View Full Version : It's Raining TV's!


TUD1
10-30-2016, 01:04 PM
My friend Danny found this for me yesterday at an estate sale for $20. They wanted $150 for it but he talked some reason into the people. It's an early production CTC-25 model GH-704. Somebody either bleached or painted the cabinet, so I'll have to fix that.

Electronic M
10-30-2016, 09:55 PM
If it is a factory blond by some chance then I'd keep it that way.

TUD1
10-30-2016, 10:09 PM
RCA only made this cabinet in Autumn Mahogany and Natural Walnut.

Jon A.
10-30-2016, 10:10 PM
Were those equipped with an early tension band CRT? A quick Google search didn't turn up any CTC-25 sets with a cataract.

fixmeplease
10-30-2016, 10:17 PM
It looks blonde to me and hope it is and not painted. Cool looking style no matter the color.

Electronic M
10-30-2016, 10:25 PM
RCA only made this cabinet in Autumn Mahogany and Natural Walnut.

Maker/advertisement/service literature is not the bible...It is often wrong, incomplete or a different revision than what is in front of you. The workmanship will tell you if it is factory.

TUD1
10-30-2016, 10:45 PM
RCA only made this cabinet in Autumn Mahogany and Natural Walnut.

This information is just how I heard it from Danny, and he knows his RCA's.

dieseljeep
10-31-2016, 10:19 AM
This information is just how I heard it from Danny, and he knows his RCA's.
There's such a thing as a special order. If you want to spend the money, you can order it in pink with purple polka dots.
Some people had so much money, they didn't care how they spent it.
Maybe it could be ordered with an unfinished cabinet and the dealer sent it out to get it professionally finished.
Look at some of the movie stars and sports figures and how they furnish their homes. :sigh:

Electronic M
10-31-2016, 11:36 AM
There's such a thing as a special order. If you want to spend the money, you can order it in pink with purple polka dots.
Some people had so much money, they didn't care how they spent it.
Maybe it could be ordered with an unfinished cabinet and the dealer sent it out to get it professionally finished.
Look at some of the movie stars and sports figures and how they furnish their homes. :sigh:

I know a guy that has a Hammond organ that was bought unfinished, and finished perfectly in a specific finish color. It was bought by the guy's (IIRC) Grandparents. They special ordered it unfinished because it HAD to match their furnishings, and Hammond refused to finish it the color they wanted....There are many Hammond collectors that tell him what he KNOWS is real and has the family history and lit to back up has to be a fake...

BigDavesTV
10-31-2016, 11:55 AM
Good Score! I had (many years ago, when I was about 14 years old:) the "Dumas" French Provincial Model GH-724, that's pictured in the RCA Brochure you posted above! It was a good set, belonged to my best friend's Grandmother, I got it when she moved, and bought another set, because the original CRT was shot on her set, and a brightener had been installed. I used it about a year, until you could no longer see the screen! Kind'a hard to tell if yours was special ordered in that finish, but I don't think so, based on the scratches, it looks like they "painted-over" the original finish, to me anyway. Nice all day for $20.00, though!

Steve D.
10-31-2016, 12:10 PM
Then there's the story that comedian Jack Benny ordered an RCA CT-100 w/a blonde finish cabinet to match his other furniture. The CT-100 was only available in Mahogany finish. Could never verify this story.

-Steve D.

benman94
10-31-2016, 12:18 PM
Maker/advertisement/service literature is not the bible...It is often wrong, incomplete or a different revision than what is in front of you. The workmanship will tell you if it is factory.

My '55-'56 Hoffman Colorcaster has a pecan finish. The tiny bit of advertising literature for the set I've found shows only a Mahogany console and table model as being available.
You can't rely on advertising literature for much of anything....

WISCOJIM
10-31-2016, 12:31 PM
My '55-'56 Hoffman Colorcaster has a pecan finish. The tiny bit of advertising literature for the set I've found shows only a Mahogany console and table model as being available.
You can't rely on advertising literature for much of anything....I've noticed similar things for many brands. The advertising and sales brochures would often only have a mahogany finish listed, but the factory service literature and the Sams Photofact would list parts numbers for both dark brown and tan knobs, indicating the sets were available in more than one color. I wonder if it's because the early brochures are printed before the sets even hit the production line and many changes have been made throughout the sales year.

.

SpaceAge
10-31-2016, 12:33 PM
Then there's the story that comedian Jack Benny ordered an RCA CT-100 w/a blonde finish cabinet to match his other furniture. The CT-100 was only available in Mahogany finish. Could never verify this story.

-Steve D.

