Repairing/Selling tube radios?

[VintagePC]

Hi folks,
an off the wall question... what do most of you do with your repaired sets? Keep/sell/display?

It's fun to repair and work with these sets (I want to do more than one, and may even go on to a tube TV at some point) but to me there's not a lot of sense in putting money in to a set if it's just going to sit unused...

so generally, what is the resell market for working recapped/refinished sets? and do you break even/lose/make money on resale? I know you can't be specific for an area... to know for sure I'd test the waters with a cheap set.

Depending on the set you put about $20 of new caps in (if a lot of big filter caps, less if only one or two), maybe some resistors, and of course all of the cabinet /other work if it is in bad shape.

[radiotvnut]

Unless it's a somewhat high dollar set, you'd probably be spinning your wheels if you have to buy the set in unrestored condition, spend your money and time fixing the chassis, spending more money and time making the cabinet look nice, and then thinking that you're going to make money off of it. Chances are, it probably won't happen.

Usually, if I go to the trouble to restore something, it stays here as I don't plan on giving something like that away to someone who does not appreciate the work involved in restoring one of these sets. My Dad was a woodworker and everything he made had to be just right or he'd scrap the project and start over. He was the world's worst at looking at everyone else's woodworking and pointing out it's flaws. More times than not, someone would either ask him how much he'd charge them to build something or they'd ask a price for something he'd already built and then they'd almost have a heart attack when he quoted them a figure. He'd always say that it was fine with him if they didn't want to pay his price because these people, who are used to spending $50 on particleboard junk from wal-mart, don't have a clue what materials cost and the amount of time involved in building something. And, it's the same way with radios. Many people don't understand, or just don't care, the amount of work involved to bring one back and they think you should let it go for $10 or $20.

Usually, what I sell are unrestored projects and I sell them cheap.

IMO, only restore, or have restored, a radio if you plan to keep it. The exception might be a radio that's worth several hundred $ or more.

[AUdubon5425]

I haven't sunk a dime in anything that I did not plan to keep at the time. I've given away sets & parts & tubes and likewise have been given to.

I have been to a few antique radio club sales where there were a few spectacularly restored sets for $200-$400. Given the amount of work and detail, I felt most were certainly worth it although I couldn't afford such a luxury.

[leadlike]

I've sold some sets at the Kutztown Radio meet and managed to turn a small profit (a few hundred dollars). I can tell you for the hours involved, I was earning less than minimum wage.

I remember selling through my crummy 40s table radios really fast-they were all recapped and working. I remember one fellow could not believe I recapped a set he was interested in, and flipping the chassis over to see the half-dozen new caps I had put in. The look on his face was priceless: "That must have been so much work!".

I gather that most of what I sold was just bought by other dealers to resell. I know one set I had with a damaged case sold for about $50, and I saw it on another dealer's table for $150 an hour later.

If you were serious on restoring/selling radios, your best bet would be working with table sets that are easy to ship and restore.

[electroking]

Not to discourage you, but I once sold at a hamfest a nice Westinghouse AM
bakelite table radio project (was missing knobs but did work) that featured
push-pull audio output (pair of 25L6GTs). Even though I could claim in good
faith I had put in two matching brand new ouput tubes, I only got 20 bucks
for it, hardly more than the value of the two tubes...

However, as you found out, doing the resto and getting the radio to work
is a great part of the reward. The skills you develop doing this are actually quite
useful. I suggest that you keep on reading about this topic, maybe acquire
some instrumentation such as a scope, frequency counter, signal generator, etc.,
and keep chatting with us about anything electronic. Good luck!

[Jeffhs]

I have several vintage Zenith radios and two antiques (Zenith H511-Y, 1951, Zenith C845, 1960, the latter being the radio in my avatar) which I do not intend to sell. The H511 was the start of my collection; I got it on eBay because I'd had a set just like it back in the '70s (I don't remember what happened to it). My collection just kept growing after that; I now have seven Zenith radios, two Sony all-transistor portables from 1973, and an Aiwa AM/FM set from 1967. Haven't had to do anything to any of them to get them to work, although one of my Zeniths, an MJ1035, has audio issues (almost no sound from stations and lots of hum). Regardless, these radios are keepers as far as I'm concerned. Zenith made some excellent radios in its day; they are well worth the effort to restore, as are older RCA, Philco and other radios from the '50s and earlier. If you have a bunch of old antique or vintage radios, I'd say keep them if you have the room. They don't make them like that anymore; I say this all the time about Zeniths, but the saying rings true for all the other major radio manufacturers of the '20s to the '50s as well.

[jr_tech]

Perhaps I am being overly cautious here, but I never sell a radio to the general public... only to other collectors that are aware of the safety/fire hazards involved with many of these early sets.
jr

[VintagePC]

Originally Posted by electroking

However, as you found out, doing the resto and getting the radio to work
is a great part of the reward. The skills you develop doing this are actually quite
useful. I suggest that you keep on reading about this topic, maybe acquire
some instrumentation such as a scope, frequency counter, signal generator, etc.,
and keep chatting with us about anything electronic. Good luck!

That's a BIG part of it. As long as I'm able to break even for material costs, I'd gladly restore a radio for someone... just the challenge and reward is a lot of fun.

And I do agree with the last post- don't sell to people unless they know about tube radios and/or are tube audio lovers.

[leadlike]

Your saying about breaking even reminded me:

A few years ago when I was first getting into radios, I put an ad on Craigslist offering to fix your radio for free-less the cost of materials. I stated I just wanted to have something to work on, my payment being the enjoyment of spending time fixing your radio. I also stated something along the lines of if you have ever wanted to have grandpa's old radio running like new again, this would probably be your only chance to get this done for cheap.

Well, I got plenty of responses, ALL of them from different folks saying I have an XXXX radio, what will you pay me for it? Almost all of them (that were legit tube models) were BOTL Philco consoles, maybe that is why I have such a distaste for them...

[VintagePC]

I did something similar too... except that it was a "Free-only" list, and that I just said I enjoyed the hobby and would love to hear about anyone that still had some tube gear sitting around... and if they didn't want it, I'd take it and probably restore/document it for the fun; I probably won't get any "will you give me <ridiculous amount> for <low end/poor condition/unrestored> radio/tv.

[capbuster]

Fix them up have fun doing it. Going to keep all of mine . Get some more and more.
If i get one that is to rough use it for a donor. always can find some part off of them.
Iam new to this got almost 5 sets restored . No tube tester ect have a signal gen
going to learn how to use. Help from great guys like you all got my sets playing.
My passion always has been carpentry. Build houses ect . have a small buisness.
Starting to lean towards theses old radio. Very interesting. Love it.