Estate Sale Finds In 2008!

[bgadow]

I know that smell quite well! On one hand, I can't stand smoke...but the odor does take me back. One of my most recent finds ('70 Sears color portable) positively reeks of menthol cigarettes...but when fired up it takes me back to when I was a kid, living with my parents, the "Kool Filter King & Queen"

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by bgadow

takes me back to when I was a kid, living with my parents, the "Kool Filter King & Queen"

Same here... I have the asthma to prove it .

I've tried every way possible to get the stench out of TVs. The problem is that the high voltage draws the smoke particulates into the set, and they collect as a thick goo on the back of the tube. Washing the tube very well with 409 (Windex won't work because it won't break the oil base cigarette smoke). Then basically leave the set outside for a few weeks. That works somewhat, but you will never get the smell totally out.

One side comment: For the same reason that the smoke coating is so tough to get off, it will preserve the old 1940s piano gloss finish perfectly. Dr. Dan has an RCA 741PCS projection set that was in a mens' club, with God knows how many patrons smoking all the time. When the cigarette smoke was all cleaned off, the lacquer finish was absolutely as new. No fading, no crazing, it was beautiful. Still the stink from inside the cabinet, though.

Charles

[zenith2134]

Too often when i come across old audio receivers and amps there is that brown haze over the aluminum faceplate and knobs.

I usually use Nevr-Dull to polish it away (gotta use a hell of a lot of it though!) then use non-ammonia Windex to clean the rest. As you guys said, inside is tougher.... Sucks when you need to disassemble every last bit just to clean a heatsink or transformer that's already working as it is!

[bgadow]

Gee, this thread was getting buried-better get busy, Doug! I wanted to jump in here as I have, at long last, come up with my first real estate sale find. Background: as I have mentioned before, we hardly ever have them around here. Most estates go to auction, but there have been more and more showing up. Anyway, last week we were on vacation out in Kentucky and the local paper listed about a half-dozen sales. I only had time to make a couple. The first one was the winner, a nice little house at 4008 Gartin Avenue, Ashland, KY. After walking through the inside and the garage I was pretty dissapointed-no electronics, and prices were through the roof. Then I heard 2 good things from one of the operators: everything is half-off, and don't forget the basement. Oh, there is a basement! And sure enough, as soon as I rounded the corner there sat a TV. Well, no, nothing real exciting. It's an Admiral Nova II "suitcase" portable. I think it was the only thing in the house that wasn't priced; the woman working down there said they would have to try it out but my wife quickly let her know that I didn't care if it worked or not. For $3 it was mine. No cord so we couldn't have tried it, anyway. I did try it tonight and it works just fine. This is model C2057P in Sams 975-1 from 1968. When I first spotted it I thought something looked familiar, then I remembered its close cousin on an album cover (see pic).

There were a couple other sets down there but I decided to pass. One was a mid-70s Panasonic and the other was an early/mid 70s GE with a smoked gray front cover. Both were 12" bw sets.

My other find, the next day, doesn't qualify as an estate sale find-got it at the Hillbilly Flea Market just north of Ashland, for another $3. This is the newest version of the Philco Seventeener that I've seen. Not sure offhand of the year; the model is P2710BR, which Sams only lists as being in 1156-SED (special equipment) and I know it is a little older than that. Anyway, it works too. Not that I needed more of this kind of set but it is nice to bring something home on these trips.

[zenith2134]

Great finds, and stories! Always nice to know they're still out there.

The Admiral set is neat. The Seventeener was just never my favorite style set, but its still very worthy of being a collectible. They both look great!

[drh4683]

Those are good finds.
Ive basically had no luck at the estates for the past few months now. Like somebody just turned the switch off and now its nothing but 80's consoles and empty TV carts. Getting the chinese roundie was a nice addition though while not a local find. I'll be going to some more estates tomorrow. The search continues.

[drh4683]

Finally! Some old sets show up at the estates! Ive been consistently going to sales on saterdays and try to go to all of them that look like there is older stuff in the home. That generally ends up being about 10 or so each week. I was pretty bummed out not finding anything but empty carts and gutted cabinets.

