Seller says some of them are new.
Someone really needs to check this out and see what's there.

I know no one will have room for 50 large sets at once.

http://cgi.ebay.com/LOT-OF-50-OLD-VINTAGE-TUBE-TYPE-CONSOLE-TELEVISIONS_W0QQitemZ290415189387QQcmdZViewItemQQp tZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item439e181d8b

that is amazing! I don't think I've seen so many in one place at one time.

Wow, thats unreal. Some of those look like real unique offbrand sets. Hopefully they can be saved!

He says he's selling in LOTS OF 50, so there must be more!

John

OMG! If this were local I would get them and make room even I had to build a room. This would keep me busy for years. I hope someone who loves old sets gets these and not the recycling crowd.
Packard Bell made some amazing sets. The cabinets and chassis are heavy duty.

I am just trying to get my head around the vehicle needed to pick up 50 sets, and then the size of the storage building.

OMG, my Mother would disown me if I brought home 50 console TV's all at once; however, I do see some interesting sets there that I'd love to have. If they were closer to home, I'd try to work up some kind of deal to save at least some of them. This is indeed a once in a lifetime find.

A moving truck would do the job. I wonder how many lots of 50 there are and what the history is with this collection. This has to be the largest collection of tube sets left in the world.

The load floor on U-Haul's largest van is roughly 23x7 feet. Putting fifty sets in one of those would mean stacking them at least two high and possibly some on top of those!

It would also cost me about $900 to do it from about 700 miles away. Not including the storage unit I'd have to rent.

Bah...

I did e-mail the seller and ask how may sets there are in total.

no way she would go for it...

Honestly Im thinking about it. But I got to also be real. I would have to fly to SC, rent a U Haul and drive them back to Los Angeles. I figure the truck would get 5 mpg so the total cost would be about $4000. I live on a 3 acher defunct farm so space is the least of my worries.

There must be less expensive ways to move them. Maybe more complicated. I wonder what it would cost to containerize them and ship by train to CA?

John

Definitely looks like an old TV sales & service shop out-of-business. Probably a few nice sets, and also, with a hoarder like the owner of that shop, I can nearly guarantee that there are other rooms; perhaps filled in prior decades to that one!!!

Charles

GAWD I would love to go see all that stuff. God (and that guy) only knows what kind of goodies are in there.

---

That is what I was thinking, I have a bad feeling that a lot of these are going to get trashed or recycled. I wish someone would make a deal with him or something.....

Wow....There's some interesting sets there, but I'm on thin ice with the wife now with all the TVs (over 200) and other stuff I already have.

:dammit::dammit::dammit:

Always too far away to be feasable.

Sure hope someone is able to save these - looks like there may be some neat sets there.

200 tvs!!!? I thought I was bad:D

:dammit::dammit::dammit:

Always too far away to be feasable.

Sure hope someone is able to save these - looks like there may be some neat sets there.

There's no "may" about it, there IS some neat sets in there!

The seller replied that he hadn't counted them all, but there could be 100 or more.

Last night I was seriously thinking about how these sets could be saved. The only practical solution I came up with would be to rent a storage unit near the seller in So. Carolina and move them there. But then what?

Perhaps we could set up some sort of collective or fund to offset the storage costs, and anyone participating would be entitled to "x" number of sets, which would have to be shipped or retrieved within a year's time.

Personally, I am willing to make a trip out there to retrieve the sets and store them. Obviously, I would need help.

If anyone thinks this could work, reply here or send me an e-mail at
audubon5425@cox.net

Something like that may work.

Im looking into shipping them. Im SERIOUSLY working on this one. If I can do this somewhat reasonably Im going to go for it.

I have a few questions like how many are bw are they all there because the crts are dead or are they victims of infant mortality.

---

Wow,, you dont see something like that everyday.

Hey there AUdubon,

If you or any other collector can devise a viable way to save these sets, I would gladly send some cash to help, regardless if I get any of these sets.

I would sure hate to see these sets sold for the value of the copper winding in the yokes, and if I could help in any way to prevent that, count me in.

I hope someone saves them. If AUdubon goes for it I'll see what I can contribute. But I have no preference as to who tries to save them. I just hope no scrap copper dealer wins.

