People on ebay expecting too much?

[Electronic M]

One thing that feeds the problem is the desirable sets that get bid up to the moon, and the moderately desirable ones that get dummies to bid them up more than their worth...Then dummies think they can get some record high price for their 'similar' set every day.

The first tube (a Zenith hybrid actually) color set I bought was off ebay, and I got in a bidding war with someone over it. I paid 150$ for it in working condition. I feel a bit dumb about it now, but we were between homes in Florida (where tube TVs are scarce especially color sets) and here in Wisconsin, any tube color sets near either home were not showing up on the bay, and I wanted one REAL bad....I can imagine some loons saw that and thought their mid 70's Asian trash was worth big money.

[tvcollector]

In Florida, tube indeed is VERY scarce.. Last time I saw a Hybrid tube set from the early 1970s was in the late 1980s, and it was a table top I think 25 inch or around there in a steal cabinet, that I found off the side of the road, I had help lugging it home being only 11 years old, I remember the set being pretty big.. Hooked the Atari 7800 up to it, and a picture never came on, was only sound, and it went right back into the garbage.. I use to see some Console tube sets around the late 1980s and early 90s in junk piles and in thrift shops.. But now I've been lucky lately with Craigslist with color roundies, and most of them were transplants from other states.. I see more smaller B/W sets from the late 40s, early 50s, on my local Craigslist more than anything else, and combo units.. Florida Doesn't have basements, so I assume that's one reason why they are scarce..

[Alastair E]

I'm currently watching a First Gen. colour set from 1967, a Thorn 2000. It allegedly was the first fully transistorised (No Tubes--how Boring) colour set in the world....

2 days left, and its up to £300. (Prob about $400)

Absolute lunacy IMHO.

First gen (We started colour broadcasts in 1967 ish), dual-standard (405/625 line VHF/UHF) sets were generally valve/hybrid sets, and again horrendous prices....

Ive been after a Philips G6 hybrid colour set ('67-69 vintage) for some years, preferably the later single-standard 22" one.

A year or two back some Muppet offered me one that had stood in a damp garage for 10 years, under a pile of other sets--and with a faulty flyback, and unknown CRT condition for £450--I told him where to go!

So--say, $200 for one of your nice roundies would be heaven on earth, but here it ain't ever gonna happen!

[oldtvsandtoy]

Part of the problem is people looking at ebay and seeing what people are asking for sets. vintageaudiophilia posts on ebay for a living and asks ungodly amounts for his sets. non collectors see this and say, I have a set that looks like that it must be worth hundreds too. Now you have lots of people that list their set for amounts the they will never sell them for.

[tvcollector]

That user sells sets fully restored... If he had a set in particular that I was looking for, I'd probably buy it at around $400 - $500.. In fact he had an Emerson that I was looking for, for around that price, but I didn't see it until it was already sold.. But he also has stuff for well over $1000 - 2k too.. I don't know why some of them are way up there and some are decent range.. Maybe because some of them are very rare?

[oldtvman]

The CTC 9 that I sold on Ebay went for $600 but it was fully restored and ended up going to a museum in California. I put a lot of work into that set, in fact my avatar was taken from that set.

[Tubejunke]

Time is a very strange thing to me. Back in the late 80s being fresh out of the army I was strong enough to take on a job delivering furniture. I remember fairly regularly seeing late 1950s black and white sets in people's home as their only set. Usually they were older people who found more to do in life than lay on the couch and watch TV.

Now, some years later we are talking about old color TVs being placed in museums! Wow! I used to pick them up in local shops for $10-$20 whenever I needed a set for my room or to keep use low on my 56 Philco that I still have unrestored & working. This would be in the earlier 80s. I was a bit of a TV & radio buff most of my life. I took electronics in high school (later in college) & I knew a few families who still were using "roundies" daily and since they were getting some age on them by that time they would go out and a few times people had me come over to their place and try to revive them. At that time I was more of a tube changer than anything, but quite often that was the problem and I got to make a few bucks.

When I moved out of my parents house, Dad made sure that any sets I had compiled in the basement went with me, or to the dump. I remember tossing an old dresser that was packed with early color yokes, flybacks, and a big black box that I had yanked out of a remote control roundie. I forget if it was Zenith or RCA now, but I remember that it worked and then got finicky before something else happened to the set and I parted it. Too bad I wasn't more than a tube changer because I parted a lot of sets that I'm positive that there wasn't much wrong with.

And now I'm telling these stories as people evidently are marveling at the examples of life in primitive times with electronics that actually took physical movement to make selections and adjustments. We really had it rough! If I can only learn to type with my thumbs I might seem, or feel, like I've caught up with the world....

[oldtvsandtoy]

Sorry no he dont. I just looked at 10 of his over priced sets and none were restored.

Originally Posted by tvcollector

That user sells sets fully restored... If he had a set in particular that I was looking for, I'd probably buy it at around $400 - $500.. In fact he had an Emerson that I was looking for, for around that price, but I didn't see it until it was already sold.. But he also has stuff for well over $1000 - 2k too.. I don't know why some of them are way up there and some are decent range.. Maybe because some of them are very rare?