Estate Sale Finds in 2010!

[veg-o-matic]

Doug, are you sure about the Wells Gardner thing? I was always under the impression that WG made the Airline sets for Wards and that Warwick Electronics made the Silvertones.

veg

[drh4683]

I couldn't resist but to make a little light humor joke with those photos. I'm glad someone got a laugh out of it!

Veg, as for the WG or Warwick deal, I may have got my facts screwed up. I always think of WG whenever I see a sears or airline set and I seem to always forget about the warwick name. I was looking up on the internet and it appears that Airline was indeed a WG make. However, I could not find anything about warwick to prove if they were exclusive to sears. Where was warwick based? Warwick, RI? I have no idea. Either Im not looking deep enough, or warwick has been gone so long that nobody cares to write about it or remember it. Even though this link doesn't indicate who made silvertone, it does however give some details as to the history of the silvertone name, so this color set I have would indeed be the end of the line for Silvertone:

http://www.searsarchives.com/brands/silvertone.htm


When I get home, I'll check the model number on the set as the 3 digit number will indicate who made the set. For reference, here's the sears "master list" of manufactuer model codes. Im pretty sure its going to be a 528 as I recall seeing that number on just about all sears sets.



http://acersite.livejournal.com/2131.html



Here is an interesting read. A lawsuit filed against sears, which was my only source about warwick. Still tells me nothing about where they are from.

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:...&ct=clnk&gl=us


.

[radiotvnut]

I do know that 528 is indeed Warwick.

[joemama99]

Doug,the way you removed that tube from the chassis does indeed look very
professional.I am impressed! (LMAO)

[andy]

...

[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.

[andy]

...

[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.

[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.

[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...

[Carmine]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

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

Who is the "Superb Owl"? Some kind of all-knowing carnivous giant bird that can swoop down and eat you up? That sounds scary!

[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.