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Hi Charlie.
I picked the set up personally and talked to the seller. Her ad said she got the set from the original owner but when I asked her to be specific, she kept changing the subject and then finally admitted she didn't know where the set came from. I didn't press the issue after that because she was a nice lady.
The documents that came with the set support where and when my grandfather bought his set (a very small Zenith dealer in the small town of Bluffton, Indiana), a repair receipt from an even smaller fixit shop in an even smaller Indiana town (Ossian) where My grandfather took his stuff to be fixed. My mother is still alive (although elderly) and verifies these details. We're hoping to find a photograph of her parents with the set to be absolutely certain it's the same model (if not the same set), but she remembers the set "clearly", and says is already certain. She also says her dad was one of those people who bought plastic covers for the furniture, and was pretty anal about taking care of stuff. And last, she remembers he had the set modified to recieve channel 49, WIPB, from Muncie Indiana, in 1951, two years before Fort Wayne got their first TV station (Channel 33, WKJG). This set has that modification.
My grandparents upgraded to color in 1966, and gave the Zenith to my mom, who gave it to my dad, who gave it to his parents. His parents lived on the same city block as the eBay seller. They used it until it broke, then in 1971 left it with the house when my grandfather died and grandmother moved. I could see the old house from the eBay seller's back door, about 60 yards away, corner-adjacent lots.
The coincidences are compelling, but I'm still looking for the Sherlock-Holmes bit of proof that says for sure. I'll certainly post news here if I come across such proof.
Meantime, thanks for your interest.
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