Blessed by the God of collecting
 

A while back back a fellow I know, who is in the business of recycling electronics, called me because he knows I collect old tv sets. He was hired by the heirs of a hoarder who passed away. Seems, back in the day, the hoarder would drive around his neighborhood on weekends and pick up tv curb finds. Back then there were probably lots to choose from.

Due to reasons I will not go into, I was not allowed to go with the recycler to the house that was being cleaned out. However I had the recycler photograph the hoard and email the photos to me. That way I was able to tell him which sets to keep and which ones to send off to the crusher. I know that many of you would cringe at the number of sets that went to the crusher. Unfortunately we cant save them all, and the ones that went to the crusher were the common garden variety 21" and 23" B&W sets of the late 50's and 60's.

There were about 6 or so, common variety 10BP4 sets which I had him save and also the ones described below.

Yesterday I went to the recycler's warehouse. I tested all the 10BP4 sets and there was not a single set with a usable crt. So I passed on all those sets.

I took home the following shown in the photos below.

1....Admiral C322 21" color set. Blonde cabinet is extremely nice, however the original 21AXP22 had a brightner on it and it is dead for all practical purposes. I tried everything to revive it but there is to little emissive material on the cathodes to be of any use.

2....RCA CTC5 Whitby Deluxe. Very nice blonde cabinet in real wood veneers. 21AXP22 was replaced in early 1960 with a new RCA 21AXP22. The replacement tube has the green color phosphors as opposed to the earlier light gray/white phosphors. The tube tests like new.

3....Also got a nice early model GE Portacolor. Set is in very nice shape.

4....And last but not least I got a very unusual 7JP4 set made by Automatic Radio. The information I have found indicates it is a model 710 and sold for $220 in 1948. The only examples of this set I have found were all table models, and this one is a console. At first I thought the cabinet may have been a home made one because the cabinet is rather cheesey. But I am now certain it was an original factory made cabinet.

So yesterday was a good day for collecting. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Always LOVED that beautiful whitby blonde cabinet! You sure have pleased the gods with this haul!

CTC-5 blond deluxe UHF, later green face 21AX -- could you pick a few good lotto numbers for us while you're at it?

IIRC there are 2-3 of those Automatic consoles known to exist.

Impressive haul.

You could have let some of the locals know about those monochrome sets you passed on before telling him to scrap them. If the price is right and and I like a set anything pre-1975 is potential game to me. Olorin67 is local and has been looking for monochrome sets with screens bigger than 21". One man's trash is another ones treasure as they say.....

I was thinking the same. Nice haul.

Me LIKEY all of yr score...Dunno which I'd rather have-The Automatic or the Blonde CTC-5... Oh, well, its all academic, anyway..Prolly the Automatic...That's just "Odd" enuf to be REALLY "Pretty" to me..One can only IMAGINE the backstory on this set- Too many 7" chassis made-Did they have to sacrifice a 10" or 12" cabinet or 2? Using up 7" production-Maybe the ultimate purchaser got a SCREAMIN' deal on this..

this is the haul of a lifetime.couldnt have went to a better source.congrats to you!

Nice score, like all of them, especially the Admiral and the RCA! And a good 21AX to boot! Congratulations

Post deleted by me... :)

Great finds! I'm pretty full up myself at the moment though. Still keeping my eyes out for one of the ellusive 25" or 27" sets. I did manage to find another S-C 23" school TV

Unfortunately due to the paranoia of the hoarder's family and the requirement for confidentiality by me from the recycler, I would have had to take the crap sets myself and worry about getting rid of them to other collectors after. I had no place to put them and was not willing to chance my getting stuck with a bunch of junk sets that I had no interest in. If the situation WRT the confidentiality had been different I would have been able to involve other area collectors, but the way things were, I had no choice.

I saved IMPORTANT AND VALUABLE sets and I attempted to save any B&W roundie. Unfortunately every round monochrome crt I tested was dead. I think the old hoarder pulled any good round crt and re-used them in fixing other sets. So what was left was all dead tubes.

As for the run of the mill 21" & 23" Zenith, RCA, Philco, Admiral, etc. B&W sets, they will never be valuable or rare. The factories pumped out millions and millions of these common 21" and 23" B&W sets from the early 50's to the late 60's. And there are still plenty of those kinds of sets out there if that's what you're into. As for me, if it doesn't have a round B&W crt or a 21AXP22 or older tri-color round tube, I am not wasting my time on it. As far as I am concerned, scarce, rare and valuable is what collecting is all about.

What is that little metal plate on the side of the Admiral for?

Escutcheon plate for user controls? Looks like 6 rotary controls?

Brian got it. I blew it up and it is rotary controls.

Congratulations ! Looks like you got some really nice sets - in very clean condition !
I guess pockets of undiscovered gold still exist in them-thair hills.....

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