Will sets left alone be worth more?

[tubesrule]

I'm with Charles on this as well. If the set has already been worked on, or butchered in the past, then there is no question that keeping it in working order is a plus. Most sets from the 1950's on will probably already have been worked on at some point in their lives anyway, so it's just a matter of maintaining the set in good working order.

If the set is something special and is in original condition, than I view this as a plus. Being able to see what the factory original did on an untouched set makes for a nice time capsule. There isn't much sense in redoing a set like the Zenith Charles mentioned when there are other 15" sets that are already in working order if that's what you want. In 50 or 100 years, they probably won't care if the set works or not as they will be far advanced from this technology, so having it original would be of more value.

I have seen many original, untouched cars (including original tires, hoses, spark plugs, etc.) go for very high prices, much higher than restored examples, but it's ultimately up to the buyer and seller to put a value on these things. Many people wouldn't pay a dollar for a car that is basically undriveable, versus one that is fully restored and can be driven anywhere. To each his own. That what makes collecting fun.

Darryl

[azguy1878]

Wow thanks for all the reply's guys, its been really interesting reading all the posts. Can anyone tell me if Packard Bell made all of their own tubes? I remember reading somewhere that there are certain tubes that were only made by a few companies...

I just rechecked my avatar set and all the tubes are PB except for one RCA tube. I guess that means its not 100% factory original

For some reason its been difficult to find any info on this particular set, or even PB TV's in general. I think mainly because its not old enough to be of interest to most collectors...but oh well. I also noticed that a previous owner carved their SSN into the back...I thought that was interesting

[electroking]

Originally Posted by azguy1878

Wow thanks for all the reply's guys, its been really interesting reading all the posts. Can anyone tell me if Packard Bell made all of their own tubes? I remember reading somewhere that there are certain tubes that were only made by a few companies...

I just rechecked my avatar set and all the tubes are PB except for one RCA tube. I guess that means its not 100% factory original

For some reason its been difficult to find any info on this particular set, or even PB TV's in general. I think mainly because its not old enough to be of interest to most collectors...but oh well. I also noticed that a previous owner carved their SSN into the back...I thought that was interesting

Your enthusiasm for originality is commendable, however you've got to
realize that tubes in TV set were 'normal wear items'. If you have determined
that nearly all of the tubes in your set are factory originals (from date codes
or otherwise), you can still be proud of what you have on hand: it is
most likely that your set has very few hours of operation.

You should note that many TV manufacturers used custom branded tubes
that were actually made by one or more of the tube companies. I don't
think that Packard Bell was into vacuum tube production, but someone
else may have more accurate info on this. Good luck!

[bgadow]

I had thought about this question before as it pertains to old radios, and my answer works here as well: some folks will pay huge money for an unbuilt Heathkit because they want to be the guy who gets to put it together. Many of us get our joy out of old sets by recapping them and troubleshooting, getting them back to working condition. There will come a day when the percentage of sets that have not been through the hands of collectors will be very, very small. Some of us, many years from now, will lament the fact that we have nothing left in our collection that needs an old-fashioned recap. We will hunger for a 'virgin'. We will someday pay extra for that.

I'm fairly certain that Packard-Bell never manufactured a single tube; they bought them from other companies who applied the P-B name. If you are a real stickler you could try to find a good P-B replacement; probably not too easy, but somebody will have it.

[jeyurkon]

Same here. I have a Majestic 71 radio that I bought last year. Nice wood, the radio works, $100 didn't seem bad. But I don't care for the previous electronic restoration so I'm redoing it.

Undoing their repairs is going to be more work than if they hadn't worked on it. In this case, yeah only the tech (me) knows what's in there. But I do know and it bothers me. Actually I'm glad there's something left for me to work on.

There will be some performance improvement when I'm done, but it won't be alot. The work I'm putting into it would be more somewhat more rewarding if it was needed to make the radio work.

John