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I have never sold TVs, but have sold tons of audio gear on Craigs and the 'bay over the years. I have also never bought a TV new in my life.
In my neck of the woods, you can't give any TV away let alone sell one. Even later model flat HD panels are all over the CL free section. I watch that section for TVs a lot but the oldest I've found were an '85 Sharp color and an '87 Trinitron.
Passed up a system 3 console a few weeks ago on the curb. It had the touch type channel keypad on the flipdown door. Not their best offering. (plus I already have a brand new condition tabletop with that cabinet style). 9-186 board. Great picture but when its tube gets weak...
it's nowhere near as robust as the earlier system 3 sets with the 9-160 which I have fixed on a component level many many times before.
Daily watcher is a 78 Chromacolor which was also new with tags at a house sale. I don't forsee the tube in that one getting soft in my lifetime--it can be cranked to blinding contrast levels with perfect color, purity, and convergence and doesn't bat an eye.
My point is that we are a small group of analog video enthusiasts who really appreciate a quality-built set with the ability to be serviced. Like an old carb'd engine in a way... the masses abandoned it, but it is a well established technology with tons of tweaking and servicing potential and a ton of character.
My other "daily" sets are:
a 1966 Sears Silvertone 19" all tube chassis b/w built by Warwick. Superb pic, amazing really
1972 Zenith Chromacolor 4 tube hybrid 19CC19. Great set, heavy old world build and a killer CRT. Had probelms with the color demod drifting after warmup. I had to basically rebuild that portion of the chassis and put it all on standoffs to increase airflow under all ICs for future reliability.
1980 Toshiba blackstripe 19", the pix quality rivals a good
Zenith and it runs cool as a cucumber.
The purely tube sets are not daily sets in my house. I use them
sparingly.
What blows my mind is that the Sony KV-32FS120 was about a thousand dollar set in 2004 and now they are scrap WORKING like new! I have one of them in the garage from the curb.
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