You don't see this every day...

[Eliot Ness]

Way back in 1983 a guy must have seen one of my business cards and called me about buying some radios. These were Crosley's that were new in the box and stored in the second floor storage area of a gas station. The radios were from the late 40's through the early 50's and included about 12 consoles and large radio/phono table models. Back then I didn't recognize any of the model numbers and the console were pretty plain so I didn't even make an offer on them. I did wind up buying all 73 of the small table sets; all of which were in their original boxes with many of them still factory sealed.

Some of the models you might recognize were several of the Duette's (56TD) in both ivory and maroon, 5 of the 6 colors offered in the Princess or Jewelers Radio series, and several models that probably still aren't commonly listed. A buddy went in 50% with me and we sold almost all the duplicates but kept at least one of all the others. I know I kept two of the maroon 56TD's; one for display and the other one still sealed. Anyway, my whole point of this was to say that by the late 40's they were using large cardboard boxes for the Crosley consoles too:



The tailpipes hanging beside the radios shows how they were sharing space with gas station surplus. We had a lot of fun with those radios and believe-it-or-not I brought all 73 of them home in a Chevy Citation hatchback.