 rebuilt CRT's! At that time I would easily sell used CM's for around $200+ with a warranty. Many people still call me "The TV man"!

Because of the hype CM was advertising of "being darn well worth it" (5 year warranty), they were easy sells and probably sold several hundred over a 10 year period. I made good money on them back then on sales and repairs. They were very easy to fix.

I still have the factory TM's for the 51, 53 and the 58 chassis'. They were well written and had a wonderful easy flow chart to follow for problems.

[Firebird]

Can you show us a picture of your magnavox ctc-4?

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Firebird

You don't see warranties like that anymore.

I remember reading about those warranties back when these devices were still being sold. As you can see if you read it, the warranty covers parts only, NOT any labor!

[julianburke]

Originally Posted by Firebird

Can you show us a picture of your magnavox ctc-4?

I rent an old storefront on Central St here in Knoxville that is about 1000 SF. It provides very dry storage and it is so full that a pathway down the center of it barely exists! The Maggie was one of the first items (in left rear) in 21 years ago, is somewhat visible and I have an RCA TK42 sitting on top of it of all things. (cabinet protected) When the temperature tones down a little I think I can move some stuff and get a picture of it. It is buried in there with many other TV's and there has to be at least 7-8 CTC5's in there of many cabinet styles found over the years. Zenith 29JC20 remote, Motorola first rectangular 23EGP22 set, other nice RCA's rescued from the dump and thrift stores. 1000's of RCA & Zenith NOS parts & at least 20,000 tubes NOS and used, chassis', 2 dozen Portacolors or so, Predictas, other studio cameras and you name it.

Oh the pain of it! I need to move it to a larger building and this is only one (the smallest) of 4 places I have stuff packed away not including my house & old house and present house where better stuff exists. I'm afraid I will have to build a place to display it all. Chuck Pharris came over one day and took pictures. Perhaps I can get him to post those pictures some way. The CTC4 is not forgotten, just difficult at the moment.

BTW, any volunteers care to come down and help me to organize it???

Beside pinball machines in there, there are 4 NOS video games in there--Space Invaders, Space Invaders Deluxe, Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe. I think I need to have a clean out of non TV related stuff!!

[Firebird]

When are we going to see the pictures of the magnavox? Can you not find some volunteers to help or hire someone. I live too far away or i would help.

[zenithfan1]

Right!? Me too...