HOW did people AFFORD our treasures--when they were new?

[orthophonic]

My parents bought their first color tv in 1975, it was a leftover 1974 top of
the line CCII model, The Montmarter (Spelling?), The list price was $895.00.
Because it was left over, it was marked down to $749.00. My dad made a down payment and paid some amount every two weeks until it was paid for.
The interesting thing is, he made the deal with the store owner and no paper
work about the payments was ever created, no time frame, no interest, no signature on anything, he
just made the payment in person every two weeks. They had the set until 1989 with only one repair, a tuner rebuild in 1985. In 1989 some capacitors
were failing and it was traded on a new Zenith console that didn't even come
close to picture quality of the old one.

There were only a couple of color sets in my neighborhood in the 60's, and
there were a few kids in school whose families had them, mostly early 60's RCA's or Zeniths. One well to do school chum's parents had a 1956 RCA color
set and they were still using it in the mid 80's, his mother thought the picture was better than modern sets she had seen. They might still have it
somewhere for all I know.