[drh4683]

Finally! Some old sets show up at the estates! Ive been consistently going to sales on saterdays and try to go to all of them that look like there is older stuff in the home. That generally ends up being about 10 or so each week. I was pretty bummed out not finding anything but empty carts and gutted cabinets.

I did start off seeing yet another gutted cabinet. That sale was in Oak Lawn. It was a ctc16 with the bezel and back cover still intact. I didnt take the cabinet, but I took the back cover screws as those are handy to have. Too bad, the cabinet was mint. There was a ctc-58 console in the living room but I left that too. It was in sad shape cosmetically and CRT was toast. Had a new sony on top which also hacked the cabinet up.

The 4th sale I went to was the best one, as thats where both of my TV finds were at. The sale was on the south side at 3751 W. 57th st. in Chicago. First set was a '73 RCA 18" portable with cart in the bedroom, its a CTC-59. So I was happy to find that. As I walked into the kitchen I could hear the flyback ring from a TV in the sun room. As I walked into the room, I could see the edge of the cabinet and it looked good! A mint '67 CTC-25 was sitting there playing with a great picture off the rabbit ears! I couldn't believe it. Its a swivel base set too. The set was on for a while, the cabinet was very hot. Looked at the back and all the cover screws were still on there which is a good sign. I pulled the back off and I got extremely lucky once again. This is another 100% original TV with every single original RCA tube. The back was pulled once to clean the tuner it looked like. The shield wasn't reinstalled but was sitting on the bottom of the cabinet. The color is a bit weak but the CRT is strong and the focus is very good. Got both CTC-25 and CTC-59 sets 30% off. Cost me $39.00 for both. They did the math wrong, 30% of $55 for both sets should have been $38.50, but who cares. Im not a cheap skate. Hopefully the ctc-25 isn't going to be one of those sets that needs a bunch of original tubes replaced (like all of the 6GH8's!). Both sets are true survivors as they were both upstairs in a clean house. Really rare to find an RCA without having major service. Lots of times the back cover is hanging on by one stripped out screw and a torn off model tag always adds to the dissapointment. You all know missing or damaged model tags is a big pet pieve of mine. Both these RCA sets were complete which was a nice change of pace.

Getting home was a joke. The day was about perfect. You can see the picture of the house in chicago how nice it was, that was about noon. After the last sale at about 3pm I could see some really dark clouds out west. I was on the north side of the city at this point about to head for home. THe wind picked up and I got very nervous as the RCA in back only had furniture pads protecting it. I pulled into a shell station at irving park+pulaski (for those who know chicago streets) and had to wait for 1.5 hours for the intermittent thunderstorms to finally pass. I kid you not, not 10 seconds after I pulled under the canopy did it start to pour! What luck! I finally left the station at about 4:45! Bought some food in the mini-mart waited in the truck and relaxed for the time. The people who ran the station didnt care that I waited which was nice. Didnt hit a drop of rain back to the house. Need to get a cap on my truck. Rarely do i have tarps in the back. Would be simple enough to have had one with me but for some reason it was left behind. Go figure.

btw, the old radio next to the gutted RCA was sold.