Estate Sale Finds in 2010!

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by andy

Chicago seems to be 20 years behind the rest of the country as far as finding vintage TVs goes. I go to estate sales every week, but I'm lucky to see a single 70's or older set a year.

Enjoy it while it lasts!

I feel the same way. At one time, my area produced a fair amount of old TV's. For some reason, that all took a drastic turn around 2001 or so.

[AUdubon5425]

I remember reading that in the early days of color more color sets were sold in Dallas and Oklahoma City than anywhere else. I wonder if anything turns up there anymore.

[peverett]

I, as Andy, live near Austin. The main problem with Austin(in finding vintage electronics) is that it is a fairly new city. The population was about 60,000 in the mid-1960s and is over 1 million now(in the metropolitan area). Since I have lived here(25 years), Austin has more than tripled in size. San Antonio (60 miles south) seems to be a more fertile area for both older TVs and older radios. It has had a large population for a much longer time.

As to OKC and Dallas, I know AK members in both cities(as well as Tulsa). They continue to find items from time to time.

[Carmine]

Originally Posted by drh4683

The real reason I bought this TV is because of the beautiful cabinet. Since vintage video will never be worth that of vintage audio, I was really in a position of not knowing what to do with this TV. Its obvious that the cabinet alone is worth more than the complete TV, however, I seeked reasonable offers from many antique dealers. All of them told me this TV will never be worth anything, so I was left no choice but to part it out. I have always conducted by business very professionally so here are some photos for you....

Doug, I think it's very good that you saved that TV set. I don't know much about Wells-Gardener TVs, but I do have a 27" Zenith that I has been in my family since 1990. My parents purchased it new at a store called "Highland Appliance". They are not in business anymore, but they used to have stores located throughout the metro-Detroit area, although I suspect that by 1990 most of the inner-city locations had shut down because of increased crime in the city limits. A lot of people moved out of the city proper. Which reminds me, how are you able to see a picture on that Wells-Gardener TV? When I used my 1990 27" Zenith TV I only get static (also called "white noise") because of the digital transition that occurred last summer. When my parents bought this TV set, I'm pretty sure they were still driving their 1985 Dodge Caravan, which was one of the first minivans. (They bought another in 1992, then a Chrysler Town & Country in 1998. In 2005 they leased another Town and County, before replacing it with yet another Chrysler Town and Country in 2008. This one is a lease too, although they stopped giving good lease deals soon afterwards so now they'll have to purchase one in 2010.) These are all good vehicles for bringing home a fairly large and heavy object like a 27" Zenith TV, although they also have a 2009 Dodge Dakota truck that could also haul home a TV set if there were still anymore Highland Appliance stores in the metro area. They all went out of business when the big box stores (such as Best Buy and Circuit City) came to town, although they never did have any locations in the actual city of Detroit, MI. Although there is one very close to the border located at eastland mall. it's out of business now, not because of any problems, but because of the nationwide shutdown of the chain. I notice you are removing a tube from the TV set in the picture... Be sure to turn off the power because of the high voltages contained inside of the unit.

[Jeffhs]

I live in a very small town about 35 miles east of Cleveland. The town was founded in 1812, and now has a population of 3211 (up from 3180 in 1999; my first landlord grew up here and could remember when the population was just 1500 or thereabouts).

In the time I've lived here (ten years), I have only seen four old TVs on the curbs, and two of those weren't vintage--my best guess would be 1980s-'90s, and were gotten rid of just after the digital transition. Of the other two, only one was anywhere near vintage (1978 RCA 25" console). The other was an RCA portable from 1980 or so. I did see a couple of stereo consoles on the curb across the street from here a couple of years ago, but again, those were the only examples of vintage audio I've seen here; haven't seen another stereo console since.

I guess small towns aren't the best place on Earth to find vintage electronics--at least the one I live in isn't. By contrast, in my hometown of Wickliffe, Ohio (an eastern suburb of Cleveland), one could see vintage TVs and radios being put out on the curbs just about every week from the '60s through the end of the eighties. (I had a sizable collection of old TVs in my basement back in the '70s that were almost all trash finds.)

These days, however, if there are any vintage TVs or radios to be found in that suburb, I bet they are few and far between. The televisions that show up on curbs nowadays are probably, even likely, cheap Pacific Rim CRT-based imports that give up the ghost after a couple of years or after the warranty expires--whichever comes first. I can't help wondering how much longer it will be before I start seeing cheap flat-panel sets on the curbs here.

[zenithfan1]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I can't help wondering how much longer it will be before I start seeing cheap flat-panel sets on the curbs here.