John

I agree with this. I fact...I think we should set up a seperate thread soon, JUST for some sort of "Fund" to secure and store these sets. My rough calculations tell me that if just 20 us of commit to 50 over the next month or so, that would raise $1k, probably enough for some sort of short-term storage, till some sort of more permanent situation could be made. . Maybe through Paypal or such.


I would be willing to contribute my share. I CANNOT tell others "here", if you now what i eman, and I imagine many have the same "situation".

Dan and I spoke on the phone this evening. The main problem is that we haven't been able to get much information out of the seller. As of now, we really don't know the particulars on what is there. There are only six sets clearly visible in that photograph. What if most of the rest are particle-board Quasars and mid-90's Zeniths? Or there could be sixty roundies in there - we just don't know.

We're both going to try to get some more information out of the seller and post an update tomorrow.

I think we need to get as much information as possible out of the seller before taking this further. Those sets on the shelves are certainly tube sets; but, who knows what the ones on the floor are. I just know that I've been in a few of these "too good to be true" moments before and it's very frustrating.

Judging by how closely they're crammed together, the ones in the photo ain't roundies.

Judging by how closely they're crammed together, the ones in the photo ain't roundies.

I have to agree... But I do see some B&W consoles there, including a Zenith solid-state 23" (on shelf to right). I'm fairly sure I see some CTC-38-ish consoles, and who knows what all else. As I said in my earlier post, I'd be shocked if that's the only room full of sets he has!!!

Charles

I just talked to the seller. They were a Packard Bell distributor for the state in the 70s. He says 90% are Packard Bell sets. Some new, some returns, some that were attempted fixes etc.
He is willing to work with me.
Ill have to think about this for a few and see what audobon has to say.
Packard Bell......hmmmmm

PB made roundies fairly late; I had a 1967 PB roundie.

Charles

If I was to go harvest a load of them how many of my fellow west coast people would be willing to come pick up a few at a reasonable price and help me offset the $3k it would cost for me to get them here???

Someone here has a NOS Packard bell from the 60's, I wonder if it came from this same place?

I'd love to have a NOS set but I need to get rid of a few, not take more in!

bid placed.....:smoke:

Excellent. Now, let's wait and see how it goes.

Excellent! I'd like to be able to help out any way I can. Whats with the rush rush on the sellers part with the 12 days after the auction deal? Did he loose the building or something? Whatever the case, whoever goes there needs to get as may pictures as possible. I'd really like to make a vacation out of it and go out there to check it out, not that I need any more TV's. He's probably got parts and service manuals etc all over too. This sounds like a real gold mine for us.

'large copper wire yokes'. I hope some of these sets get a better fate than being
junked for scrap copper. Good luck to the courageous guy who is bidding on them!

Said he needs to clean out the space and get it leased out or he has someone who wants to lease it.

He will work with me a little bit on the time but only a week or two.

This is a massive project for me and insanely expensive. I really appreciate all the support.

I will take tons of pictures and video and a good inventory of whats there and get it posted.

Excellent! I'd like to be able to help out any way I can. Whats with the rush rush on the sellers part with the 12 days after the auction deal? Did he loose the building or something? Whatever the case, whoever goes there needs to get as may pictures as possible. I'd really like to make a vacation out of it and go out there to check it out, not that I need any more TV's. He's probably got parts and service manuals etc all over too. This sounds like a real gold mine for us.

If you go, let me know. I can't go with but there may be something there that I or someone I know may need or want.

Well, Radiotvnut and I will be driving out there to help ctc17 with this. It will be very interesting to see all of this, that's for sure:yes:

I am surprised the seller knows enough to refer to the deflection "yoke".

If he's smart enough to know what that is (and that it's made of copper) you'd think he'd be bright enough to take better pictures and write a better description.

I've always wanted a P-B set, especially a roundie. If I am correct, only these and Setchell-Carlson are hand-wired like a Zennie. IF someone decides to sell them individually, put me down for one.

Wasn't P-B a west-coast company BTW? How are these in South Carolina? I've certainly never seen one in person, but I am told one of my uncles had one when they were new.

