Is this Predicta a good deal?

[DaveWM]

well for starters, I would not plug it in to test it. I will need to be recapped to work, plugging it in with out a way to monitor whats going on may end up doing damage. This is not an easy TV to work on.

If you can you should check the CRT with a CRT tester, note it has an odd ball voltage, 2.68 IIRC so if you have a tester make sure you use the correct voltage, no fun smoking the filament testing the CRT.

The other part that is hard to come by is the flyback. Unless someone has an alternate that will sub, they are very hard to find.

200$ is a bit high if you dont know the condition of those two parts.

that term "Powers On" is very vague. can mean the filaments light up or you can hear sound or it has a raster etc...

Since it has already been "powered on" I guess any damage that would have been done either was done or did not happen.

So I guess you have nothing to lose, if the guy is willing to "power on" one more time so you can see exactly what that means. If you get a raster I would turn it off right away until you have time to chagne out the paper caps.

if a raster then 200$ is not too bad as these do seem to have a following, but frankly they are only marginal performers. I have the princess as well and it is fun, but I would not want to run it for extended times.

the plastic CRT cover is problematic, tends to be scratched and can crack, if its good then all the better.