I had bid on this Hallicrafters '52 TV on eBay for $9, thinking somebody would outbid me... Well, guess what! I was single high bidder. Anyway, it was local to go pick up so I did today. The seller was an eBay consignment dealer in a storefront in East Simi Valley. He had taken this TV in from the original owner; an elderly lady. I hope she will be OK with a $9 sale
The biggest PLUS about this set is that I thought it was cheap black metal, but it's BAKELITE! And a nice blood-red swirl. My photos here, just like the seller's eBay photos, don't show the swirl or color. I took a macro lens closeup, which does show it.
Anyway, I backed up in front of the store to load it up, which is in a mini-mall. There's a liquor store next to the eBay drop, and there were a few people hanging around out front. Between the "NEAT, WEIRD OLD TV" that I carried out, and the fascination with noise and popcorn-smelling exhaust from my vegetable-powered Toyota, it seemed that the whole mini-mall emptied out into the parking lot to see what was going on as I was leaving. Real estate office, tattoo parlor, and all! Never a dull moment in Simi Valley!
Now about the TV.... It's stamped 1951 inside the cabinet, and has UHF. The UHF is very unusual on what I think is a 1952 TV! I know that there were UHF-only cities in the 50s, so this must have been from one of those. (Case in point, Los Banos/Stockton, CA)
This set is very clean, no cracks, and looks all original except for some fire damage where the AC cord evidently shorted. It charred the back cover, and burned up a few caps and wires beneath the chassis, but it was repaired subsequently.
Only problem I'd like to solve is that there is some sort of lens or window misssing from the UHF indicator in the middle of the front panel (see pics). If anyone knows what that was, please post... The SAMS shows a cover plate there for the non-UHF sets.
Charles
