Don't see these too often, but the seller appears to have a 1950's EAMES fetish. This set was made in the late 1970's yet the seller has to throw in EVERY 1950's reference they could think of. I've run across other auctions from this seller and no matter what they have it's ALWAYS listed as "1950's moderne" I have the urge to e-mail and "correct" the seller as they annoy me. Anyway..... here's the set. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6165413514&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

At least it's a black and white set. Otherwise, it would probably be advertised as having Lollipop color!

I already contacted the seller and corrected them. "I admit that we are just a bunch of young architects and interior designers and we do not know anything about vintage TV sets. We did a little research on this TV but are not able to find anything about it.
there are no stickers on the back or any sort of marking and we decided to put mid- century on the listing based on our observation on the shape and the material used on the TV. we are only going by the looks and of course we are not certain... "

I can only wonder about their powers of observation with that statement. The friggin thing is made out of plastic and has the typical sloped sides of most any home product in the 70's. Plus, when was the last time you saw all electronic push button tuning? Sheesh. They seller is nice enough but hasn't a clue.

Of course I did warn them against hard starting a long dormant set in general.

Anthony (I have a car for sale, I think it's from the 20's cuz it has 4 wheels but I can't get it to start because the fuel injection is missing some parts)

You would think interior designers would know what styles were used in different eras, that is part of their battery of knowledge or should be. I am certainly not a designer or archictect but can have been able to get very close on naming dates on buildings, cars, TV's, etc. based on styling cues. There are NO 50's styling details at all on this Zenith.

Yep yep, I think it was partially a buzz phrase that they wanted to use to generate interest. How many Art Deco sets have you seen listed on eBay? That would mean that set would have to be from the 20's to earlyish 30's. Not too many of that era sets in existence!

Anthony

"over 350 dollars plus at Urban Outfitters if you can even find it" :dunno:

Mine was $10.00 at the local trailer park's annual garage sale!

WTF is "Eames Era" anyhoo? Seems like 75% of the dreck sold on Escam-the electronic stuff anyway-has "Eames" referenced on it.-Sandy G.

I think Charles? Eames was an industrial designer who designed things such as the multiple chairs used in airports and other furniture. It seems like when they talk about Eames era on ebay they mean 50's...am not sure when Eames-designed products were really introduced though.

well guys, it is NOT an early '70s tv ,due to the fact it appears to have
"electronic tuning" ie. keypad rather than a dual "click" tuner (seperate
mechanical uhf/vhf tuners) more typical of that time period.
based upon picture, am inclined to place mfg date around 1981 +/- 2yrs.
also betting a color tv w/malfunctioning chroma circuitry... hard to say (possitively ) w/o model #.

if the mfg tag is intact on set rear, the mfg date and model /ser # should
be visible unless faded over time.

worked many years as a zenith authorized service center (asc)

as with ANY purchase- let the buyer beware !!

73 de hamop

Yep, I think I already pinned the years down in a previous post. It can't be much older than the very early 80's as that must be around the time they stopped making B&W sets.

Speaking of Zenith service centers, there was a very large on here in San Fran up to the mid 80's or so and I used to get parts there. Really crabby lady usually behind the parts counter. After they moved out the sign remained on the building for quite a while.....wish I had least gotten a pic of that.

Anthony

It's a B&W set for sure. I now remember when they came out and it would have been 1981-1982. My Uncle still had his Zenith shop and we sold a few of those but wondered why the hell Zenith would bother with electronic tuning in a B&W set. Even at that time it was hard to give a B&W set away. We always figured Zenith had a ton of parts to dump and on these sets the customer got a little extra.

I think there was still somewhat of a market for a B/W small set in the 80's...it was a real treat when I was a kid in the mid 80's to get a 12" magnavox B/W portable to watch at the kitchen table. Another new color set would have been pretty extravagant for my family back then.

I have one of those TVs. I got it for $10 also. I don't know the exact manufacture date, but probably 1981-1982 model I guess. This TV actually has full DC restoration.

I vaguely remember hearing the recommendation that one should use a B&W TV set to view VHS tapes of old B&W movies back around 1980. Maybe that's what this set was marketed to.

__________________________________
I'm having roast rabbit for Easter dinner....

I wonder if, today, the price of a digital tuner wouldn't be close to or cheaper than an old 'click-stop'? But not in the early 80s. I do remember browsing the showroom in the local Zenith/GE dealer about that time. The bw sets I recall were a 12" ac/dc in 'leather' case that was pretty expensive, and an old-fashioned looking 19" Zenith that, for some reason, I fell in love with. I begged & pleaded for my parents to buy it for me (I think it cost around $125 or so, the owner cut the price quite a bit for me so I think he really wanted to move it) but instead I ended up with a 12" Midland from Western Auto. I already had a tv at that time, by the way-a GE color table set from probably 67. Wish I had it now, of course, but at that time it was just so crappy that even bw would be better!

I have the service manual to one of those Zenith B/W sets with the digital tuner if anyone is curious about anything. I could easily scan some of the schematic.

There are still some full featured B/W TVs made:

http://www.jollyvideotronics.com/black-and-white-tv.html

The only bad thing about these Zeniths is that they do not seem to remember the channel entered...it defaults to 2 everytime you turn it on and you have to tune it in each time you power it up.

Reference those new ones on Andy's link, weird! I wonder what they cost? As cheap as 19" color sets are its hard to believe these could be worth it. If someone had them here they could pull some kind of scam, since they sure look like a typical color model.

As requested, here's a scan of the tuning system schematic. It's probably the only B/W TV in the world to have a 3.58MHz crystal. The manual is dated May 1982.

As requested, here's a scan of the tuning system schematic. It's probably the only B/W TV in the world to have a 3.58MHz crystal. The manual is dated May 1982.

Isn't that crystal the color burst freq? Pretty funny if that's what you were alluding to!

Anthony

The only bad thing about these Zeniths is that they do not seem to remember the channel entered...it defaults to 2 everytime you turn it on and you have to tune it in each time you power it up.


RCA had some color TVs that had that problem as well. But some models had a diode matrix one (one of us, not JQ Public) could rearrange to power up to another channel instead of channel 2.

I have a picture of like part of an advertisement for this TV. It showed that there is also a 19" version of this same TV. How rare is that TV? I've never seen one come up anywhere. That'd be neat to have also.