I was reading through an old thread the other day and someone said they have seen a blonde CT-100, so they do exist. I think they were special order only and had a slightly different model number. Now to dig up that old thread again...

benman94
10-31-2016, 12:50 PM
It wouldn't surprise me if a blonde CT-100 is out there; I've moved a CT-100 with a 25 Hz power transformer and my back is still paying dearly for it... If RCA would pop a 25 Hz transformer in a CT-100 on custom order, I don't see why they wouldn't have finished one in blonde if you asked nicely... and paid handsomely.

Dude111
10-31-2016, 01:15 PM
Im glad ya found that :)

I hope she gives ya many good years of beautiful stuff!!

SpaceAge
10-31-2016, 08:02 PM
I was reading through an old thread the other day and someone said they have seen a blonde CT-100, so they do exist. I think they were special order only and had a slightly different model number. Now to dig up that old thread again...

Finally found it again.
http://videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=251001

Just to clarify; the only "factory issue" color was red. There were custom order sets in blond (I had the knobs and pencil box and insert from one), but those were special order only, and I only know of one besides the one my parts came from. CT-100MBO was the model tag. Same situation as the 1940s RCA 641-TS console combo. I had a 641-TS in bleached blond, which had special light brown bakelite knobs (as did the CT-100MBO). I got the 641 from the original owner, who ordered it and waited 6 months.

dieseljeep
11-01-2016, 09:43 AM
Were those equipped with an early tension band CRT? A quick Google search didn't turn up any CTC-25 sets with a cataract.
I think they went tension band in the mid 70's, even on the rebuilt CRT's.
I have an RCA CTC21, that was under contract with RCA Service Co. It has a rebuilt CRT branded RCA Service Co. It's a 25X that is a tension band CRT.
I haven't seen any 1967 model RCA's, that have the original CRT. :thumbsdn:

TUD1
01-28-2017, 04:17 PM
Bought some paint stripper today. Took the Dorrance completely apart, and slobbered the stuff all over the cabinet. It's outside now. I can already see the nasty paint peeling off.

Findm-Keepm
01-28-2017, 05:36 PM
Maker/advertisement/service literature is not the bible...It is often wrong, incomplete or a different revision than what is in front of you. The workmanship will tell you if it is factory.

+1 - We sold RCA, and Indy was eager to customize sets. Blondes are rarer finishes, but available with certain cabinet codes. Merchandiser data in the binders is what is mass produced. Factory orders ain't in there. Our RCA rep had to take the order, mail it in (no fax or internet back then..) and get a reply with a payment code and amount. We called in the credit card and then billed the customer. Most were finish orders. Each year had a new cabinet code and the suffixes determined what was available. PITA, but a bit of extra dough for us, as the customer never balked.

Hell, you could get plastic knobs in brushed, chrome, and golden finishes if you didn't like the stock. Pricey things, but available. I can remember a dentist here that had an RCA CTC38 entertainment unit and wanted the all-gold knobs. He ordered them at another RCA dealer for about 180 bucks - in 1970/71. You want it, they'll make it. We kept the entertainment unit in flys and 6JE6's until his youngest kid wanted a remote set. We never pulled the set - just the chassis, as we always had a jig setup for the '38 chassis.

ColorTrak consoles with Pecan, Mahogany(stained luaun) and Walnut were available, but for most models, only Pecan sets and their plastic sides available at mass retail.

Proscan/Dimensia are the only RCA lines that had no custom cabinet codes.

TUD1
01-28-2017, 06:30 PM
Progress.

ceebee23
01-28-2017, 07:37 PM
it is going to look soooooo much better after that paint is gone!

Electronic M
01-28-2017, 07:53 PM
Bought some paint stripper today. Took the Dorrance completely apart, and slobbered the stuff all over the cabinet. It's outside now. I can already see the nasty paint peeling off.

That really looks like a factory custom paint job to me. Most consumers would not bother to remove the back to paint the back edges of the cabinet...Hell most would not bother to paint the back edges at all.

Given what I've seen I'd have tried to preserve it as is/was, but that ship has already sailed...At least it appears to have a nice mahogany finish underneath.:thmbsp:

TUD1
01-28-2017, 08:12 PM
I've said it once, and I'll say it again. THE PAINT IS NOT FACTORY! The paint job is incredibly sloppy, and you can even see the clear coat preserved under the paint. The DIY'er also put in some nasty green felt over the speakers, sloppily held in with staples.

TUD1
01-29-2017, 02:40 PM
More progress on the Dorrance. Did not meet my goal of getting it completely stripped this weekend. Next weekend it will be finished.

sampson159
01-29-2017, 07:21 PM
the top looks good.i would just clear this color,myself.back around 1970,a friend of mine bought a new magnavox color set.he had coffee and end tables that had fruitwood tops and the rest were white,couldnt order it this way,so he took it to a refinisher.it was made to match.i personally hate white furniture and even not a fan of my avanti.of course,because of the originality of it,i will leave it alone.cant wait to see your finished product!

