That is how the conversation steered. I commented that IF people continue to collect these in the future that prices can only go up. I emphasized the if and she commented that there were a fair, not a lot but a fair amount of younger people at the ETF convention this year.

I am brand new to the hobby and on the young side (40). I am really only interested in getting the sets I collect to work. Not really sure what attracted me to this, other than my love of antiques and memories of my grandfather pulling a tabletop set out in his backyard with an extension cord and antenna to watch a ballgame in the summer time.

Plus there is a great satisfaction in learning this stuff, doing the work and actually getting results. I started with a few radios and have had immense help from folks on this forum. Have not completely restored a TV by myself yet, but I am getting there.

Hope the prices do not go up TOO high for working parts, but understand if they do.

Really ?!? Hawkeye was charging $300. I can't imagine how VDC could do it for only $39. It involves so much time and labor not to mention the cost of the new gun.

VDC has been know to buy up other re builders inventory. Possibly they were sitting on a good sized stash back then. But still hard to believe they would have blown them out at $39. :scratch2:

Well, you could go to the yearly convention at ETF.

I know there were some in the flea market, and there were at least four 10 inch tubes in the silent auction.

Two 10BP4's - one with 100% emission and another with less.

(The 10BP4's never were aluminized, unless some rebuilder did it.)

One aluminized Sylvania 10SP4 with an extremely light gray faceplate and 70% emission, went home with me for one tenth of that cost! This CRT is basically an aluminized 10BP4 on steroids for industrial use.

I cannot remember what the other 10 inch tube was, it might have been a 10FP4 or an unmarked round 10 inch tube.

None of the four went for nearly as much as the eBay auction.

I had to cut my buying his year, due to limited space in my CRV, as I had to pick up a floor model set in Dayton.

James

Unless you are quite a ways out from ETF, then it is still a wash.

My understanding was that Scotty greatly increased his prices the last few years of business because he no longer wanted to be doing it, and he also knew he was the last one doing it. And I think the $300 cost was for roundie color CRTs, not B&W tubes.

I bought six 17-inch Predicta CRTs from VDC for $322.51 total shipped to me as recently as February 2010. It ws much cheaper to buy them outright from VDC's stock rather than to try and deal with Scotty.

.

Well he certainly charged me $300 for rebuilding a 10FP4. I've heard the same price from others too.

I also got one of those $40 VDC 17 inch Predicta CRTs :) Not that I've ever found a bad one. It seems they were much more reliable than the 21" version.
http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4100/4...84efa8a46f.jpg

Then he really did jack up the rates near the end!

I could not even sell my known-good 10BP4 for $75 a while back. It was inside a beat-up RCA 8T241 cabinet and chassis.

I too am on the younger side of radio/TV collectors (46), but I've been in the hobby avidly since about 1980. Recently I've noticed that many sets, as well as early CRT's and other various parts are suddenly becoming rather scarce. In, say the '90's, it seemed there was an over-abundance of everything! Certain serious collectors had stacks of sets stored away. Of course it's bound to happen that the supply dries-up as time goes on. It just gets a little more expensive and requires a little more searching around to get something.
Good luck with your resto work. I still am timid with elec. repairs. I give it to my tech.
Joe

You guys are making me feel way out of place, haha. I'm only 24.

Something to think about, if my 10bp4 sold for $265. What would my good 3kp4 sell for? Just something to think about.

Depends on who's there! I bought my whole Pilot TV-37 with
first rate 3kp4 for $45.

They thought it was a radio. There was another bidder, but he
was a generalist, not a radio-TV specialist.

Doug McDonald

Does "Lucky Dog" sound right? Good on 'ya Mate!