I've never seen a PB, Setchell-Carlson, or Olympic TV in person. Even the old TV men that I know who fixed stuff back in the early '70's don't remember seeing too many PB's in this part of the country. One that I talked to did remember fixing some Olympic's and talked about what a PITA they were. Around here, RCA and Zenith were by far the most common color TV finds. Follow that up with store brands like Silvertone, Bradford, and Truetone. Every once in awhile, an Admiral, Motorola or some Japanese brand would show up. And, I did have one late '60's Muntz color console with an RCA-clone chassis. Wish I still had it.

we got sylvania,rca,zenith,magnavox,,ge,sears,pennys,sony .rarely did we see anything else.an occasional admiral, motorola and sanyo.one packard bell and one muntz throught the years.the pb was a roundie and mr dixon said it was a really good set.had a sylvania crt.nice picture..some sets came in that were unbrand and they were quickly discarded by mr dixon.all american made sets by americans he would say,mr dixon passed on the 80s.it is only fitting that he not be here to see what has happened to the industry,he was an electrical genius and a really great guy who helped everyone he ever knew.

PBs were made right here in Los Angeles. They are all point to point hand wired like Zenith except the chassis stand up (vertical?). The cabinets were spost to be the highlight of the set.
As far as the electronics, they used the best quality parts they could find but they just didnt seem to hold up real well in real life. They also seem to use weird 'custom' tubes. Mostly all transformer sets.
It is very strange this guy got hooked up to distribute PB in SC.

Won auction, payed for sets.....:banana:

Now, all we've got to do is get them moved from point "A" to point "B".

Now, all we've got to do is get them moved from point "A" to point "B".

And find owners for the sets ctc17 doesn't want. But it sounds like there's a lot of interest in PB sets.

I had relatives that worked for Packard Electric in Warren, Ohio. But, that company doesn't seem to have any relationship to Packard Bell.

John

Really glad that you got these!!! Bet there are some great finds there.

Speaking of PB, I wonder when they stopped making TV's for the American market? I think I remember reading where they were bought out by the Japanese in the early '70's.

On Packard Electric, we used to have a late '40's Sears Homart window fan that used a Packard motor.

PB went completely into computer manufacturing.

There was a discussion on here last year - I think 1972 or '73 was the last year Packard Bell produced television sets.

Was talking to my dad about them tonight. He said it failed and sold off the name in the mid 70s.

The 23 acher piece of property where the manufacturing building once stood is currently for sale. Its the biggest piece of property for sale in the west part of los angeles county.

Just sad.....

I saw this PB at the ARCI last year. It was really well built.
http://www.bobandersen.com/images/ARCI%202009/009.jpg http://www.bobandersen.com/images/ARCI%202009/007.jpg

I saw this PB at the ARCI last year. It was really well built.
http://www.bobandersen.com/images/ARCI%202009/009.jpg http://www.bobandersen.com/images/ARCI%202009/007.jpg


Yes, it was built very solid (and very heavy). A lot of real wood in that one.

That's one I brought down to the ARCI meet, and couldn't find a buyer for it, even when I marked it down to $25. The TV and stereo both worked, just the turntable needed a new cartdidge. Even the cabinet was in great shape.

I ended up placing it in the donation auction where it went without even a $1 bid. It was destined to be left by the dumpster. After the donation auction, I helped some young boy move it over to the side of the motel, where he was waiting for a friend with a pickup truck to come haul it away for him. As I was pulling out of the parking lot, the console was still sitting on the grass, in the rain. I have no idea if it still exists.

If only it had been a roundie, I would have kept it, but I had no room for this monstrosity.


.

That tuner is RAD!
Almost as fresh as this remote for this PB BW set
http://boxcarcabin.com/packard%20bell%20remote.JPG
http://boxcarcabin.com/pb1.JPG

So, where in SC is this wonderful find?

I just returned home from Spartanburg SC this morning.

I guess it would be in that part of the state somewhat....

Wow! I just knew if I ever stopped checking out VK for too long...something big would show up! A $750 CT100, and then this!

I knew some Packard Bell stuff made it east, but I've seen very little of it-never a complete TV set. Now to convince you guys that Maryland would be on your way...

Yes, it was built very solid (and very heavy). A lot of real wood in that one.

That's one I brought down to the ARCI meet, and couldn't find a buyer for it, even when I marked it down to $25. The TV and stereo both worked, just the turntable needed a new cartdidge. Even the cabinet was in great shape.

