Zenith Roundie on eBay

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Charlie

Nice looking ad... I dont think i've seen that one before.

I agree. It looks a lot like the Zenith roundie on ebay which was mentioned at the beginning of the thread, although the one in the ad must be a slightly newer model as it has a different style of channel indicator (the one in Iowa has the light-through channel knob that showed the selected channel on a screen in the center) and, if I am not mistaken, the set in the ad also has Space Command (I thought I saw what looked like an ultrasonic transducer in the lower left corner of the cabinet, below the CRT mask). In any case, they are both very good-looking sets (the one on ebay had a great picture as well). Zenith (the real deal) didn't skimp on either chassis design or cabinetry when it was still Zenith of Chicago; they made some of the best TV sets around in their day.

[Carmine]

I'm wondering about the text in this ad...

Hard to believe that Zenith was "America's largest selling TV", unless you were going by sheer cabinet size!

Secondly that style of CRT mask in the ad is the 1962 style, so this ad must have been very soon after Zenith's re-entry to color. If so, the text is pretty gutsy.

Ceebee: My comment about cabinet size had me wondering... Since Australia is a large country (in land mass) like the US, are your 50s-60s-70s consumer prodcuts such as TV's/fridges/etc. typically as large as their US counterparts? I base this on the fact that Australia had/has a lot of really cool cars that have more in common with US cars than anything from Europe/Japan.

Were there lots of consoles/combos?

As an aside, you might enjoy this Australian-related humor... A friend and I ate dinner last night at a chain-steakhouse with an Australian theme (Outback). I asked for my steak in a "butterfly" cut, which will turn almost any piece of beef into something that looks (roughly) like the Australian continent. When the server brought my steak, I pointed to it, and told her "This is why they call it Outback, they will only purchase beef cuts that look like Australia" while I pointed at a map. She bought the story, and I went into great detail about how hard it was for them to find correct-looking steaks and so forth...

After a minute or two, I started laughing so hard I nearly cried.

Maybe it's just my bad sence of humor.

[Charlie]

Yes, the set in the ad is a Space Command set. The tuner set up is the same as the 1962 29CJ20 that Polaraman and I both have. It's possible they might have used this tuner in 63 as well. Another thing I noted was the ad pic has the tiny little bass/trebble controls just above the picture controls door... which came on the 29JC20. Not sure if it was used on the 27KC20.

[old_tv_nut]

Notes
1) they don't say "best selling _color_ TV" - it's quite beleivable that Zenith had highest total sales that year
2) some time later, (late 70's I think) RCA dropped to about 25% of the color market (which was most of the total market by then) and Zenith rose to slightly more; then both took a slide as imports increased

[ceebee23]

The ad came from a 1963 National Geographic. A very similar advertisement ran in the March and June 1963.

Of course there were no color sets here until 1974. So no "roundies" except some sets imported for experimental broadcasts in the 60s. And I suspect they have long since gone.

As for Australian domestic equipment ....well our TVs, fridges and such seem to be sized about halfway between European models and the US.

Like our cars...when the US was all V8s we had 6 cylinder models.

And for those who care about such things ...outside the US, Australia was the largest market for Sunbeam MixMasters with over 750,000 sold! Not bad for a country of 15 milion!

[bgadow]

From what I've read Zenith overtook RCA in sales at the end of the 60s. I don't remember if that was color or bw & color combined. I guess that was a real horse race through the 70s. I also recall reading that in the 50s Philco was outselling RCA so it doesn't seem too much of a stretch that Zenith could be on top in the early 60s.

[jstout66]

I see the set sold today for $405.00. I find it interesting that the high-bidder has ZERO feed-back yet has been registered since 11/2001, and has only recently been bidding up a storm as of late. There were only 3 people bidding on this set. Myself, the suspected shill bidder, and the winner. Something does not seem right. Anyway... maybe the winner is someone in this area. It's a newbie tho....

I emailed the seller yesterday, asked him if the set was going to be relisted after he accidently bought it back with shill bidding. He didn't answer the question dirrectly but said that he was not going to be relisting it and was confident that the high bidder would pay. Who knows whats going on. I personaly didn't think it was going to go that high, but stuff is worth what people are willing to pay at the time.

[jstout66]

Did you REALLY ask him that!!!!!!!?????!!! LOL!!! And I agree Jackson, any item IS worth what the buyer is willing to pay. It's hard to explain, and I don't want to come across as someone who is po'd because they didn't win, but if you had met the seller like I did, and know of his rep, you'd be a tad suspecious as well. Once I found out who was selling it, I had to really think about putting a bid in to begin with.

[Charlie]

Originally Posted by jackson

I emailed the seller yesterday, asked him if the set was going to be relisted after he accidently bought it back with shill bidding.

You da man, jackson! Shake 'em up!

As far as value, I have to agree as well. Any item is worth what another individual will pay. I've heard my dad say that time and time again. To people in general, an item might not be worth that much. However, that TV was worth it enough to someone to whip out four bills!

Had I been the seller, it wouldn't hurt my feelings at all taking the money. Of course, I wouldn't have been having buddies bump the bids up.

Actually, that Zenith was a very nice looking set. I might have given four bills. However, I would have wanted to see the set in person first and look it over closely. I doubt I would have paid that much AND paid for shipping. It would have to be close for me to buy it.

[bgadow]

I'm glad to hear these sets are bringing that kind of money. But I sure wouldn't pay it. I feel blessed that I have similiar tv's that were given to me or were bought for almost nothing. Takes patience. But, if you just gotta have a roundie, NOW!, this is the way to do it!

[captainmoody]

Does anyone know if this set really went for 405.00? That seems awfully high for a 60's set. I was only able to get 380.00 on ebay for my working CTC 5 this last January!
Would have never sold it but I was short on money and space (nothing new!) and it had to go...

[yagosaga]

Originally Posted by captainmoody

Does anyone know if this set really went for 405.00? That seems awfully high for a 60's set. I was only able to get 380.00 on ebay for my working CTC 5 this last January!

Yes, it was gone for 405.00. This Zenith roundie looks very nice.
You wrote in your auction that the crt was tested strong! That's fully correct! But the screenshot of your CTC-5 showed a picture with bad focus and no strong red color, and I think this was the reason, that nobody would offer more than 380. Those which had experience in restaurating tv sets knew that here is some work to do to get this set reliable in working condition. And nobody knew whether the red gun would be strong too.
On my hard disc I have collected some interesting color roundie auctions. Compare the other auctions on ebay. All sets in working condition with impressive screenshots got higher bids:
http://bs.cyty.com/menschen/e-etzold...ache/cache.htm
BTW: I think that the prices for color roundies will increase in the next years, even for those from the 1960s.

[jstout66]

Dwight, I still have a feeling about that Zenith auction. I haven't got a 2nd chance offer yet tho, which I fully expected. The dude selling it is shady......