Repairing/Selling tube radios?

[electroking]

Not to discourage you, but I once sold at a hamfest a nice Westinghouse AM
bakelite table radio project (was missing knobs but did work) that featured
push-pull audio output (pair of 25L6GTs). Even though I could claim in good
faith I had put in two matching brand new ouput tubes, I only got 20 bucks
for it, hardly more than the value of the two tubes...

However, as you found out, doing the resto and getting the radio to work
is a great part of the reward. The skills you develop doing this are actually quite
useful. I suggest that you keep on reading about this topic, maybe acquire
some instrumentation such as a scope, frequency counter, signal generator, etc.,
and keep chatting with us about anything electronic. Good luck!

[Jeffhs]

I have several vintage Zenith radios and two antiques (Zenith H511-Y, 1951, Zenith C845, 1960, the latter being the radio in my avatar) which I do not intend to sell. The H511 was the start of my collection; I got it on eBay because I'd had a set just like it back in the '70s (I don't remember what happened to it). My collection just kept growing after that; I now have seven Zenith radios, two Sony all-transistor portables from 1973, and an Aiwa AM/FM set from 1967. Haven't had to do anything to any of them to get them to work, although one of my Zeniths, an MJ1035, has audio issues (almost no sound from stations and lots of hum). Regardless, these radios are keepers as far as I'm concerned. Zenith made some excellent radios in its day; they are well worth the effort to restore, as are older RCA, Philco and other radios from the '50s and earlier. If you have a bunch of old antique or vintage radios, I'd say keep them if you have the room. They don't make them like that anymore; I say this all the time about Zeniths, but the saying rings true for all the other major radio manufacturers of the '20s to the '50s as well.

[jr_tech]

Perhaps I am being overly cautious here, but I never sell a radio to the general public... only to other collectors that are aware of the safety/fire hazards involved with many of these early sets.
jr

[VintagePC]

Originally Posted by electroking

However, as you found out, doing the resto and getting the radio to work
is a great part of the reward. The skills you develop doing this are actually quite
useful. I suggest that you keep on reading about this topic, maybe acquire
some instrumentation such as a scope, frequency counter, signal generator, etc.,
and keep chatting with us about anything electronic. Good luck!

That's a BIG part of it. As long as I'm able to break even for material costs, I'd gladly restore a radio for someone... just the challenge and reward is a lot of fun.

And I do agree with the last post- don't sell to people unless they know about tube radios and/or are tube audio lovers.

[leadlike]

Your saying about breaking even reminded me:

A few years ago when I was first getting into radios, I put an ad on Craigslist offering to fix your radio for free-less the cost of materials. I stated I just wanted to have something to work on, my payment being the enjoyment of spending time fixing your radio. I also stated something along the lines of if you have ever wanted to have grandpa's old radio running like new again, this would probably be your only chance to get this done for cheap.

Well, I got plenty of responses, ALL of them from different folks saying I have an XXXX radio, what will you pay me for it? Almost all of them (that were legit tube models) were BOTL Philco consoles, maybe that is why I have such a distaste for them...

[VintagePC]

I did something similar too... except that it was a "Free-only" list, and that I just said I enjoyed the hobby and would love to hear about anyone that still had some tube gear sitting around... and if they didn't want it, I'd take it and probably restore/document it for the fun; I probably won't get any "will you give me <ridiculous amount> for <low end/poor condition/unrestored> radio/tv.