I already see a lot of them here, mostly because someone tipped the stupid junk over and broke the screen. There was a 50" or so on the curb a few weeks ago. Of course there is the usual BPC everywhere. I really hate it when people smash those all over the street for the copper. Someone did it to me when I threw one out, luckily it was a small set. I hope for the next guy's sake that I'm not home when they do it. Damn "copper smashers" I call 'em

[radiotvnut]

Yeah, just about every TV that I see at the dump has been smashed to pieces. The one that really pissed me off was the '50's Zenith B&W console that was basically a pile of broken glass and woodchips by the time I got there.

Speaking of broken LCD sets, someone brought me a 32" Sylvania (Funai) from the dump with a smashed screen. I just used the speakers out of it to replace the blown ones in a flatscreen that I'm repairing for someone and I'll save the boards because I've got a feeling I'll be seeing plenty of these cheapies in the future. As you probably know, those flatscreens will crack and break if you look at them funny. They're not nearly as durable as a CRT face.

[andy]

...

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

those flatscreens will crack and break if you look at them funny. They're not nearly as durable as a CRT face.

Yes, indeed. I bet a lot of flat-panels get smashed during football season when fans disagree with a referee's call, or one of the fan's favorite (or not so favorite) players makes a dumb or downright stupid move during a play. At least if something is thrown at a CRT set, the tube is almost always spared any damage, because of the safety glass in front of it. However, with a FP, as has been noted, it is all too easy to smash the screen if anything is thrown against it. As zenithfan1 noted, many FPs are ruined when they are tipped over, by accident or otherwise. My RCA CTC185 XL-100 set fell off its stand last year; the only damage to it, if you could call it that, was a slight bend of the shadow mask in the CRT, which I repaired with a couple of sweeps across the tube with an old speaker magnet. Had this TV been a FP, however, it would have been ruined the second it hit the floor, despite the fact that the floors in my apartment are carpeted.

[bgadow]

I went over to my friend's shop Saturday-all closed up, but still loaded with stuff. Lots of late model junkers that need to be hauled away and since I had a little space left in the truck I took 4 of them-all LCD. 2 they said were pure junk (and Emerson and a Sanyo, somewhat smaller) and so I just dropped them off at the dump. The other 2 I brought home to play with. #1 is a pretty decent 32" Sharp; the audio amp doesn't work-hook it up to your stereo and it your in business. This might end up in my living room, we'll see what the boss says. The other set is a 32" Toshiba, the screen works but the backlight only comes up for a second at turn-on then back off. I tinkered with it last night for about an hour but couldn't see anything obvious. Stuck it on freecycle and it's gone already.

[peverett]

Andy is correct, for some reason, basements are not common in Texas or Oklahoma(where I grew up). My aunt in Wichita, Kansas has one though.

Being in tornado alley, you would think basements would be common, but storm cellers(essentially small outside basements) are used instead.

One thing that is common in newer homes in Texas(much to one of my friends recent pain) is putting water pipes in attics. Not good when freezing weather arrives.

Of course, you may get lucky(or unlucky according to my wife) and find a TV shop in a small town where the owner has just about every TV left at his shop since 1946(+broken TVs from other shops). This happened to me several years ago and I am still recovering. I wish AudioKarma was around then-possibly I could have saved a few more sets.

[Dave A]

And don't forget that many people move every year so that rare set in Chicago may be in Portland, WA.

[Sandy G]

We have a different problem down here in NE Tennessee...We were POOR around here...Still are, in a lot of instances...And so folks didn't/couldn't lay out the dinero a color set cost. Another thing was the typically lousy TV reception we got out here in the Tuilies, at least until the mid/late '60s when the initial cable TV systems came along. We went from getting 2, maybe 3 stations rather badly to having 6 or 7 perfectly overnite...That's when color really started taking off here, was when we got cable TV. In those days, of course, it was more of a "Super antenna" than anything else., there wasn't any Fox, CNN, ESPN, any of that.

[peverett]

Dave A. is correct. I have gotten a couple of sets, both early-mid 1950s B&W sets, here in the Austin area that were originally somewhere else. One is a 1950 GE console that orginally came from Pennsylvania. Al the repair documentation is still with the set. I have restored it(except for the phono turntable). It was to be a wine bar until I saved it.

The other is a Stromberg Carlson set with the curved ends on the top. It was originally in Utah. It was originally owned by the person who I bought it from's grandmother. After she passed away, they moved to Austin and brought the set with them and then decided to sell it. I have not yet restored this ones electronics.

The cabinets on both sets are in extremely good original condition.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I bet a lot of flat-panels get smashed during football season when fans disagree with a referee's call, or one of the fan's favorite (or not so favorite) players makes a dumb or downright stupid move during a play. At least if something is thrown at a CRT set, the tube is almost always spared any damage, because of the safety glass in front of it. However, with a FP, as has been noted, it is all too easy to smash the screen if anything is thrown against it.

The Superb owl is in a week and a half. And some people will discover that FPs don't like footballs thrown at them...