TUD1
01-29-2017, 09:15 PM
Thanks. I'm looking forward to working on this thing again next weekend. I don't know what my dad has in mind, but he says he can make the finish look better than new.

Captainclock
01-29-2017, 09:33 PM
Thanks. I'm looking forward to working on this thing again next weekend. I don't know what my dad has in mind, but he says he can make the finish look better than new.

You must have a LOT of patience to be able to strip and refinish a console TV cabinet because I know my mom and dad once bought from the church garage sale we had one year at the church I grew up in a mid 1950s Zenith B & W console TV Set that was in a solid Mahogany cabinet and doors that went over the screen area, anyways my parents had bought the TV to use as an extra TV around the house because at the time we only had one TV and they plugged the TV in and the picture tube exploded supposedly so they gutted the cabinet and my mom had the intention of refinishing the cabinet so that it could be used as an entertainment center but it sat in my dad's workshop for several years without any work being done to it until one day my dad decided to donate the cabinet to a neighbor of ours who also happened to go to church with us so he could use it for a woodworking project. Also I'm currently have a 1932 vintage cathedral radio that needs the cabinet refinished and I was only able to get through the first layer of laquor and that was it and i used the same citri-strip that you did and it didn't really work very well at taking the old finish off of the cabinet which really frustrated me because I spent about 3 hours working on that cabinet to only get through one layer of the cabinet's finish. So yeah like I said it seems you have way more patience for refinishing old TV and radio cabinets than I do or my parents do.

TUD1
01-29-2017, 10:03 PM
Moar pictures.

TUD1
01-30-2017, 04:54 PM
More progress on the Dorrance today. My dad got most of the paint off while I was at work.

TVTim
01-30-2017, 06:40 PM
I like it the way it is.

TUD1
01-30-2017, 11:12 PM
What do you mean? If you mean the way it looks now, I agree. That wood looks a lot better without that nasty stuff all over it.

DavGoodlin
01-31-2017, 09:56 AM
That looks like the fine and familiar RCA cabinetry under all that. Good work!

Captainclock
01-31-2017, 08:45 PM
Man your parents must be pretty generous if they are letting you have a small collection of vintage Console and Table Top model TVs in their house, my parents won't even let me have one unless its a small one that can be stored away out of sight because my parents think I might become a "hoarder" if I was to start collecting vintage TVs of all sizes functioning or not even if I was just to have them in a neat organized display, and part of the problem with my mom at least is that my grandparents (specifically my grandfather) were what she considered hoarders because my grandfather had a large stack of news papers in their living room of their old house, they had a "junk room" that was piled floor to ceiling literally with old stuff that they didn't use anymore, then to top it off my grandfather had quite literally a junk yard full of classic Mopar, GM, and Ford vehicles in yard with vehicles dating as far back as 1956, to as recent as 1987 and everything in between, he had several pulled and working or needing some slight work 440 V8 engines from old Mopar cars, he had an old Chrysler Imperial, several Chrysler New Yorkers, several Chrysler Newports, a few Dodge Darts from the 1960s and 1970s, a couple of Plymouth Furies, a Plymouth Volare Stationwagon, a Ford Ranchero, an old Buick Regal, and that's just to name a few of the 42 cars he had on his property, anyways my mom fears that I'm going to end up like my grandfather (which was her father) if I start collecting too many things, which that's just not the case but my mom doesn't really understand (and neither does my staff person that works with me from an organization that works with people with disabilities) because everytime I buy something vintage like an old record player or an old radio or an old fan my staff person (and even my mom if she finds out about them) will tell me to either sell the item or scrap it out or donate it or get rid of it somehow because they think I'm "hoarding" stuff, even though they aren't really giving me a chance to properly fix up the items and properly display them. Anyways Dave I envy you being able to freely collect old TVs and radios unrestricted like you can because it really annoys me that I can't have a proper collection of vintage electronics or vintage fans because everyone around me thinks that I can't do that without it becoming a "hoard" even though they don't give me a chance to make a proper collection and display it properly. In fact I have 3 small tabletop radios, one from 1948 and one from 1956 and one from 1963 which would be one radio representative from a different decade and I was saying that I wanted to keep those radios and display them as part of my collection just to demonstrate what the different styles of radios from the different decades of the mid 20th century which was the peak of American electronic manufacturing, but my staff person wants me to sell the radios on ebay and try to get money out of them even though I really don't want to. So anyways yeah that's my rant for the night. Good luck on your TVs and radios.

