Vintage Zenith TV (60's) in Service Saver Chassis
 

My Great Uncle (95) died and his house is straight out of the 60s/70s - my in-laws are having an estate sale and they are paying a guy to haul away whatever doesn't sell.

We plugged it in - it hums and warms up - hasn't been turned on in 20 years probably. The chassis is nearly flawless - it really looks awesome. Here are model numbers from back:

Model: G2749
Chassis Model: 16H23

Should I rescue this TV? If it's worth anything to a collector - I can take it before the guy hauls everything away - but I don't want to do that if it's not even worth anything to a collector.

I was able to take a picture of it in the basement - but I could get more info on it today/tomorrow -but guy is coming next week, so I need to know now.

Very nice looking TV. Looks like one of the first rectangular sets. Not quite as valuable as a roundie, but definitely worth saving. :thmbsp:

DONT let it get hauled away!!!

That's a B&W set from around 1961 or 62.

I usually see the metal cabinet version. That one is very nice! Any local TV nut would want that.

What information should I get from it - I wrote down model numbers on back and we plugged it in - that's about it.

I told them to not sell it for $10 - so the estate sale ended now I just need to find a loving home for it.... I'll post some more photos if anyone is interested locally - and I'll try craigslist too.

Let me know if anyone is interested - but if it is b+w - I guess I posted it in the wrong thread...

I don't see why ten dollars would have been an unfair price for that set.

Geez, don't tell Miniman....

Really - only $10? I had dreams of $20...

I thought this was a good rescue and someone out there would really like to have this TV as it's in such great shape - maybe my picture doesn't do it justice and I really have no specs on it - but if it's not a good find - I'll have to rethink lugging it out of the basement and storing it while I found it a home and researched museums/collectors/swap meets in the area.

Any other info people have - especially if this is not worth anything will greatly help. I'm going back to look in more detail at it and contact the local TV and radio museum to see if there is any interest in it.... I just hate to send it to the dump.

Thanks! I appreciate any info - especially if anyone is from the CT area and knows any groups to contact out here.

Oops....:o

I didn't look that closely at the controls. Still a nice set though, and worth saving.

I rescued a Zenith b&w 23" console like this one (but it was about a year or two newer - model K2739, 1963) from a trash pile in my home town in 1969. Got the set working, but it took a while since the former owner had filched all but one of the tubes. It was worth it, though, as the TV worked absolutely wonderfully after I installed the last tube and turned it on. Even more amazing, the set still had its original 23ANP4 CRT, which was still going strong! The set must not have been used much.

Why? The mods move them, not me.

I think Zenith built that same basic set for around 12 years. I also used to say that set was built to last forever.:yes:

Nicer photo
 

Thanks for the info - even though this was not the right forum to use - So it sounds like it's a 23" black and white from about 1961 then based on replies. So that's good - I also am posting a better shot of it just because the first one was so bad :)

I moved it from the house to be sold to my garage - so now at least I can do some more research and find it a home.

I don't know this forum well enough to know that even if I post something in the real forum for b+w that I'd get any more info - any suggestions?

Is this worth anything more than a few bucks really? Is this one of those dime a dozen tvs then that going to a swap meet in June just to get this guy a home isn't really worth lugging it there? Just wondering how common this one would be - or if it could be worth something for parts. Trying just to get any ideas at all.

Thanks so much for any replies!
Karen

thats a cool looking set,its compact does'nt take up alot of floor space and it's kinda tall so your not looking at the floor, i like it. ask u.p.s what it would cost to ship it to northern indiana ,and if it could make it in one peace . i like the set ,but just because its old dosnt make it a[ collectors idem ] it seems now days everything over 40 yrs old becomes collectible , i just like it because its looks cool, and its got tubes its easy to mantain, and its not made in china .

it's too nice to part it. But, sixties B&W consoles typically don't bring big money or sometimes much of any money at all. Just depends on who's looking. Maybe try Craigslist for $50 or BO and see if you get any replies.

That set is in great shape, and Zenith is one of the better brands. I agree that putting it out for $50 obo would be fair.

The old TV hobby isn't that well established yet; a big part of it is that collectors are few and far between, and sets are tough to ship. So...prices are all over the place. So, on one day there might be somebody on here posting about that '61 Zenith bw console they "stole" for only $200...and the next day, somebody can't give one away!

I'm glad you saved this. These really are great sets. At the time it was bought this was probably the most reliable TV that money could buy.

Set was taken care of. Beautiful cabinet. Worth saving.

Maybe you could sell it to someone who would be willing to spend $200 or more having it shipped by someone on Uship...

You very rarely ever see a B&W Zenith in a fancy Early American like that because of the cost. Most of these chassis' were sold in a metal cabinet.

Zenith B&W Console
 

That set is gorgeous! Because it's a Zenith, I and the rest of this forum knows is it pretty on the inside too, and very restorable. If this was on the NW corner of the left coast, I'd be "in" at $40-50.

Everything old is new again. I notice the cabinet stain color is like what's going in new homes these days for kitchen cabinets.

I just trashed a mid 50s Sears Silvertone :scratch2: harvested transformer, tubes, 'lytics.

Had put it on CL for $30, no one wanted it.

Is it really that old? The front panel looks very much like my 1966 Zenith 24MC32 color (albeit without the red, blue and green on the volume knob, of course).

As a child, we had a 22" B/W Zenith that must have been a 1962 (my mom always said it was a gift from grandmother so the family could watch John Glenn go into orbit), and the front panel looked older than this.

I had the same set from my Aunt years ago when I was a kid. It was a table model with the matching stand too. Sold it when I got my first color set. A 23" Magnavox That was a mess and I had to do a full alignment on it. Someone thought they could just adjust every coil. NOT!!! but it was a learning experiance

Just another observation about subject Zenith: look at the grille cloth: no shadow of the speaker in it. It was operated in a clean environment: speakers pump air in and out of the grille cloth which acts like a filter and picks up dirt.

That's a beautiful set, but sadly worth very little in the collector market. Serious TV folk are much more interested in early B/W TVs from the 1940s, or early color sets from the mid- to late 1950s.

Demand for B/W TVs drops off sharply around the mid-1950s. Although TVs of that time (and newer) often perform better and have bigger screens than the 1940s sets, the electronic design had become more standardized by then, so they're uninteresting from a historical standpoint. The size and weight limit you to local buyers, which further limits the price.

The notable exceptions are TVs with an unusual design, such as the Philco Predicta.

Last year, we sold my mother in law's estate in MN, which included a very nice 1950s Sparton console TV. This was my wife's childhood TV, fondly remembered by her and her siblings, but nobody wanted it. Our house is already crammed with old TVs and radios and I couldn't justify the cost of shipping it halfway across the USA, especially since we had no place to put it. It was sold to a couple for a few bucks; they wanted it as a decoration and promised not to make it into a fishtank.

If you want to restore this TV and use it, it will probably perform very well for a long time. But perhaps you're in the same boat as most other people, wondering where in the heck you would put such a thing. And the cost of hiring someone to make it reliable & safe for everyday use would exceed the resale value.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html