[Jeffhs]

If I were still living in my old hometown, which is only a couple miles from the Cleveland suburb of Willoughby, Ohio (and if I were in a house rather than an apartment) I'd probably bid on that Zenith TV, as I like all types of Zenith entertainment gear (I just recently scored a Zenith AM/FM wood table radio on ebay, and I scored a Zenith H511 there a couple years ago as well); in fact, thirty-plus years ago, fully half the basement of my former home was full of old TV sets, many of which were, you guessed it, Zeniths. However, since I now live in a small apartment, collecting old TV sets is out of the question anymore. My two Zenith radios are here, but that's all I have room for now.

That Zenith color console on ebay, however, looks like it is in great shape, at least on the outside. I can't help wondering if it works just as well. Since that set is a roundie, I'd say it is early-60s vintage. Looks to me as if it was well cared for, so I would say at this point that whomever wins the auction for it will not be disappointed. These old consoles looked as good in the living room off as when they were turned on.

As others have said in this forum, being Zeniths, these older consoles and portables (including radios) never seem to die--they go on and on and on. I had a 1963 Zenith 23-inch set in the late '60s I got from a neighbor's trash. The tubes, all but the HV rectifier and CRT, were missing, but it turned out to be well worth my while to retube the set, as it had a beautiful picture (even with rabbit ears in the basement on the three local TV stations, 30-odd miles southwest of me) and incredible sound (thanks to its 6BN6-6BQ5 audio system with a 6x9 oval speaker) when I turned it on for the first time.

Again, I feel very strongly that the winner of that auction will not be disappointed. Those early Zeniths were made to work well and to last, which is more than I can say for the company's current sets. At least in Zenith's early days no one had nearly as much trouble with the sets; certainly, faults did turn up in new sets once in a great while, but the Zeniths and RCAs of 1950s-70s vintage were not breaking down again and again, or as catastrophically, as the new ones seem to be these days. I have a good friend whose parents' late-90s-vintage RCA TV blew a picture tube after only two years. By contrast, they had a Zenith set for close to 20 years that never gave them much trouble at all except near the end, and they also had an RCA console in the '70s which worked very well for them for 15 or more years. The Zenith's CRT was still going strong when the set was finally scrapped, and I firmly believe the first RCA's (the console) was as well. These sets likely died from major circuitry problems such as defective flybacks or yokes, or other problems deemed too costly to repair given the sets' ages.