For those with 10K lying around or who have a muesem..HM 171 .
 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1939-General...item35de346012

Does not look too bad--has had some mods including added audio amp and speaker...

Why are this guy's products so expensive? He doesn't appear to be dodgy like radios10467, but his prices are insanely high.

when thats the way you make your living you have to sell at prices that are way more then it worth. I wont deal will the guy.

GE Unrestored Prewar TV
 

"Good grief!!" -- Charlie Brown :sigh:

Nice enough looking set! Any thoughts on what it might really be worth?

Gregb

Exactly what buyer and seller agree upon.

I get that, I am wanting to know what the going rate for a set like that might be on average.

Gregb

MAYBE Half of half...

is that pase'os or yen ????????? can't be dollars thats madness:D

When I bought a prewar TV a few years back at ETF maybe 10-15 people in the room were thinking it was worth $3000, 3-4 people bid up to $5000. The reserve wasn't met and I had to increase my bid another $1K to get it. There were only about 100 people there at the auction. Add in the internet and the world and the price goes up. Imagine an executive in an electronics or TV company in Japan. He doesn't want to restore an old television but might like to display one. I've seen predictas, pilots and 1950s RCA portables sitting on shelfs in the background of the morning news tv shows. A GE prewar console went for about $14K at the auction in Connecticut a while back. Given 200 american prewar and 250 UK prewars with a third to half in museums then they are worth exactly what buyer and seller agree upon. Rarity isn't the only gauge but popularity go a long way in determining price; I have an 1928 6-foot tall x-ray machine with a 50K volt transformer which I paid $600 for and would be lucky to get $300 out of. There are a lot of 1930 juke boxes which go for between $7K and $10K.

Sadly way beyond my means plus the fact the wife would kill me!!

Gregb

I can tell you that one of these sold last year for $10k and one sold the year before at auction for half that. Like Richard said it all depends who's "in the room." Go ask a random person what an old tube TV that doesn't work is worth, then ask a billionaire TV executive and avid prewar TV collector who doesn't yet own this model the same question.

This one also appears to be a bit of a mess. Cabinet drilled for volume control, wrong power transformer that required extra holes be drilled in the chassis, 6F8's rewired to 6SN7's, wrong crt shield and mask and various stuff drilled and added to the chassis.

I did like his comment "It even has the original tuner shield/cover that so many of these sets are missing." Yes, these are always missing since that's not an original piece to these sets!

It's interesting and informative what you wrote, but I think with a situation like this, much can be forgiven. You're dealing with a rare and historic early television set. This is not a set for the collector who wants "an old TV" to watch The Honeymooners on, but a serious TV collector who respects it's provenance. As a collector who's main interest has been television history, if I had the money, I'd see this set as jewel. It display's beautifully and a few extra holes in the chassis (as well as the other issues), in my personal opinion, don't turn me off to it at all. The seller has the absolute right to say "it could be many years until another one comes on the market", and he would be correct. I must say that the starting bid is high IMO. I would value the set, with the mods, in the $5,000-$7,000 range.

Was the newer power transformer added to accommodate the extra amps the audio chassis would draw?

Really??? What do you think would be the motivation to make a shield like that?

At first glance I thought the audio amp chassis was attached to it , but a better look proved I was mistaken . The GOAT tube shields sure look wrong with the 6SN7s in place of the 6F8s

Probably not. These power transformers have a habit of frying the HV winding which is usually made of #42 wire. It is not unusually to have a bad transformer however exact replacements are not hard to obtain.


It looks like someone was trying to shield the tuner from noise. With all the original crt mounting pieces missing, it may have been due to what was mounted in there at some point. The HM-171, HM-185, HM-225 and HM-226 all use this same basic tuner (3 or 5 channel versions) and none of them ever had a shield from the factory. No shield is mentioned or shown in the original manuals. Also if you notice, the corners of this shield are soldered together, not something GE would have done at the factory.


While that may or may not be true, and there certainly is no way of predicting when the next one will come up for sale, the last one sold out of the ETF classifieds less than a year ago.

I'm not trying to tear this set down, just point out that they have come up for sale very regularly over the years, many times in much better condition, many times in worse, so it's up to the buyer to decide if this is the set for them.

I agree it is pretty well modded, and that somewhat hurts the vintage value--BUT it has NOT been butchered. And it looks pretty good on the front and sides.


For a serious collector who had the means--probably 3500-5K would be more fair. It IS a pre-war set-after all, with a claimed good tube, with line powered HV and a 5" electrostatic tube.

;) Not looking to be contrary , but , the ad clearly states the 5BP4 is untested , and that the socket has become detached from it . I do 100% agree on your $5K limit due to the back being a reproduction , the entire CRT mounting being a kludge in from an oscilloscope , and the CRT mask being foreign to the set as well . The 6F8 to 6SN7 changeover had to include rewiring of the tube sockets and I hope the work was done neatly . The GOAT shields are missing their tops , not an impossible thing to find by any means but still a detraction from the top dollar $10K price .

The 5BP4 isn't an issue - good ones are available for around $100. I would be more concerned about the chassis and cabinet mods.

Typically these sets sell for around $10k in excellent condition. This one is worth considerably less.

:) I agree the tube is easier found than something like the original power transformer would be and I hope you know , I truly wasn't trying to be contradictory with rca2000 , I was pointing out that the seller did list the tube as untested and made some mention of the connector being broken . I also agree with your statement about the chassis and cabinet mods , originality being like virginity , drilled once and gone forever . The fact that chassis drilling was involved in the replacement of the power transformer means to me that although it's electrically good enough , it's physically foreign to the set and a huge detraction to me . A replacement of original type ? Sure , That wouldn't hurt the value to me nearly as much as a replacement that had to be drilled and otherwise fitted in .

Still a very nice set. Way out of my price range, though.

The rarity of it all
 

I saw a GE- HM-171 (the set in discussion here) auction for $20,000 on eBay in 2007, right before the bubble burst. A 9-inch GE console went for $25,000 within about a month of that auction. More than $2 million for a comic book (Superman #1) was realized about two-months ago on e-Bay. :scratch2: [Yes, that is insane.] So, I think the ETF auction mentioned below was a deal considering the rarity of these. The ETF website will give you the known population of each model. I wonder if sniping will occur on the current auction. If nobody bids, its because the timing is bad.... How's the stock market this week? Ugh.

I am tempted. But it probably will be sniped.

Ended with no bids.

Pray for a relist at a realistic reserve. I need a vacation in Florida.

Well shucks, I would have bid but he only had one, I would want two to keep the room balanced. :D

I believe that the ETF at one time had two for sale at the
same time. You missed your chance.

The seller always prices his sets way above their value, and they never sell on Ebay. He claims that he sells them after the auction. I have no idea how close to his auction price he gets.

Pretty effective (and cheap) advertising, when you think about it. How else could you advertise that item to a widely scattered audience of collectors?

Phil Nelson