I ended up placing it in the donation auction where it went without even a $1 bid. It was destined to be left by the dumpster. After the donation auction, I helped some young boy move it over to the side of the motel, where he was waiting for a friend with a pickup truck to come haul it away for him. As I was pulling out of the parking lot, the console was still sitting on the grass, in the rain. I have no idea if it still exists.

If only it had been a roundie, I would have kept it, but I had no room for this monstrosity.


.


Aw, that's just sad - poor set abandoned in the rain :tears: Reminds me of a song about a cake or something...

Aw, that's just sad - poor set abandoned in the rain :tears: Reminds me of a song about a cake or something...

"Someone left the cake out in the rain..."

MacArthur Park.

Spring was never waiting for us, girl
It ran one step ahead
As we followed in the dance
Between the parted pages and were pressed,
In love's hot, fevered iron
Like a striped pair of pants

[Chorus]
MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down...
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!

I recall the yellow cotton dress
Foaming like a wave
On the ground around your knees
The birds, like tender babies in your hands
And the old men playing checkers by the trees

[Chorus]

There will be another song for me
For I will sing it
There will be another dream for me
Someone will bring it
I will drink the wine while it is warm
And never let you catch me looking at the sun
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
You'll still be the one.

I will take my life into my hands and I will use it
I will win the worship in their eyes and I will lose it
I will have the things that I desire
And my passion flow like rivers through the sky.
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
I'll be thinking of you
And wondering why.

MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down...
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!
Oh, no
No, no
Oh NO!!

:lmao: I was wondering if anyone would get that reference.

Speaking of PB, I wonder when they stopped making TV's for the American market?

I got this from Google's news archive: Teledyne made the announcement they were ending production of Packard Bell TVs and stereos on May 3, 1974.

I got the Donna Summers reference instantly. I think I still have the vinyl. I was just busy thinking what a strange direction the thread was going. Good times

Donna Summer's version of MacArthur Park (late 70's or early 80's) was the remake. The original is by Richard Harris from 1968. His version has a really good instrumental part in the middle.

Donna Summer did that song too?

ok, she covered it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacArthur_Park_%28song%29
This is a kinda interesting read about a pop song.
This is the version I remember

that reference to macarthur park is hillarious :D; that part about the cake is the only thing I remember from the song, besides the "oh noooo". I was so amused by the post that I tried telling my wife about it, and I ended up having to explain the whole song and its weird imagery... it took half an hour to get to the punch line about the tv. she didnt find it funny.

Any updates on this one? I see they went for a dollar a piece:D

We are leaving tomorrow, headed to SC. I think the plan is to spend Saturday and Sunday going through the TV's and then we'll head back Monday.

Great! Keep us updated! Lots of pics please!!:D

Great! Keep us updated! Lots of pics please!!:D
Yep, there is a facebook page in my signature below I will be sending pictures to. Also I will send pictures to Eric and he said he can post them. Join the facebook page for updates or you can look at the pictures anyway. They should be open to all.

I can't wait to see this :)... Am gonna join facebook just to follow your guys progress and see this 'TV haul' discovery! :yes:

G.

One scene that always disturbed me was in The Color Purple where the roof is leaking at the beer joint and the rain is pouring in buckets over the wooden jukebox. :tears: I couldn't find a clip of it.

I'd definitely be willing to make a home for one of these sets If I can figure out a way of getting it up to Ohio.

I'd definitely be willing to make a home for one of these sets If I can figure out a way of getting it up to Ohio.

Same here, if I could somehow get one to Arkansas.

Or Wisconsin :rolleyes:

Heck, just do a cross-country convoy. We'll pick off sets as you go by :D

well were about to go to the location and see what we got. the lack of sleep should make this real interesting

---

...You could kick off a few here in Tennessee to help lighten th' load...(grin)

Just finished up over at the TV shop - there must still be at least 150 sets left there! Lots of Packard Bell and Sylvania. There was also an all solid-state Teledyne PB-1000 "Tele-Magic 100" we had to leave because of no room left - that was the last TV developed by P.B. and possibly their only 100% solid state set.

Just finished up over at the TV shop - there must still be at least 150 sets left there! Lots of Packard Bell and Sylvania. There was also an all solid-state Teledyne PB-1000 "Tele-Magic 100" we had to leave because of no room left - that was the last TV developed by P.B. and their only 100% solid state set.

Wow! Great sets! You guys must have gotten a workout. Did you take 50 sets, less or more?

John