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It is amazing how many vintage CRT'S are still great!!
I seem to recall in an old electronics magazine talking about color tv, they said "a new color CRT should last about 3 years". Man, were they WRONG!! I know some tubes did fail in a short time and some were never very good, (23EGP22, 710AB22, Zenith tri-potentials and their 90's tubes), but the GREAT majority of them were VERY long-lived, it seems. I would say it is NOT unusual to get over 50K hours out of a good CRT. I still wonder why they said they would not last long??
Compare this to the modern stuff. LCD panels are NOT really made to last that long. The panel itself, or the T-con fail often, as do the backlights, either CCFL or LED. I do NOT expect a lot of "vintage " flat-panel sets to be around in say, 10 more years, compared to the still available roundie color sets we cherish.
Even the 21AXP22 metal tube, if it is not aired, often gives good emissions, even though they are now over 50 years old. Not too mention the BW tubes , which my experience has been about 75% of them I run across are still fine.
Guess it has a lot to do with the "then VS. now" attitude of manufacturing.
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