Maybe you guys will like my little story:

As happens once in a blue moon, my wife had to work on a Saturday which, as my grandfather would say, left me keeping bachelor's hall. Now, I could just hang around the house, cleaning or tinkering or whatever. But there is in me an incredible urge sometimes to go out in search of old TV sets. I need more like a hole in the head...

All week I planned it out. I found 2 estate sales advertised, plus I had been itching to check out this new place. Saturday morning I was off like a bullet. First stop was a sale a few towns away. Nothing exciting on display so I asked. Yes, there was a TV upstairs! Darn, just an 80s Daytron. On to the next stop.

There has been heavy promotion lately in the paper and on the radio for a new facility opened by the Delaware Solid Waste Authority-a recylcing center which sells things that were on the way to becoming landfill but were deemed to good to bulldoze. It opened this summer but since it is at the north-end of Delaware and I am at the south, well, that is a 2 hour drive. But they couldn't hold me back today. I had visions all week: there would be a whole corner of the building stacked high with console color tv sets; lots of Colortraks and bad crt Zeniths, but mixed in would be a $ervice $aver or 2, and even some roundies! Even a Zenith porthole, hidden in the back! All for $5-10 each. I would load my pickup as full as it would go and then tell you guys that you need to get up there pronto and rescue the dozen sets I couldn't save!

Well, I tried not to pay too much attention to my dreams. Good thing. There were a half dozen TV sets on the shelf, the oldest being an early 80s GE 19". Drats. The prices were good; I did buy a big pile of old clothe covered wire for a buck. The manager was very friendly and glad I came but alas, nothing hiding in the back I might be interested in. On to my next stop...

After being stuck in a traffic jam I found the directions to the second estate sale of the day were pretty poor. Finally, after going in circles a few times, I held the map upside down and found the place. Now, I am always jealous of drh who gets all those great estate sale bargains. Around home we just don't have them, maybe one a month and they are like the one I went to earlier in the day. But this one was much more promising. It wasn't just the kids putting on the sale, it was a real, established company that knew what they were doing. Could this be the day I get my first real estate sale find? I head to the family room-the TV is still there, marked down half price from $45-but it is just a mid-80s Panasonic console. (nice set, real nice for the money, but not for me) Okay, there is the garage-that must be where the DuMont is...no; how about the basement? Yes, a TV...but just an 80s Toshiba Black Stripe...wait...there is an upstairs...spare bedrooms-ah, thats where drh always finds the remote CTC-31 with about 4 hours use since '68! No, nothing. Shoot.

Back on the road...I had written down the address of a couple old-sounding TV shops in that neighborhood but I couldn't find them. I settled for stops at a Goodwill (oldest set, early 80s Panasonic) and another big thrift ($99 for scruffy black-box 25" table models; they did have a bulky "old style" Zenith 25" table model from the 80s but I wasn't that desperate to bring something home.)

By now it was too late to check anything else out so I headed home. 2 hours later I pull into the driveway, my loving wife already home and waiting for me. She tells me there is a message for me on the machine. About the time that I was busy extracting myself from downtown Wilmington a friend of mine was calling to tell me that he just found an RCA 9T240-am I interested?

The bad thing is this exact thing happened before: I spent the day hitting the thrifts & used furniture stores & came home empty handed. In the mean time I had missed the phone call asking if I wanted to come pick up yet another 10BP4 set.

The question is, the next time I get handed a "free" Saturday, will I have the willpower to stay home and wait for the TV to find me? Don't count on it!

oooooh. that sucks. :thumbsdn: normally you at least find something good at GW. Try going to estate sale at really old houses, where the people who lived there were really old too. Youll probably find something worth value there. :yes:

I have found you really have to look constantly for old TV's as they are getting rarer and rarer...the recycling center seems like a good prospect but probably will need to check it frequently to find the TV's which may be difficult.
You might ask at the recyling center and see if they ever get tube type sets to make sure they aren't discarding them out of hand thinking no one would buy them. Also make sure you know which thrift stores will sell things like old TV's which many people consider "junk", and check them often, too.
I happened to find a 1968 Sylvania color console at a "Texas-Sized Garage Sale" a couple of weeks ago which was a very unusual find. I check thrift stores several times a week but the only other old TV I have found in 3 months or so is an early 70's GE solid state 17" color set.

This thread reminds me of the day about 4 years ago I walked into the Salvation Army Thrift Store and found two color roundie sets for $20 each. There was a Dumont dark and I think a Silvertone blonde. These sets were straight out of some old (probably dead) rich folks house I would say because they were the HUGE TV/record player/AMFM stereo jobs, and in pristine condition. It made me sick because I could not lug these sets home. Not even one. Just too bigand SUPER heavy. The Dumont would have been the set of choice. It just had plug me in and watch me play written all over it. I never did plug either in, but I did save them from the landfill by calling a well to do collector with (naturally) more space who came (quickly) for these two sets. After that all I have found is a 1958 Zenith Space Command that gave me fits. Never got that one working after an almost complete recap. Seems like old set finds are thinning out.