TUD1
01-31-2017, 09:09 PM
I'm sorry to hear that. The lack of appreciation for collecting vintage stuff in our society is repulsive in my opinion. Especially for vintage color TV's. If I had money coming out of my hair follicles, I'd get a 1968 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser and travel the country picking up TV's all the time. I'd call it the "New Vista Cruiser."

Electronic M
01-31-2017, 11:26 PM
Man your parents must be pretty generous if they are letting you have a small collection of vintage Console and Table Top model TVs in their house, my parents won't even let me have one unless its a small one that can be stored away out of sight because my parents think I might become a "hoarder" if I was to start collecting vintage TVs of all sizes functioning or not even if I was just to have them in a neat organized display, and part of the problem with my mom at least is that my grandparents (specifically my grandfather) were what she considered hoarders because my grandfather had a large stack of news papers in their living room of their old house, they had a "junk room" that was piled floor to ceiling literally with old stuff that they didn't use anymore, then to top it off my grandfather had quite literally a junk yard full of classic Mopar, GM, and Ford vehicles in yard with vehicles dating as far back as 1956, to as recent as 1987 and everything in between, he had several pulled and working or needing some slight work 440 V8 engines from old Mopar cars, he had an old Chrysler Imperial, several Chrysler New Yorkers, several Chrysler Newports, a few Dodge Darts from the 1960s and 1970s, a couple of Plymouth Furies, a Plymouth Volare Stationwagon, a Ford Ranchero, an old Buick Regal, and that's just to name a few of the 42 cars he had on his property, anyways my mom fears that I'm going to end up like my grandfather (which was her father) if I start collecting too many things, which that's just not the case but my mom doesn't really understand (and neither does my staff person that works with me from an organization that works with people with disabilities) because everytime I buy something vintage like an old record player or an old radio or an old fan my staff person (and even my mom if she finds out about them) will tell me to either sell the item or scrap it out or donate it or get rid of it somehow because they think I'm "hoarding" stuff, even though they aren't really giving me a chance to properly fix up the items and properly display them. Anyways Dave I envy you being able to freely collect old TVs and radios unrestricted like you can because it really annoys me that I can't have a proper collection of vintage electronics or vintage fans because everyone around me thinks that I can't do that without it becoming a "hoard" even though they don't give me a chance to make a proper collection and display it properly. In fact I have 3 small tabletop radios, one from 1948 and one from 1956 and one from 1963 which would be one radio representative from a different decade and I was saying that I wanted to keep those radios and display them as part of my collection just to demonstrate what the different styles of radios from the different decades of the mid 20th century which was the peak of American electronic manufacturing, but my staff person wants me to sell the radios on ebay and try to get money out of them even though I really don't want to. So anyways yeah that's my rant for the night. Good luck on your TVs and radios.

At some point you have to kick out the interlopers and run your own life....

Titan1a
02-01-2017, 01:38 AM
One hell of a run-on sentence. Reading gave me a headache! Try using a period here and there.

ed857
02-01-2017, 09:35 AM
:thmbsp:

DavGoodlin
02-01-2017, 12:40 PM
The way I see it, we are preserving and sometimes improving something a future collector will probably be thrilled to have. The best re-assurance you can give to those with noses currently in your business, is to show you're not the only one and the items have value to SOMEBODY.

My hoard (about 100 TV's and radios collected 1975 - 1983) was forcibly reduced to 20 by my parents when I moved out and 1500 miles away for a job. I saw it as a minor setback though I lost some projects that needed only minor issues fixed. I moved back 2 years later to attend engineering school and continued but keeping only the most interesting and sell the rest. As I survived my first marriage and remained in my modest city row-house, I rediscovered the hobby and chose my next estate with this in mind, all this before Doug Harland and Videokarma reminded me I was not alone.

With a family to support, I must get up early or stay up late to work on TVs and radios before a 2 hour commute. Sometimes just moving and reassembling a stalled project set is all I will get done. The last thing you want if you die prematurely is a disorganized pile up, making things so inaccessible, another collector cannot see all you have when they visit.

My wife is not worried - because of half-dozen collector-friends within 200 miles who are glad to take about half the stuff and know where to sell the other half. I also have a living will that helps ensure nobody is unclear as to what happens with my two old Pontiacs as well. As a fellow collector has nobly stated, the last thing you want to leave behind is a sarcophagus of un organized junk. I keep notes and fact sheets with each unit. I think we all dream of opening a local consumer electronics museum.

TUD1
02-01-2017, 05:29 PM
I love collecting TV's but I'm ran out of space about 4 TV's ago. Plus, I have another on the way. I considered selling one of my 25DC56's, since I have two that are identical, but I doubt anybody is going to want to come all the way down here. I did make some more progress on the Dorrance today. I used some Minwax furniture refinisher and some 0000 steel wool, and it really helped get the paint stripper residue off.

