Quote:
Originally Posted by wa2ise
Only $39 at an antique shop? That's actually not unreasonable.
|
I'm just glad to hear that "antique" shops are starting to even acknowledge television! For years, and most of the time these days antique shops either have nothing or will tell me some sad story about having tossed one that they had in order to make space for freaking oil and gas and ELVIS products! TVs sure get a hard way to go; the dumpster! If I go to a shop that is being ran by a woman, they often act as if they have never seen or heard of such things; as if everything else existed BUT television. They usually take my name and # as a contact in case they find anything, but I have never heard from a single one. Then one day roll up into one of the shops that wealthier folks go and there is a freaking mid 50s Muntz tagged as RARE at $150!
A couple of years ago, I noticed a mid 50s console sitting under what was once a gas pump island awning in front of an "antique" store. I stopped and looked; the set was a complete console in decent condition; no knobs missing, complete. This business was hardly ever opened, but was still in business at the time. A number of things crossed my mind that could get me in trouble and make me look REAL stupid in front of a judge, so I did the right (?) thing and walked away. I stopped again several weeks later with a plastic bag to try to cover the finish until an owner could be located. TOO LATE! The moisture had already warped the cabinet. Next time I came by the place was opened and the set was gone. I asked the old man about it and he told me that he finally had found help to lift the set into the dumpster across the road which had long been emptied. Even worse, he told me that I should have taken the set when I first found it. I remember thinking earlier that nobody could possibly care about the set or see it as merchandise, but in this wacky world I might end up with my name in the paper or some weird frivolous lawsuit over having traumatized some person by taking their only family heirloom.