1984 Gold Star 19" refurb
 

This was the very first vintage TV I ever collected. I got it for $5, right as it was going to the dumpster almost nine years ago at a thrift that I still go to. It is an extraordinarily high hour set, and I didn't have much hope for it. But I brought it home from the storage unit, cleaned it up real nice, rejuvenated the picture tube, and it made an amazing recovery.

Nice! Some of the of the early Korean built sets were pretty strong, some real dogs. I had 2 from that era. One was a 1980 Sampo brand that went 20 HARD years being on 15-20 hours a day. It had a jungle IC go out in the first year, but after that, bullet proof. Finally the picture started to lose focus, but was still very bright. The lack of remote doomed it, and off to the great recycler.

Second was a Portland brand bought "off the truck" at one of those sales that used off-duty police as security in a then-bad part of downtown Seattle. The VHF channel selector knob was cracked out of the box. It ran 15 years of 10-20 hours a day service. CRT finally faded out.

They were used at my parents house, with my dad and I working jobs at opposite times of day (Days Night shifts). That's why the high hours.

I used to drool over sets like that Gold Star back when I was a kid, roaming the aisles of Ames or Woolworth. I could stretch my allowance enough for a 12" b/w but it was a big jump up to this level.