Captainclock
02-01-2017, 06:57 PM
Yeah, that's the thing, I really don't have what someone would consider a collection, all I have is 2 tvs that one would truely consider vintage (a Philco Townhouse from the early 1960s, and a late 1950s GE portable TV of which both of them have vertical issues which I cannot figure out, plus the Philco Townhouse has failed Aquadag on its 110 degree 19" B & W picture tube which is beyond my expertice as far as repairing goes). Anyways I have 3 1980s vintage color TVs one a Magnavox, one a Zenith and one a Monkey Wards unit, of which the Zenith and the Monkey Wards unit I'll be using on my work bench for troubleshooting of VCRs, DVD Players and other video related equipment, and the Maggy I use for my TV in my office with a Maggy converter box and then I have a Viewsonic 32" LCD TV with built-in HDTV tuner that I use for my bedroom.
And as far as vintage and antique radios goes I have a 1950s vintage RCA AM/FM Hi-Fi Radio (the one with the round plastic dial that glows and the speaker is in the middle of the tuner dial) and then I have a 1962 vintage Sears/Silvertone AM/FM/FM Stereo Radio that I use in my office, and a 1969 vintage Pioneer SX-1000TD stereo Receiver, a Pioneer TX-6200 Tuner that's paired with a Hitachi IA-600 Amplifier, and a Motorola SP29 3-channel portable record player that I use to play records with in my office, and then 6 parts record players (all of which are suitcase style units) a 1950s vintage Westinghouse AA5 radio and a 1940s vintage Spartan AA6 radio and a 1963 vintage Motorola TT22CW AM/FM/FM Stereo tabletop radio plus a couple of 1948 vintage AM/FM radios that need recapping and new cords, and a working 1952 Zenith AM/FM Clock Radio.
Anyways most of the radios I have can't properly display because I don't have any shelves to display them on and I have plenty of room in my basement to put a nice tall shelf where I could nicely display my antique radios but I keep getting told that I shouldn't get anything like that and that I don't need to have a display of antique radios because they keep telling me that I need to mainly focus on repairing radios and then selling them and that's it, not collecting them.
But that's the problem I really like radios and I would like to have some sort of collection on display to let people know that I'm interested in antique radios, and also it would also be nice to also be able to have a functioning display of antique radios to show people what I'm capable of doing as far as repairing radios go (because most of the radios I have are radios that I had restored myself).
Is that too much to ask? Or are they right? I personally think they're being too controlling and overreacting and also they're making it seem like its a bad thing for me to collect the stuff I'm interested in.
And yes I would get rid of stuff which would include radios or record players that I couldn't fix up because there was issues which would cost more than they would be worth to fix, but stuff I've gotten going and that I could use as display pieces I should be able to keep and display on a shelf if I want, and then if there's a piece that I don't think I would want because its not all that interesting to me I could sell it. But I don't think they should expect me to sell everything I own and not have a collection of some sort.
What do you guys think?

TUD1
02-01-2017, 07:28 PM
It's your life! Not theirs! If you like antique radios and TV's, but all you get is negativity, don't hit the brakes! Hit the gas! Literally every single day, I get some form of negativity about my collecting passion. But it only makes me want to collect more. It's your life, you get in the driver seat. That's my pep talk for the day. Hope it works out for you.

Electronic M
02-01-2017, 08:33 PM
A display is perfectly natural. Get all your best restos on a shelf and say 'check it out, I collected all these cool sets got them working and made a little museum'.

A hobby is a hobby not a business. They have no right to force you (and are foolish to compel you) to sell your good stuff when you've just got it working. Now granted it is important to have limits...I've got 2 whole bedrooms, and ~70% of a large basement for my collection presently, but had less in past houses/apts...Whenever my keeper radio/TV sets start to fill those set limits and I know soon I'll not be able to fit more I tend to rank based on how much I like stuff, and then sell off the bottom 10-30%...In that way I keep the best stuff and after every round of unloading/refilling/reappraising the general quality/value of my collection as a whole improves. I want to have a BIG collection I can show off to most people, not a chaotic hoard that I can't show anyone....Granted I had to buy a couple of large lots of TVs before the slow selling winter season so I'm closer to hoard than I want to be...Once I can get to a decent swap meet I plan to drop a couple of SUV loads to fix that.

When tight on money it is not bad to buy some sets to flip to make the hobby sustain (or try to sustain) it's self, but once you have dough and can buy dream sets/as many as you want flipping or taking repair commissions holds less appeal since it may eat time for your own sets that you want to fix.

