The "mystery" craigslist TV has been saved!
 

Earlier this afternoon, I called up the guy out in Marengo, IL who had the oriental cabinet roundie that we were trying to figure out. Marengo is about 35 miles northwest of me, so I stopped out there after work to check it out with intentions to buy it whatever it was.
It turned out to be a 1963 RCA Victor model 14 G 912 MV, the "Canton" with the CTC-15E chassis. This TV is about as mint as they come, it appears to have NEVER been serviced, 100% original and its super low hours. It does work, it just needs some adjusting and tune up, the CRT is strong. Its got the 21FJP22 with some cataracts going on.
I was amazed that all the tags and labels are still bright white, they haven't yellowed and deriorated in any way like so many have, such as the tube layout diagrams. The wires are bright clean and gunk free which is another first. This TV basically never aged which is amazing. The chassis is just a little "powerdery" which is just some zinc oxide from the plating.
I'm glad to have this one as part of the collection as its the comparable model to the Zenith oriental console I have, and both are 1963 models.

The guy who owned it, Vito, told me all about the TV. It was his parents, they bought it brand new in '63. He said that mom and dad were making big money and doing well back in the 60's, they owned a night club in Melrose Park back then and they had plenty of money, they bought only the best of the best and took excellent care of everything. They had a very large home and this was in the front room for more or less decoration and it was hardly ever used. They were not smokers of course, and their son (vito) has had it for about the last 15 years when they left Melrose Park, and he kept it upstairs with a towel on top to keep it from getting scratched. He had a bunch of vintage furniture too that was theirs. He was selling everything off to make room to move into an apartment as he was going through a divorce and needed everything basically gone.
Fortunately, I was able to save it, as I kid you not, he really did tell me how he "really wanted to make it into a fish tank, or even an LCD TV cabinet". He really didn't care about the significance of the TV for what it is. It was clearly the case of the TV only being saved all these years because it was in such a nice cabinet.

I was ready to pay the $200 for it when he asked if I could any way help him move some furniture into the storage box he had dropped off in his driveway. "Sure no problem" and so I helped him move some large peices and he knocked $50 off the set for my help.

We loaded up the set and it came home covered in blankets. This is one of those sets that you don't want to touch as nobody ever had their hands in there messing things up. That Zenith chinese set was the same way. I took about 20 pictures of exactly how the wires were before I pulled it apart to fix the CRT. This will probably be the same deal, but I won't be able to work on it for a while.

RCA really put out a top notch product with this set. The cabinet construction is outstanding. A special thanks goes to bandersen for posting the link so it could be saved!

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ta1B_ryr8bE/S9...0/DSCF3271.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_ta1B_ryr8bE/S9...0/DSCF3263.JPG

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ta1B_ryr8bE/S9...0/DSCF3264.JPG

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ta1B_ryr8bE/S9...0/DSCF3220.JPG

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ta1B_ryr8bE/S9...0/DSCF3222.JPG

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ta1B_ryr8bE/S9...0/DSCF3217.JPG

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ta1B_ryr8bE/S9...0/DSCF3232.JPG

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ta1B_ryr8bE/S9...0/DSCF3233.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_ta1B_ryr8bE/S9...0/DSCF3244.JPG

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ta1B_ryr8bE/S9...0/DSCF3254.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_ta1B_ryr8bE/S9...0/DSCF3253.JPG

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ta1B_ryr8bE/S9...0/DSCF3251.JPG

GREAT!!

:banana:

thank goodness it was saved, too close for comfort esp after seeing how nice it is.

Agreed, it would be a crime to gut that one.

Wow...The tubes are barely even dusty...Said it before & I'll say it again-We lost a LOT when TVs quit being cleverly/attractively designed, & became big, ugly gray dull plastic boxes...

You're welcome. I'm glad you were able to save it. That is one sweet set :thmbsp:
One of these days I'll get a bigger place and vehicle and start collecting some roundies too :)

Pure Class

This thing is sweet! I like the black cabinet with the doors. I also love the dots on the knobs rather than labels.
This one deserves latex glove treatment. No oily fingerprints on the inside.

wow
 

just plain WOW!

Looks like I don't need to call him back tomorrow like I told him I would. first come, first serve. Glad it was saved.

Yep, like I said, looked like it was worth the money.

Geez, collecting TV's is worse than collecting cars. It would be easier for me to find and buy another vintage Mini Cooper than it would be to pick up even a late model roundie in my own back yard. what the hell, I give up.

Great save - nice set and wonderful landscaping too....

Cheers,

Niiiiiccccceeeeee!:drool:

NICE! And that is a LOW HOURS set!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I see what look to be all original tubes, and the PC boards are clean and unwarped, unblackened! Very rarely do you seen an RCA chassis that virgin.

Charles

I Love the clean wires, nice. Man to think how close that one came to being destroyed...

Man, 30 miles from me.