Estate Sale Finds In 2008!

[drh4683]

Went to four estate sales today. Found a 1972 Zenith console at 841 Highland Ave, in Chicago Heights. This was the stereotypical "green carpet" estate sale. Its just a made up term I use which basically means, if you see green carpeting in the living room, odds are there will be a vintage TV in the house some place. And don't ever overlook the living room of course, as thats most likely where it will be!

Ive talked about this with other collectors and they all agreed and notice the same thing. I think 8 out of 10 sales with green carpeted living rooms have had vintage TVs somewhere in the house.

Todays find was a new one for the collection, as it has the 25CC50 chassis, which is still a tube type chassis. Model C4724M, in the early american cabinet. I don't normally find full to the floor consoles like this. This one has the gyro drive tuner. Chassis design is very similar to previous chassis like the 12A12C52. Its all original, including the CRT. I turned it on at the sale and got sound but no picture. Took the back off and someone pulled the regulator tube out and the tuner sheild was laying ontop of the chassis as well as a few screws from what appeared to hold the tuner in place. Looks like the homeowner fiddled with it. The HV door was also open and also had a missing belfuse. So this will be an interesting repair. It looks like the back was not off a million times either judging by basically no wear around the twist tabs.

This was another one of those estate sales where I had to explain why I wanted this TV to the people running the sale. I think I get asked "why do you want it" at almost every single estate sale, unless I know the people running the sale of course. "huh, interesting hobby" is a typical response I hear. I was also informed that TV is switching to digital next year and that this TV wont work. Is that true? I mean, if I tell you that I collect vintage TV's and repair electronics as a hobby, it would make sense that I don't know about the digital switch over..........C'mon folks. This happens way to often to me! I guess they think that if you collect "useless junk TVs" that you are some kind of nut job that doesn't know whats going on in the real world.

[batterymaker]

Chalk it up to ignorance, the most abundant commodity in America today...

[Eric H]

Doug, next time just tell them you use these old sets to communicate with the "Mothership"

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by Eric H

Doug, next time just tell them you use these old sets to communicate with the "Mothership"

That's a good one! And, I'm so dang tired of everyone questioning what we do with these old TV's and then acting like we are a bunch of space cases because we collect them. Really, what is it to them, anyway? We are doing them a favor by buying them or hauling them away!

BTW, nice TV! I don't think I've seen a control layout quite like that on a Zenith.

[drh4683]

BTW, nice TV! I don't think I've seen a control layout quite like that on a Zenith.

I havn't either in person. Ive seen it in manuals though, but not in person until today. Its pretty neat. If you look closely at it, the control panel has an elliptical shape down to the lower control panel. I'll get a close up on the controls. Its a '72, and is the only year for this layout from what I can tell in my brochures.

Eric, thats a good one. They'd probably believe it too as the look you get when you want an old TV would probably be the same look if I told them that.

[bgadow]

Keep it up, Doug, you just keep it up...and you really will own every model! The more I look at this one the more I like it.

There was an estate auction a mile down the road this morning so I figured it was worth stopping in. They had a Zenith console but it was late 80s. Sold for $2, not to me. No other TV sets, but the deceased gentleman at least dabbled in electronics. Got a couple shoeboxes full of used tubes, some CB's and antenna gadgetry. A big stack of old Sears/Wards catalogs from the 70s/80s. I was leafing through the 75 Sears book and in the TV section they had a couple complete console cabinets-add your own 19" table model. Looked just like an ordinary mid 70s cabinet. One box had a factory service manual for a CTC-85. Man, that auctioneer was flying. Cold out there and he didn't want to be all day. Everything sold in 90 minutes. Lots of huge lots sold for two bucks each, and my wife and I bought a ton of them. Took me 2 trips to get it all home, and the second trip I was loaded like the Beverly Hillbillies.

[Carmine]

The part about awareness of a digital conversion made me LOL Doug, nice sarcasm. It might be fun to act totally unaware, and just say something like "TV won't work after 2009? Hahaha, that's crazytalk!" Let them think they're part of the in-crowd.

Also have to agree on the green-carpet theory. Those houses are always on my go-to lists. Often times, I'll go simply because they are in a city that I know has lots of 50s/60s ranch homes with older residents. I'm sure you've felt the disappointment of walking into one of those homes, only to find the walls are painted dark red, and the only furniture is a bunch of modern assemble-it-yourself shit from IKEA. Obviously somebody's 2000 era rehab, and it's not really an "estate sale", just an "I'm-being-foreclosed-on-so-I'm-trying-to sell-all-this-crap-sale". If I wanted silver-box television sets and futons, I could find all I wanted at the curb.

As morbid as it sounds, only the actual death-sales are worth going to. Even though 90% of them don't have worthwhile TVs, I still get a lot of good deals on unused cleaning chemicals/supplies to use at my rental homes... Full bottles of 1985 Windex for $.50, push brooms for a $1, etc.

By contrast, yuppie estate sales aren't worth the gas to get there... Modern people don't know which end of a screwdriver to use, and as such the men who live in the homes have the same mechanical ability as my 93-year-old grandmother.

At the green-carpet estate sales, you'll find tools, major appliances, good-quality furniture, car parts, small engines, guns, technical books, cement tools, ladders, file cabinets, desks, and all sorts of other stuff that I've purchased. I even picked up a sweet Kojack-style London Fog winter coat that looks like brand new. You can tell the prior owners had some knowledge and skill.