I've got over 150 vintage radios well over 50 TVs made from 1946-76 countless LPs, a classic car (it will be plural in the next year or two as I save up), audio gear, test equip, rare recording formats, and numerous small 'side collections', many shelves, and no one gives me ANY crap as long as I respect my spatial limits....Not that I'll let anyone give me crap if I'm within my limits.
You can make a collection into a REAL COOL THING to brag over if you collect cool stuff, make it work and look good, keep it clean and ORGANIZE/DISPLAY it well.

You need to be as stubborn as a mule and as fierce as a badger to deal with closed minded busybodies that have dopey ideas in their heads about collecting.

BTW: If you can unmount a CRT from a TV, spray paint, mask off places you don't want to paint, and buy a ~$15 can of SlipPlate online, then you can re-coat new aquadag onto a CRT....It is super easy. I finally bought a can a few months back and have done ~6 CRTs so far...Every CRT came out well with little effort. IIRC Banderson and others here have made threads with pictures showing how to do it (it ain't rocket surgery :D ).

Captainclock
02-01-2017, 09:18 PM
A display is perfectly natural. Get all your best restos on a shelf and say 'check it out, I collected all these cool sets got them working and made a little museum'.

A hobby is a hobby not a business. They have no right to force you (and are foolish to compel you) to sell your good stuff when you've just got it working. Now granted it is important to have limits...I've got 2 whole bedrooms, and ~70% of a large basement for my collection presently, but had less in past houses/apts...Whenever my keeper radio/TV sets start to fill those set limits and I know soon I'll not be able to fit more I tend to rank based on how much I like stuff, and then sell off the bottom 10-30%...In that way I keep the best stuff and after every round of unloading/refilling/reappraising the general quality/value of my collection as a whole improves. I want to have a BIG collection I can show off to most people, not a chaotic hoard that I can't show anyone....Granted I had to buy a couple of large lots of TVs before the slow selling winter season so I'm closer to hoard than I want to be...Once I can get to a decent swap meet I plan to drop a couple of SUV loads to fix that.

When tight on money it is not bad to buy some sets to flip to make the hobby sustain (or try to sustain) it's self, but once you have dough and can buy dream sets/as many as you want flipping or taking repair commissions holds less appeal since it may eat time for your own sets that you want to fix.

I've got over 150 vintage radios well over 50 TVs made from 1946-76 countless LPs, a classic car (it will be plural in the next year or two as I save up), audio gear, test equip, rare recording formats, and numerous small 'side collections', many shelves, and no one gives me ANY crap as long as I respect my spatial limits....Not that I'll let anyone give me crap if I'm within my limits.
You can make a collection into a REAL COOL THING to brag over if you collect cool stuff, make it work and look good, keep it clean and ORGANIZE/DISPLAY it well.

You need to be as stubborn as a mule and as fierce as a badger to deal with closed minded busybodies that have dopey ideas in their heads about collecting.

BTW: If you can unmount a CRT from a TV, spray paint, mask off places you don't want to paint, and buy a ~$15 can of SlipPlate online, then you can re-coat new aquadag onto a CRT....It is super easy. I finally bought a can a few months back and have done ~6 CRTs so far...Every CRT came out well with little effort. IIRC Banderson and others here have made threads with pictures showing how to do it (it ain't rocket surgery :D ).

What you described that you do with your radios and TVs is exactly what i want to do but keep getting met with opposition, I want to keep my best restorations and display them and then the ones that I'm not as interested in or that I'm stuck on as far as getting it going goes I would like to sell to another collector or take to a swap meet and drop it off, the only problem is that there aren't any antique or vintage audio swap meets near where I live in Elkhart, Indiana. I think the closest swap meet to me (if you can call 100 miles close) is in Chicago, but I'm not familiar with driving around Chicago, and nor do I have the desire to drive to and around Chicago. Anyways I wish you guys on here lived closer because I would just of given you guys a chance to buy up some of my gear that I didn't want anymore instead of it ending up in the e-waste center or in the landfill, because to be quite honest those are my only options at this point for taking old radios and TVs that I either can't sell or can't fix or don't have any desire to keep, because like I said the vintage electronics market near where I live is a little scarce unless you count the antique malls near me but even those places can't even sell antique radios and TVs for what their full retail value is worth because of the way the market is around here.
My other option is to try and sell on fleabay but I really don't want to sell there because I really want to have interested parties to pick up the items in person so I don't have to ship the items because I don't want to risk the radios and or TVs getting busted during shipping due to improper handling by the postal workers and also I don't want to have to pay $50 to ship the items seeing as I'm kind of limited on funds right now and don't have enough money to pay $50 each time to ship a radio or tv to gosh who knows where in America.