I did start off seeing yet another gutted cabinet. That sale was in Oak Lawn. It was a ctc16 with the bezel and back cover still intact. I didnt take the cabinet, but I took the back cover screws as those are handy to have. Too bad, the cabinet was mint. There was a ctc-58 console in the living room but I left that too. It was in sad shape cosmetically and CRT was toast. Had a new sony on top which also hacked the cabinet up.

The 4th sale I went to was the best one, as thats where both of my TV finds were at. The sale was on the south side at 3751 W. 57th st. in Chicago. First set was a '73 RCA 18" portable with cart in the bedroom, its a CTC-59. So I was happy to find that. As I walked into the kitchen I could hear the flyback ring from a TV in the sun room. As I walked into the room, I could see the edge of the cabinet and it looked good! A mint '67 CTC-25 was sitting there playing with a great picture off the rabbit ears! I couldn't believe it. Its a swivel base set too. The set was on for a while, the cabinet was very hot. Looked at the back and all the cover screws were still on there which is a good sign. I pulled the back off and I got extremely lucky once again. This is another 100% original TV with every single original RCA tube. The back was pulled once to clean the tuner it looked like. The shield wasn't reinstalled but was sitting on the bottom of the cabinet. The color is a bit weak but the CRT is strong and the focus is very good. Got both CTC-25 and CTC-59 sets 30% off. Cost me $39.00 for both. They did the math wrong, 30% of $55 for both sets should have been $38.50, but who cares. Im not a cheap skate. Hopefully the ctc-25 isn't going to be one of those sets that needs a bunch of original tubes replaced (like all of the 6GH8's!). Both sets are true survivors as they were both upstairs in a clean house. Really rare to find an RCA without having major service. Lots of times the back cover is hanging on by one stripped out screw and a torn off model tag always adds to the dissapointment. You all know missing or damaged model tags is a big pet pieve of mine. Both these RCA sets were complete which was a nice change of pace.

Getting home was a joke. The day was about perfect. You can see the picture of the house in chicago how nice it was, that was about noon. After the last sale at about 3pm I could see some really dark clouds out west. I was on the north side of the city at this point about to head for home. THe wind picked up and I got very nervous as the RCA in back only had furniture pads protecting it. I pulled into a shell station at irving park+pulaski (for those who know chicago streets) and had to wait for 1.5 hours for the intermittent thunderstorms to finally pass. I kid you not, not 10 seconds after I pulled under the canopy did it start to pour! What luck! I finally left the station at about 4:45! Bought some food in the mini-mart waited in the truck and relaxed for the time. The people who ran the station didnt care that I waited which was nice. Didnt hit a drop of rain back to the house. Need to get a cap on my truck. Rarely do i have tarps in the back. Would be simple enough to have had one with me but for some reason it was left behind. Go figure.

btw, the old radio next to the gutted RCA was sold.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by bgadow

. Oh, there is a basement! And sure enough, as soon as I rounded the corner there sat a TV. Well, no, nothing real exciting. It's an Admiral Nova II "suitcase" portable.

My other find, the next day, doesn't qualify as an estate sale find-got it at the Hillbilly Flea Market just north of Ashland, for another $3. This is the newest version of the Philco Seventeener that I've seen. Not sure offhand of the year; the model is P2710BR, which Sams only lists as being in 1156-SED (special equipment) and I know it is a little older than that.

That Admiral "Nova II" set reminded me of a small Admiral color portable TV my aunt and uncle had in the 1970s, after their 1960s-vintage 23" Sylvania console went belly-up. The tuner cluster on your Admiral is identical to the one on theirs, except your Nova II has a larger CRT and is b&w.

IIRC, the Philco "Seventeener" 17" b&w portable was a successor to or predecessor of the company's "Briefcase 19" nineteen-inch set. The latter was introduced in 1961, while the former must have appeared in Philco's line of b&w portables at least a year or two later.

I don't know much about the Seventeener, but the Briefcase 19 was a heavy set, even though it did not have a power transformer. (I had a Briefcase 19, a trash-day find, in the early 1970s until 1975 or so; worked very well all that time.) Blame most of the weight of the Briefcase 19 on the 19" CRT (the Seventeener was probably just as heavy with its 17" tube) and the fact that there was a fair amount of metal in the set, including the cabinet, which was all metal except for the CRT mask. This set also had a unique built-in rabbit-ear antenna; the dipoles were actually built into either end of the handle, which could be rotated 90 degrees in either direction (the dipoles retracted into the handle for carrying as well). Haven't seen a TV since with an antenna like that, and may never see the likes of it again.

