Good Night at the Auction

[bgadow]

There was an avid collector in my town who was in the process of opening a radio museum; his health failed & he passed away before his dream could be fulfilled. His family has been slowly disposing of the collection. There was an auction yesterday featuring part of what remains; anxiously I awaited. What would be there? How deep would the pockets be?

There were, I'd say, maybe a dozen serious collectors there. They started in on tables of radios. The first thing I had my eye on was a Hotpoint TV, one of those tiny late 50s models. Actually, I guess I had never seen one in person because I pictured them as being much larger. I just knew it would go out of sight. Nope. I bought it along with 5 or 6 radios for $2. I ended up buying several large lots of radios for $2 or not much more; paid $2 each for a transistor Transoceanic (1000-D), a Bendix radio built into a table (one of those with a dissappearing woodgrain dial) and a box of 78 records. Got a big Pilot table radio with several bands for about $10 and a neat Dahlberg coin operated radio for about the same price. Just for the heck of it I bought an '88 Zenith 13" color tv (Mexican built) for another $2.

This all made for a good night. What happened next made for a great night.
There was a table full of radios and stuff and they decided to sell it for choice. I had my eye on something in the back. Now, some of these collectors had not been bidding on anything. I guessed they must have been waiting around for the same thing I was. The bidding started. I bid up to $10. The bidding stalled. I took my choice: 2 Pilot 3" TV sets, one missing the crt. Here, I thought I would never own one of these because they always sell in the hundreds-and for $20 I own a pair.

As I sort of expected the picture tubes in both the Pilot & Hotpoint are bad. I know they are both notorious for that. It looks like someone broke the crt on the Hotpoint. I do have a 3KP1 in a scope so I can at least get it running with that. I could have sworn that one of the 3" scopes I had was white phosphor; it must have been the other one, a DuMont, that I gave away at the ETF convention a year ago.

Anyway, a good night...I will post some pictures when I get time.

[Dave S]

Bryan,

I'm green with envy. 'Course we all hope to get lucky every once in a while. It was your turn. Congratulations!

--Dave

[Tony V]

Cool deal Bryan! Those are the stories we like to hear and hope we can stumble on someday. I too am green with envy but it helps that i know they are going to a good home. I cant wait until you show some pics of your finds. The only decent deal i've had in the past year was i came across the floor model version of the Zenith "Walton" radio. It was complete and original for a whopping $45 Needless to say i couldnt get my wallet out fast enough.
Tony

[bgadow]

I promised pictures and here they are. I'm planning on fixing up one of the Pilots very soon. I put an order in for the high voltage caps & I think I have a filament transformer that will work to preserve the crt.

I attached a photo of just some of the radios. I really need to start selling a few because my radio room is just turning into one big pile.

[Don Lindsly]

I have 4 9QP4s. Three are GE and one is a Continental rebuilt. They are all low emission, but useable; certainly better than a broken one. You are welcome to them for shipping or pick up in Denver. Send a private mail if interested.

Don

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by bgadow

I really need to start selling a few because my radio room is just turning into one big pile.

I'm gonna have to thin my herd of radios, too. All sitting in storage right now, though. See my web page http://www.geocities.com/wa2ise/
Mostly AA5s.