Adam
02-01-2017, 11:09 PM
A shelf of radios can look good. Here's a pic of mine. Some of those radios I've had for over 10 years, some for only a few months. And I have a few others in the basement, including a 51 Zenith I'm going to put in that empty spot after I fix it. I also have 3 console radios: a 61 Zenith I keep in this room with most of my collection, a 66 Zenith in the front room, and a 63 Motorola I'm working on now in the basement. Once I get the 63 Moto going, I'll put that one in the front room, and use the 66 Zenith in the basement.

I currently have 26 radios, 37 TVs. But the numbers sort of go up and down, at most I tend to have around 50 of each, at least around 20 of each. Sometimes I think that there's a perfect set of TVs and radios that if I found them and fixed them I wouldn't want anything else. But it never seems to work that way: there always seems to be something I don't have that I want and some stuff I do have that I want to sell.

jr_tech
02-01-2017, 11:46 PM
I wish you guys on here lived closer because I would just of given you guys a chance to buy up some of my gear that I didn't want anymore instead of it ending up in the e-waste center or in the landfill, because to be quite honest those are my only options at this point for taking old radios and TVs that I either can't sell or can't fix or don't have any desire to keep


Out of curiosity, what was the final outcome on that cute little KLH 21 that you were working on a while back?

jr

TUD1
02-02-2017, 07:40 AM
Here are my really nice pieces. My lesser TVs I keep at my other house.

Captainclock
02-02-2017, 11:21 AM
Out of curiosity, what was the final outcome on that cute little KLH 21 that you were working on a while back?

jr

I ended up scrapping it out because the screws that were holding the tuner module into place were stripped out and I couldn't get it removed so I could troubleshoot it and get it working properly.

Captainclock
02-02-2017, 11:23 AM
Here are my really nice pieces. My lesser TVs I keep at my other house.

you see if I could do something like that I would be doing OK but like I said I keep getting resistance from my mom and sister and my staff person and behavior specialist about trying to display some of my nicest pieces and then just getting rid of the not so nice pieces that I could care less about.

Jon A.
02-02-2017, 11:34 AM
you see if I could do something like that I would be doing OK but like I said I keep getting resistance from my mom and sister and my staff person and behavior specialist about trying to display some of my nicest pieces and then just getting rid of the not so nice pieces that I could care less about.
Man, most people don't deviate from the book at all. Such people won't exactly leave a legacy.

Not only do I insist on being in the driver's seat of my own life, I insisted on a manual.

Captainclock
02-02-2017, 02:44 PM
Man, most people don't deviate from the book at all. Such people won't exactly leave a legacy.

Not only do I insist on being in the driver's seat of my own life, I insisted on a manual.

That's the thing I did try that once as far as trying to tell my mom that I didn't want her meddling in my affairs when it comes to my collections and what not and she just got all pissy at me and basically told me that I had no right to tell her off like that, and then made me appologize for my behavior... Go figure. :no: :tears: :thumbsdn:

Electronic M
02-02-2017, 03:19 PM
Aren't you about done with college? When you do finish, get a good job, move well away from family, do whatever is necessary to get those idiot government Councillors out of your life and live as freely as you want. If I was in your shoes I'd be carefully appraising my situation legally and financially, and plotting and working towards a scenario where no one can try to tell you what to do. Sometimes harassing and controlling relatives need to be excommunicated...My parents excommunicated their relatives because the grandparents let sibling rivalry build till all the siblings permanently hate/are constantly mean to each other...As a result we moved away, they don't know where we live, they only have an email address to reach us at and we don't see them and hardly communicate with them unless someone dies or gets married.
My best friend has a mother that has some sort of perfectionist/minimalist/neat freak OCD...Her garage is the neatest most organized I've ever seen and she "can't stand how messy it is"....He finally moved out early this winter after having constant war with her for a while....The worst episode she started by without any reason completely reorganizing his basement work area without telling him, while we were hanging out at my place. She tried to throw out a ton of paperwork including schematics for what he was working on, and much of his college notebooks and textbooks!...Coming from the same college I can say that those notes are EXTREMELY valuable reference material for his career work, and tossing them is almost like intentionally lighting money on fire...

Frankly, if it is your money and your home you are using to collect SHE is the one who has NO right to tell you how to do things...And you should stand your ground and not apologize or back down, ever.