[bgadow]

Over the winter I posted about a set I got from one of my extended relatives. It was a late 80s Magnavox console; nice cabinet but lots of chassis problems. Since I could find no interest I junked it.

This relative, a sweet little southern lady with lots of charm, passed away recently. Someone I will really miss around the table at Christmas. Well, the family has been cleaning the house and they asked if I wanted the other console TV. I didn't know about this one, and wasn't sure what to expect. Since the first one was the "daily watcher" I figured this one must be older. How old? What make? My imagination, as usual, ran wild. Well, no, it did not turn out to be a Motorola Quasar remote set in a Drexel cabinet...not quite But it isn't exactly junk. I got it tonight: Magnavox T989-14 chassis (shows up in Sams 1418-2 from '74) This must have been the most popular cabinet style they offered as I've seen quite a few over the years. This one appears very clean inside and out. At first I held out hope that it might be a tube chassis but, no, it is solid state. I haven't dug into this enough to see if the tuning is electronic or just electric; pushbutton, nonetheless. And, yes, it is remote, complete with the orginal transmitter. One oddity is the digital LED display, nevermind that it's hidden behind a door. Pretty early use of that technology.

I haven't tried the set yet-I have no place to put it so it has to ride in the back of the truck for a least another day. I didn't feel like running an extension cord down the driveway. My stepmother said it does work; it has the original Magnavox crt (EIA # 337, Westinghouse)

I guess I will put out my usual pitch: does anyone want to come down and get this set? It is almost gimmicky enough for me to keep it, but there really, really isn't any room.

While I was shuffling sets tonight I also got the GE CTC-146H that my father bought new in the spring of '90. Lots of hours on this one, but still going. Someday I may regret it, but I can't collect everything! It will go on freecycle.

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by bgadow

Over the winter I posted about a set I got from one of my extended relatives. It was a late 80s Magnavox console; nice cabinet but lots of chassis problems. Since I could find no interest I junked it.

This relative, a sweet little southern lady with lots of charm, passed away recently. Someone I will really miss around the table at Christmas. Well, the family has been cleaning the house and they asked if I wanted the other console TV. I didn't know about this one, and wasn't sure what to expect. Since the first one was the "daily watcher" I figured this one must be older. How old? What make? My imagination, as usual, ran wild. Well, no, it did not turn out to be a Motorola Quasar remote set in a Drexel cabinet...not quite But it isn't exactly junk. I got it tonight: Magnavox T989-14 chassis (shows up in Sams 1418-2 from '74) This must have been the most popular cabinet style they offered as I've seen quite a few over the years. This one appears very clean inside and out. At first I held out hope that it might be a tube chassis but, no, it is solid state. I haven't dug into this enough to see if the tuning is electronic or just electric; pushbutton, nonetheless. And, yes, it is remote, complete with the orginal transmitter. One oddity is the digital LED display, nevermind that it's hidden behind a door. Pretty early use of that technology.

I haven't tried the set yet-I have no place to put it so it has to ride in the back of the truck for a least another day. I didn't feel like running an extension cord down the driveway. My stepmother said it does work; it has the original Magnavox crt (EIA # 337, Westinghouse)

I guess I will put out my usual pitch: does anyone want to come down and get this set? It is almost gimmicky enough for me to keep it, but there really, really isn't any room.

While I was shuffling sets tonight I also got the GE CTC-146H that my father bought new in the spring of '90. Lots of hours on this one, but still going. Someday I may regret it, but I can't collect everything! It will go on freecycle.

I think the T989 was the second Magnavox SS chassis. The T979 was the first. The T995 was the third and was made throughout the middle to late '70's. The T989 had instant on; so, I hope the CRT is still good. Around here, the T995 was much more common than the 979 or 989 chassis. I think the T974 was the last hybrid chassis. I hope someone can save this set of yours as I don't think it's very common.

BTW, would anyone know what the last year was for a tube / hybrid Magnavox color set?