Which begs the question if there's still any potential for getting CRT's rebuilt in Mexico? I don't think they have a whole lot of internet access, so it may be a little difficult to research.

I've heard that there are plenty of CRT rebuilders down there, and in fact, Ronnie Richardson (co-owner of Dunbar), went down there as part of his sellout deal to set up and train the new owners. That, of course, was at least 15 or 20 years ago, but I bet there are still lots and lots of CRT TVs being used and fixed there. MetroColor's equipment was sold to Mexico much later, so if there were still upstart CRT rebuilders as late as the 2000s, it's a good sign. I remember being in Tijuana in the early 1980s, and basically there were 1940s-50s black & white sets in use still, and I didn't even see any color sets. Even in restaurants and tourist-type places. The tour bus company had a mid-50s Magnavox 17" consolette in the tourist lounge.

So I'd bet there are lots of 1980s-90s TVs being repaired on a daily basis, and thus the demand for cheap rebuilt tubes.

Charles

Like with most things in our hobby, the prices are going to be all over the place. After seeing a 10BP4 sell for $150 on ebay maybe 6 months ago I listed one of my spares, but could only garner about half that. These were the most common b/w crt, right? The majority of the ones I've had were, if not super strong, at least very useable. There are lots of 10" sets that aren't worth $100 as a complete package. I parted out a Raytheon with a rough cabinet-it was worth more in parts than as a complete set.

This hobby will change. At some point, way in the future, you won't have trouble getting $500 for a 10BP4. Way in the future, I said!

Well, I'm glad I scrounged up discarded 10" sets from the curb on trash day years ago for salvageable CRTs, and glad I picked up a few NOS 10BP4s at estate sales for a couple of bucks apiece (again, many years ago.) I was accused of being (and wondered if I wasn't actually) a little nuts for storing away such "common" tubes, but I like collecting this stuff and it just made me feel better to have them.

I feel a lot better about it now.

And it doesn't make sense to me that used tubes go for good money, but unrestorable (and even restorable) sets with a likely good 10BP4 inside can't elicit even a dollar bid sometimes at club auctions.

At our July club swapmeet, I heard that after I left someone who had been trying unsuccessfully to sell an ugly, never-going-to-be-worth-restoring set with a weak-but-useable 10BP4 in it, smashed the set and smashed the CRT into the dumpster when he left.

Speaking of my TC-127; it has a 12" tube. I think it is a 12LP4. Does anyone know how hard to find they are being from more or less the same time frame? It sure makes one crisp and bright picture!

The 12 inch tubes are getting quite a bit harder to find than the 10 inch tubes. The last good "loose" 12LP4 I found cost me $75. I suppose you could always pull one from a junker set though for quite a bit less.

I also very recently paid $75 for a good loose 12LP4. Conversely, today I was given a complete Admiral 30B1 chassis with a good 10BP4 dated 1956 :)

Say it ain't so Dave:no:

I sort of suspected this because I figured that there simply were more 10" tubes out there. Reasoning is that the 10" tubes were sort of a common thing for a fair amount of years. I think that once they more or less perfected the electroinics, they started going for larger size, so you see the 12" and the 19" come along, not to mention the monolithic tubes mounted in DuMont Royal Sovereign sets somewhere around 30".

So you have the years of 10" being popular and just a few years of the larger round tubes, then everything goes to old ugly rectangular shape. Guess I better not put too many hours on my !2"...

Anybody got a really good 10BP4 for sale? :)

10bp4
 

I don't have just the tube, but I still have a nice RCA 8T-243 that I would let go of if someone can pick it up (both physically and geographically).

One good thing is that vintage TV's that have made it to this point with a good CRT will very likely never need a replacement - barring accidents. The days of using these sets for hours on end on a daily basis are over for them. My vintage TV's get just enough use to keep them "limber", and I use controlled voltage with a Variac. I am pretty confident I will not need to replace their CRT's any time soon!
I think it's a great time for collectors of vintage TV's and radios. They are old enough to be an appealing collectible, yet still can be made operational often with little trouble of a knowledgeable tech - and the parts can be found somewhat easily. That may not be the case 25-50 years down the road. Their likely will be many static display's or retrofitted electronic substitutions, especially with vintage TV's from the '30-'50's.

I use the snot out of my 9T246. Gets at least 4 or 5 hours a week of use. More in the wintertime.....

That's still not much compared to the 30+ a week of use it might have had in it's day.
I rotate through my collection and don't leave a single set out. They probably all get played about 1 hour per month. It doesn't sound like much, but because I have a sizable collection that's enjoying a set almost every evening. The longest I've had a set playing is about 1 1/2 hours. If I had the ability to do repair work myself I would probably be a little more lax about it.

I think TV set usage habits have changed a lot since the early days. Really since the 70s and before 24 hours and 200 channels became the norm. Before that Mom watched a soap or three before the kids got home. Then the kids watched and hour or two of cartoons after school. Then dad watched the evening news, and finally the family watched whatever was interesting on prime time. All of this on about 4 channels for most people.

Now, sometimes my never say die Magnavox from the 90s stays on around the clock since the woman and I work opposing shifts. Sometimes there is an hour or two that I could turn it off just before she gets up, but I leave it on as I believe that it is harder on the CRT and other components to shut down and cool off just to get heated right back up. I love the really old TVs, but I must say that I have been amazed more than once at the durability of sets particularly from the 80s-90s. After that they seemed to turn into the garbage that they are today.

I think what happened is that the engineers by that time had worked to perfect solid state technology and color C.R.T. technology as well, and thus it was marketed. Then later the inevitable planned obsolescence or rather breakage tactics cam into play to keep people spending money. This is common with most everything now and it is such a shame, but if things don't break, then there certainly are less sales of replacements.

It's a genetic mental illness.

Nah, he caught this one from me :D

Now I see 10bp4's are back to a better price. I think the guy who bid $265 just needed the tube for grand ma's set.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/10BP4-Pictur...vip=true&rt=nc

A better price for the buyer. I'm a 33 year old with a wife and 4 kids going back to school full time and working part time. I was hoping for the trend to stay the same for a little while.:tears:

Check out the bidding history on this one. That has got to be some shill action!
http://r.ebay.com/3ms3YP