[kx250rider]

First, that IS a real set, and I'm dumbfounded! Collecting TVs for 35 years, and this is the first TRK-12 that has just popped up out of a house. You are indeed lucky!

My take on the tuner, is that it's a DuMont (Mallory) Inputuner. Somebody cut out the face plate, sadly, and retrofitted that tuner to replace the original 5-channel tuner. That does affect the value of the TV, but certainly doesn't kill it. I hope they didn't do any sawing and cutting on the chassis, but honestly since that was probably done some time right after WWII, it is a "grandfathered-in" butcher mod, and could be acceptable. Much as if someone added 1930s seatbelts to a 1912 Cadillac, in the 1930s.

There will be a lot of opinions on the value, and all I can say is that the right people have seen and posted on this thread, so you will get the true value if you sell. Let me put it this way: If I thought the set could be had for $2000, and I'm not misinterpreting anything in the pics, I'd be on the next plane with wallet in hand. But I also know someone else would be on an earlier plane with a bigger offer.

That TV is very dangerous to move, and I ask that you please be careful. The picture tube is not fastened in, and the wood mask with the safety glass lens is probably just sitting on the top of the TV; not fastened. It would not take much to break that CRT, and that would take the value down about $1000, assuming the tube is physically intact now. The big, heavy chassis on the bottom is also notoriously not bolted in, as there were lazy repairmen who would just loosely stick one or two bolts half way in. If I owned it, I'd carefully dismantle the TV, and move it in pieces. That MUST be done by an experience vintage TV hobbyist though, as there are quirks and tricks to it. I have the service manual and installation process manual for that TV, and so do most other members here, so if you have any questions, please do ask!

Congratulations on that find, and thank you for being smart enough to look into what you found, rather than do as some do, and just bang it home and stick it in the garage for future fiddling with, etc.

Charles