Estate Sale Finds In 2008! - Videokarma.org TV - Video

drh4683 · #1 01-12-2008, 05:03 PM

Here is the first find for the year at the estate sales on 1-12-08. There were 3 sales this weekend and one turned up another rare find. The sale was at 4109 Lawn Ave, Western Springs, IL. The company "Becker and company" conducted the sale. Ive known them for quite a number of years. First thing they tell me "we were talking about you, theres an old TV downstairs". So I go down and take a look. I noticed an early 50's sonora b+w console in very poor condition and was dissapointed. I figured it was going to be a color set, but you dont know. I passed on that and went up to the bedrooms to see if something else might show up. Sure enough, I walked into the 2nd bedroom and spotted this mint little 14" zenith portable color set from '68 sitting on the floor all by itself. Then I saw the little hanging "zenith" card on the antenna still which Ive never seen. The set was on a dresser that was sold the day before. The photos you see are exactly how the set was found. I used my cell phone for the pictures at the house. I powered it up and it worked fine. (big surprize) Doesnt appear to have ever been tampered with or had the back removed. All it needed was the tri color badge that fell off and was lost. Luckily, I have a few of those from parts sets. The good thing is, there is an indention in the metal door so you can fit the badge exactly were its supposed to be.

As for pricing, it was priced strange at $28.00 but it was half off so I got it for $14.00. I brought it down and mentioned that this is the perfect type of set Im looking for. They didnt know I was interested in portable TV's, nor did they think that set was old enough for my interests. Most people see a set like this and think its only 20 years old. You tell them its a '68 and they look twice.
This set is model Z3508W, it was zeniths very first portable color TV introduced in 1968 and available through 1969. It uses the 15Y6C15 chassis. In 1970, zenith switched to the plastic cabinets for the little 14" sets. I actually have another one of these that I found at the curb by my old home in Downers Grove back in October of '02 that had a shorted filter cap blowing the B+ fuse, thus sending it to the curb al by itself.
Todays find is a much nicer set, just needs a good dusting.

*zenithfan1* · #2 01-12-2008, 05:13 PM

Awesome find Doug! I wish I could find one like that!
Mark

zenith2134 · #3 01-12-2008, 06:35 PM

Really is a good day when you find one as clean and perfect as that set is. Big thumbs up, I love the tag! Talk about unrivaled reliability, 40 years its still doing well.

kx250rider · #4 01-13-2008, 01:49 AM

Yes, that's one of my favorite Zeniths. I had 3 of them, all about the same time, during the early 80s. I wish I had kept one!

Charles

peverett · #5 01-13-2008, 03:17 PM

I have a parts only version of this set. I have already sent the Flyback and other parts to various members of this forum. However, I still have the carcus, so if you need parts, please let me know-I may have them.

Sandy G · #6 01-13-2008, 04:05 PM

Grrrrrr...I HATE you....(grin) EXCELLENT score, Doug !

***Eric H*** · #7 01-13-2008, 04:48 PM

Congrats on another great find Doug!
You root out a lot of pristine sets in your travels!

radiotvnut · #8 01-13-2008, 05:07 PM

Nice start for 2008! I hope you have just as good of year for '08 as you did for '07. You mentioned seeing a Sonora TV. I had a 17" or 19" B&W Sonora in a metal portable cabinet. I got it from a repairman years ago and it had already had parts hacked out of it. I hacked more parts out of it over the years.

andy · #9 01-13-2008, 06:09 PM

I have one of those that I found in really rough condition. It looked like it had been outside for several years. I did manage to save it. It took a lot of cleaning and rust removal, but it looks decent now. It has an excellent picture for a portable.

Who made the CRT in yours? Mine has a Zenith branded CRT, but RCA's EIA code. Mine also has an etched safety glass instead of a smooth one.

Chad Hauris · #10 01-13-2008, 06:10 PM

This weekend there was an estate sale with several somewhat unusual TV's.
This was held in a vacant storefront which the estate sale people rented. This must have been a very well to do family which was on the cutting edge of technology at one time.

There was a 1970's Sony LV-1901 console TV with built in Betamax unit which they wanted $295 for (would have been half of that today but still more than I really would want to pay, so I ended up not getting it)
It has a Beta-1 speed only beta recorder in it, and I hooked it up to see how it worked. Someone actually had left an old Beta "Adult" movie in there but it was beta-2 speed so I actually saw it at twice speed! It actally did work but I stopped it after a little while of seeing what it was...

There was a Zenith projection TV which has a motorized screen to rise it up out of the cabinet. It ended up having difficult coming up straight out of the cabinet and did not seem to really produce a picture. Not sure why they wanted $495 for it.

I did get a Sony 3-CRT projection unit for $75.00, a KP-5020. It seems to work well although they did not have the special Sony screen available so I think I will need to fool with the projection screen angle to get the convergence completely right.

Also there was a Panasonic 3.5"? B/w portable with built in cassette player, AM/FM and weather radio which I got for $15.00.
And got a Hitachi 5" color portable with channel indicator bar on-screen for $5.00

There was also a Frigidaire space-age 1950's electric range with oven doors which lift up at eye level plus a pull out drawer for the stove burners. They wanted $575 for it, and would have been half today but I really had no good place to put it plus I still thought it was fairly expensive.