A non-death sale gives me a great deal on outdated videogames, college-themed throw pillows, particle board furniture, broken Chinese appliances, gaudy "summer" rims for an import, and a whole bunch of other non-durable goods best hauled in a 3-yard dumpster. You can tell whoever lived in the house barely knew how to add fuel to the $99 lawnmower.

Sigh.

[mr_fixer]

My parents house was a green carpet living room with pine paneling in the kitchen. We had a RCA CTC-40 as our set up until 1990 when the power transformer blew.
As far as estate sales goes i keep thinking of my favorite song from back in 1990. The artist's name is Cheryl Wheeler and the song is called "Estate Sale" Here is a link to the music video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdDrrChPwz0
Maybe it should be the anthem song for the Horizontal Hold section of A.K.
Logan

[zenithfan1]

Nice find! Very unusual. I like it a lot. Yep, the green carpet. Always look for the green carpet. 8 out of 10 green carpeted houses contain a vintage tv of some sort. If I ever get a house with the green carpet and it's still nice, I would leave it in there, I like it! The carpet in my house is beige,.... ugggh. Anyways, can't wait to see that sharp Zenith picture!
P.S. I also am sick of hearing "What are you going to do with an old tv after next year" OR "What do you want that for" If I think it will affect the price, I say for parts. If you tell some of these people you collect them they think it's worth a fortune. Then from then on they charge others a fortune for them or try to, then they get trashed. I don't want that to happen. I have, however, told some what I plan on doing with it AFTER I have paid for it.

[radiotvnut]

I usually tell people that I want it for parts. You are right that if you mention that you are a collector, the price goes up. That's the reason I don't place "WANTED" ad's for old electronics anymore. People see those and think "HE'S A COLLECTOR AND HE'S GOING TO PAY ME BIG". I'll just take my chances at the SA, the flea market, and other sales.

[drh4683]

I started to pull it apart this evening. As you can see in the photos, the TV was backed up against a forced air supply duct. This obviously blew a ton of dust into the TV. Grey dust luckily, it was not a smokers set. I can handle that. I was able to tape the tube layout diagram back together. The loose screws were the top screws that mount the TMA to the bezel. Why those were removed was beyond me. Its a simple key slot mount. Thats why I think the home owner pulled it apart, and rubbed his arm against the side of the cabinet while doing so tearing up the layout diagram.

So far, most of the tubes are shot. Since I never had a 25CC50, I was suprized to see a not so common zenith tube. They used a 6JG5 for the 3.58 mhz oscillator which Ive never seen. Thats a one of a kind tube that you never see in other zenith color sets. Zenith almost always used a 6GH8 for that. I can name every tube used in all the color zenith chassis in my sleep except for this one. The 6LB6 is so dead the filament might as well be open. This is very alarming when I see a dud horizontal output. It means it was running way to hot, and this was a replacement sylvania so something is definitly wrong. The belfuse for the cathode is missing too as well as the 6JK5 regulator. Something strange happened to this TV, yet to be determined.

Pulled the tuner out. One of the gears for the VHF tuner indicator split, so the in indicator would slip when tuning. I used some loctite super glue to fix the nylon gear. The tip was plugged on my tube of glue so I had to puncture it with a needle. The tube was under pressure so glue went everwhere and the vapor burn to my eyes was so bad I had to flush them out. Crazy glue is some dangerous stuff when those vapors hit your eyes.

All the caps look good yet. The chassis is very clean. I can only hope nothing is seriously wrong in the horizontal sweep circuit. Of all the tubes to be bad, the tuner tubes were original and still good yet. Go figure.

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by drh4683

. I used some loctite super glue to fix the nylon gear. The tip was plugged on my tube of glue so I had to puncture it with a needle. The tube was under pressure so glue went everwhere and the vapor burn to my eyes was so bad I had to flush them out. Crazy glue is some dangerous stuff when those vapors hit your eyes.

Doug,

I almost never reuse super glue - the dollar store here has 3 tubes for a buck, so 5 bucks gets me a years worth. Ironically, it's one of the few things in the store not sourced from China.

Also, has anyone used baking soda as a super glue accelerant for large glue-ups? It works great for the larger jobs where more than a drop or two is needed. Apply the glue, press things together, sprinkle on the baking soda, and - it's set! We used to glue up BPC cabinets this way with super glue first, then follow with up with epoxy. Worked great.

Nice set - and if you ever need any Belfuses........or do you use those "sans-a fuse" breaker type Belfuses??

Cheers,

[rcaman]

baking soda and super glue yes i have and it works great. steve

[zenithfan1]

Yep, I had an incident like that the other night, I was going to use my Kimball Midwest super glue and the end was the same as yours, the same thing happened! But, I "borrowed" a new one from work and all is well now. As is the on-volume knob for that '68 concentric tuning Zenith. Reinforced that with a metal clamp from another Zenith knob after I glued it. Glad you didn't get hurt, it really does burn the eyes. Belfuses are another thing I can get NOS from Chesters, if you need one you cant find just let me know. I also would love to see that chassis, I too have never seen that model. Seems very interesting, keep us posted!

[batterymaker]

Murphy's Rule of Super Glue:

Super Glue will stick everything together--except the two parts you're attempting to mend.