How come that beside RCA's there are just a few '50's color sets preserved
 

How come, besides "R.C.A." color tv sets, there are just a few other color tv sets produced by other brands in the '50's that are still preserved? The others brands weren't so sold in the '50's? If I rember well, I didn't see here, on the forum nobody owning a non "R.C.A." color sets from the '50's!

The RCA was really the only true mass-produced color set in the 50s, but there were dozens of other brands. I've had a Raytheon 21", Motorola 19" & 21", CBS-Columbia 19", a Sparton 15", a Sentinel 21", several Hoffmans (one 19" prototype and two 21" sets), a Packard-Bell 21" , a GE 15", a Stromberg-Carlson 15", and others. All of them are rare as hens' teeth.

Charles

I had a chance to grab several Motorolas, an Admiral, a CT-100 and others, all for less than $300. One problem though, I was about 10 and had no say on what money was spent on so on by we walked.....:tears:

Because RCA made the best sets back then.

Many early tv receivers are in land fills, including many more RCA's than other brands. The bulky trash drives of the '60's and '70's saw many tv's and radios destroyed. Whe I was a kid in the 50's and 60's, i didn't see too many brands of color sets other than RCA, except for an occasional other brand.
I used to ride around town in my convertible with the top down collecting what I could. I'm sure I turned a few heads when some saw me driving around with console radios sitting beside me, and in the back seat!
Kevin

When I was 18 an aunt of mine died, and I was helping her sister clean out two houses. Because I simply had nowhere to keep them (and no idea what to do with them either) I missed out on three consoles: an early-mid 60's Sylvania color, a late 60's Admiral color and an early 60's Silvertone B&W. I know those went on the curb - that was 15 years ago. I also missed out on a mean 429 police motor in a rusty '73 Ford Custom 500 that my aunt had bought from the FBI.

Other than RCA, few other companies made color TV sets in that period outside of prototype and developmental sets. Zenith, for example didn't mass produce color TV sets until 1962. Back then, Color TV programming was spotty on NBC (RCA owned them) and rare on CBS and practically non-existent on ABC. Color network TV programming became common in 1967-1968.

It took about 12 or so years for color TV to become popular, for the reasons you mentioned, and that few people wanted to spend big money to see just a few color programs. Today, companies would not have waited 12 years, they'd bail out if it didn't take off in a year...

For many years, dealers would take trade-ins on a new set. It usually went in the front door of the dealer and out the back door for $25 off the new set.

My first CT100 came from a dealer friend of mine around 1976 who had taken it in on trade for a new RCA color set. He called me and asked me if I wanted it because he knew I fixed up sets and resold them. Easy then, usually just tubes. The cap problem was yet to come. Yes I said!

Back then, it was just an old set, but I knew it was something different. And it still worked well until the vert xfmr went. From Rockford, IL it would pick up Madison, WI on rabbit ears. It was the start of my hobby. It ended up with RCA a few years later to add to their collection in Indianapolis.