*zenithfan1* · #11 01-13-2008, 07:00 PM

Hi Chad, I have that hitachi, it has sound and no raster. Cabinet is pretty nice, battery cover is missing. Do you want it for parts?

radiotvnut · #12 01-13-2008, 07:16 PM

I had one of those early '80's Zenith big screen's with the screen that lowered into the cabinet. The screen was stuck in the "up" position and the neck was busted off of one of the CRT's. Otherwise, the set worked. I wound up throwing it out. BTW, I caught a lot of heck from my mother when I brought that one in. I don't think we spoke for the rest of the day!

drh4683 · #13 01-19-2008, 08:13 PM

There were numerous good finds today at the estates. There were 12 of them that I though were worth attending, but only had enough time to get to 8 of them. Hopefully the other 4 didnt have any TV's..... It was extremely cold here today, it was -8 degrees F when I left at 8:30 this morning and only got up to +5 degrees F at most by afternoon. The sales today were spread all over the chicagoland area. The first sale was far out of my way, but glad I went. It was at 233 Dartmoor Ave in Crystal Lake, IL. Found a 1965 Zenith roundie with the 25MC33 chassis in the french provincial cabinet. It was upstairs in one of the bedrooms which was used as an office. The TV was sitting like you see it with all the stuff on it. It will need some work though. the power cord is missing and the chassis is loose in the cabinet. Like someone tried to fix it but gave up and left the set in peices. It shows some wear and tear but the top is pretty nice yet. I havnt found a zenith roundie for some time at the estates. Have no idea if it works yet, hopefully the CRT is good.
Next TV find was at 6112 S. Parkside in Chicago. I picked up this unique looking RCA XL-100 set with it original pedistal base. the TV is all plastic, even the sides, as is the pedistal. however, the support table of the pedistal is wood! It works OK, but needs some attention.
The next sale after that one was at 4929 Forster Ave, in Schiller Park. It was a two flat and the orignal owner used both living spaces. They even owned another house just like it almost across the alley on another street at 4923 Michigan ave. Both houses were part of the estate sale. At the 4926 house I found one of my favorite sets that Ive been wanting to find. Its a 1966 Admiral 23" color set. Its the chassis that uses the dual 6JM6 horizontal output tubes! the set was preserved as it was in a clean upstairs living room and had a custom made glass top that protected it all these years. It works, but the picture was dim. CRT needs some work, hopefully the cathodes just need reactivation by raising the heater voltage for a while.
I went across the alley to the other house at 4923 Michigan and it didnt look much like a house inside. Everything was tore up and destroyed. Honestly, it looked like the house was vacant for over 25 years. Fortunately, this little '65 RCA b/w console survived in good shape. At first glace, I thought it was one of those ctc-19 mini consoles. I got that set for free, the Admiral cost me $10.00 and got help to bring it down the sprial stair case in the back of the house!
The final sale was the final find for the day. It was at 712 Beverly in Wilmette. Picked up this unique little 12" panasonic color portable from around 1970. Its a "Pana-Color" and is an all tube set. For once I find a nice clean japanese set with intact antennas. 98% of the time, antennas are snapped off on the japanese sets I find. I asked about the price and the guy tells me its broken. I told him Id still like to have it, so he gave it to me for 2 bucks. He told me I could try it out and see if I could figure out what was wrong after I bought it. I waited about a minute and it turned on and worked fine. the guy was old enough to know about tubes in the old sets, but he didnt care, never gave it a chance to warm up!

The worst part about all of this is bringing the sets into the house after being in the zero degree temps. The CRT's all frosted badly when I brought them in and the condensation was terrible. the best thing I could do was to keep wiping them down with a towel, have fans blowing at full speed on all the sets with the back covers off to evaporate the condensation as quickly as possible. the fans did the trick and they dried nicely.

In the photos, you see the original home the TV's were found in followed by a picture of the TV found in that home.

zenith2134 · #14 01-19-2008, 08:49 PM

Woah, you find some crazy-nice TVs where you live... Jealous! What CTC is the XL-100 set? Always liked those RCAs, they have a cool look to them.

Chad Hauris · #15 01-19-2008, 08:53 PM

That RCA b/w console looks just like a CTC-16 control panel, just slightly re-designed.
My grandma on my dad's side had 2 of those RCA XL-100's, in a slightly different cabinet, one in the bedroom and one in the living room. When she passed away, they gave me the sets....one of them is still at my parents' house but the horizontal frequency was off and would not lock in.

I remember that condensation problem from when I was a kid in Ohio, I would store a lot of stuff in the unheated garage at my parents' house and when I would bring a TV into the house in the winter there would be a long wait for it to dry out! That is not a problem here as the humidity is always low and it does not usually get nearly that cold.

What are you using to haul all that stuff Doug, pickup truck or van? That looks like a great find of TV's but it makes me tired just thinking about all of the hauling labor! The only time I ever got that much at one time was Texas Recycles day and from an old TV shop and there was no need to extract the sets from out of houses.