This is a story about how you "lose some, win some." Today, me and a friend were hitting some yard sales and flea markets. The first sale we stopped at was being held in the parking lot of a business and it was about 10:30 AM. Most everything there was the usual yard sale crap that should have been donated to the Salvation Army; but, on the pavement, I spotted a 1940's GE oscillating fan that looked to be in nice shape (except for a rotten power cord). There was no price sticker on it (nor on anything else that I saw); so, I asked the woman for a price and she said $10. I told her that I'd take it and asked if she could change a twenty. She said she could; so, she took my money inside, while I waited outside with the fan. It seemed like it was taking her a long time to fetch me a ten dollar bill and she finally came out, handed me my twenty back, and said that she couldn't sell me the fan because someone inside told her that the fan was not for sale and should not have been brought out (yeah, right - it took them to 10:30 in the morning to figure that out). What I think really happened is the lady told someone inside that she just sold the fan for $10 and they blew a gasket, along with likely pulling out their smartphone and showing her one on ebay that someone was asking ten fortunes for.

After we left that sale, I wasn't really in the mood to stop at any more yard sales (yard sales are generally lousy and if they have anything old, they expect to get an ebay price for it). A couple of blocks away, we spotted another sale and we almost didn't stop because from the road, it looked like more typical yard sale crap. However, we stopped and I'm glad we did. Sitting behind the two BPC 19" TV's that he couldn't even get $10/each for, there was this 9" Zenith B&W bicentennial set for $12. He said it worked; but, I didn't hang around long enough to plug it in. I gave him his $12 and got out of there, before one of the ones standing around decided it was "wurf" much more than that. I'll have to say that this is the first time in ages that I've seen a TV that old at a yard sale and I certainly wasn't expecting to find this particular set at a yard sale.

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/stuff%20002_zps3kadfmq7.jpg (http://s538.photobucket.com/user/radiotvnut/media/stuff%20002_zps3kadfmq7.jpg.html)

These are neat little sets :)

I like them. I had 2 one like yours only nicer (still got it) and a Avacado one minus the patriotism (that one I sold). I see it don't have the tinted plexiglass...Does it have the cord?

Back then you could slap "Bicentennial" on anything and it would sell...

I am surprised how many of these are out there. We
sold a lot of them but we were where the rev war
started. Anything colonial sold well like pine &
maple early American consoles. IIRC the prices were.
regular AC only $120
AC/DC $130
Bicents $140
A lot of $$ back then.

73 Zeno:smoke:

They should have named it the "BUY-Centennial" & been done w/it..

Nice lil tv !

I finally got around to firing it up and it has two problems. The audio is very weak and it's likely not an alignment issue because it's weak, no matter if it's on or off the station. The second problem is the CRT is very tired. It's still watchable; but, it blooms like crazy when I turn the brightness up and when the brightness is turned down to where it's not blooming, it's dark and fuzzy. Hopefully, a lite hit from the rejuvenator will bring it back up. I can tell by the worn numbers on the knobs, etc. that this is a high hours set; so, I'm not surprised that it's about worn out.