Captainclock
02-02-2017, 08:58 PM
Aren't you about done with college? When you do finish, get a good job, move well away from family, do whatever is necessary to get those idiot government Councillors out of your life and live as freely as you want. If I was in your shoes I'd be carefully appraising my situation legally and financially, and plotting and working towards a scenario where no one can try to tell you what to do. Sometimes harassing and controlling relatives need to be excommunicated...My parents excommunicated their relatives because the grandparents let sibling rivalry build till all the siblings permanently hate/are constantly mean to each other...As a result we moved away, they don't know where we live, they only have an email address to reach us at and we don't see them and hardly communicate with them unless someone dies or gets married.
My best friend has a mother that has some sort of perfectionist/minimalist/neat freak OCD...Her garage is the neatest most organized I've ever seen and she "can't stand how messy it is"....He finally moved out early this winter after having constant war with her for a while....The worst episode she started by without any reason completely reorganizing his basement work area without telling him, while we were hanging out at my place. She tried to throw out a ton of paperwork including schematics for what he was working on, and much of his college notebooks and textbooks!...Coming from the same college I can say that those notes are EXTREMELY valuable reference material for his career work, and tossing them is almost like intentionally lighting money on fire...

Frankly, if it is your money and your home you are using to collect SHE is the one who has NO right to tell you how to do things...And you should stand your ground and not apologize or back down, ever.

Well that's the thing I do have a job working as a custodian for Goodwill (which is how I find some of my cool stuff I do because I can see it as it comes in) and because of my disabilities I have a caseworker from the state, I receive disability and other such services, and I do live out on my own, but where I live is in a house that I share with a housemate that I pay rent and utilities for, and we pretty much have the house split evenly between us as far as the living spaces go, and then we share the kitchen, but anyways the crappy part was that the state of Indiana required me to have what's called a representative payee for my disability payments as a condition for me to be able to move out on my own (which I think is bulldukey) so because of that my mom is actually in charge of my money I get through disability, I have no control over it whatsoever, the only money I have control over is my money I earn from my job, and even then that's not really enough to do much with, because my job is only part time 25 hours a week, @ $8 an hour six days a week and I get paid every week, that's not a whole lot do stuff with. Anyways, the whole system kind of has me locked into its grip not just my mom and sister and staff people, but also the stupid social services (the state) even though I'm just about finished with my IT degree with my disabilities and the way disability payments are handled I don't think I'll even be able to use my degree to get a job in the IT field like I want because all IT related jobs make $100k+ a year and with the way disability payments are you can't make over a certain amount of money or you'll lose your benefits, which not only would I loose my disability payments but I'd also loose my Medicaid which is what pays for my medications which If I don't have that I would have to pay for my medications completely out of pocket which would be well over $1k every month. So yeah its not as easy for me as you might think to try and "live off the grid" so to speak as much as I would like to. And as much as it sounds like I'm making up excuses, they are not excuses, it's legitimately the situation I'm in currently, and I quite literally can't do anything about it right now as much as I want to. In the neighborhood I'm living in right now there are actually 3 houses for sale and all three houses are quite litterally just the right size for me to live in on my own and to hold my collections properly and to be able to have a nice workbench set up as well, and in fact the houses are probably more than likely in my price range payment wise if I were to get a mortgage but if I would try to talk my parents into buying me my own house they would probably think I'm crazy, even though the house I'm living in now was bought for my housemate by his parents (my landlords) so that he could live on his own).

Electronic M
02-02-2017, 09:17 PM
Are you getting your drugs from Canada? If not you/the government might be paying 20X what it actually costs to make them profitably. Mom was on ~$400 a month stomach acid reducing prescription med, and insurance stopped covering it...When she switched to buying it from Canada mail order it was like ~15$ for the same stuff. The domestic pharmaceutical corps are blatantly financially raping the American public...(literally they spend several times their research budget advertising "ED" treatments on TV.)

Look into buying Canadian. If you can get that payment down, get that 100k$ job and get off the government dole/out of their and your parent's control it will be liberating beyond your wildest dreams.

Captainclock
02-03-2017, 10:31 AM
Are you getting your drugs from Canada? If not you/the government might be paying 20X what it actually costs to make them profitably. Mom was on ~$400 a month stomach acid reducing prescription med, and insurance stopped covering it...When she switched to buying it from Canada mail order it was like ~15$ for the same stuff. The domestic pharmaceutical corps are blatantly financially raping the American public...(literally they spend several times their research budget advertising "ED" treatments on TV.)

Look into buying Canadian. If you can get that payment down, get that 100k$ job and get off the government dole/out of their and your parent's control it will be liberating beyond your wildest dreams.

I would but I don't think my medications are available that way, three of my medications are available as generics but the fourth one is still not available as a generic yet so I would still have to at least get that one here yet.

Electronic M
02-03-2017, 11:16 AM
I would but I don't think my medications are available that way, three of my medications are available as generics but the fourth one is still not available as a generic yet so I would still have to at least get that one here yet.

If it is available to the Canadians then it will almost certainly be cheaper to source it from them. No harm in researching it.

If something is bad enough to waste a lot of energy being frustrated, then it should be bad enough to channel some of that energy into seeking/making a solution.:yes: