Vintage TV Hoard

[StellarTV]

What a day! Got a line on the estate of a deceased collector coming up for sale locally. Some of you might remember my post on here in remembrance of a Mr. Vann of Sacramento; this was his estate. Visiting his house years ago I remember how he was what one might consider to be a TV hoarder. Narrow walkways through all the TVs in the living room and bedrooms overflowing with them. I had made an attempt to get in touch with the family by leaving a note on the door of the house to no avail.

An ad pops up on Craigslist Thursday "VINTAGE ELECTRONICS SALE!" Wow! I check it out and immediately recognize the contents as that of Mr. Vann's.

If anyone here has ever been to a proper estate sale (and I never have, this was my first time and I had a 'coach' with me) then you know what a stampede it can be when the gates open. I had about 30 tags with my initials ripped off and taped to my left arm ready to go, 4th in line. Doors open, fortunately everybody ran over to the audio equipment! I tagged about 20 electrostatic TV sets, an RCA projection and a Spartan mirror-lid, as well as a couple CRTs. My friend and I loaded up the trailer full of TVs and still have to go back tomorrow to look through a storage unit, which has even more TVs, CRTs, and camera tubes. Should be interesting.

Here's the fun:









Very exciting, and my head's still spinning. Nobody else there was interested in the TVs, though there was another buyer who ended up making out with a nice moderne Zenith Porthole and a petite 10" Admiral bakelite floor model.

Now, what to do with them? I don't know yet, but they didn't need to end up in the recycling truck.

[Kamakiri]

OH......MY.......GOD!!!!!



WOWOWOWOOWOWOWOWOOWOWOWOOWOWOWWOWOWW!!!!!!

[Tom Albrecht]

Outstanding! You were well prepared, and had he right vehicle, to save a lot of beautiful sets! Once you've figured out which ones you don't want to keep, maybe some of us local CHRS members can purchase some from you.

[baursam]

Holy Crap!!!! You hit the motherlode :-) ��with that one.

[Sandy G]

The Hell-O Fuzzy... Talk about "The Motherlode"...

[hi_volt]

WOW! Nice score. If that happened around here, I'd be forced into renting a storage space. Any roundie color sets in the mix?

[DaveWM]

Nice save, good job.

[mstaton]

I see a couple of Philco Safari's. If any are for parts, I'd be very interested

[snelson903]

that would be nice to be in my area. i would probley have to build another outbuilding, im packed as it is now.

[compucat]

I would love to have one of those Admiral wooden electrostatic sets.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by mstaton

I see a couple of Philco Safari's. If any are for parts, I'd be very interested

I could use knobs for my brown one...

[decojoe67]

Sales like that can happen once in a lifetime! Lucky you!!
They really look like prime vintage TV's. I had a situation like that happen before I was serious collector. A garage full of many vintage TV's and radios including an AK breadboard, a mint AK 82 cathedral, and an NOS teal Emerson Vanguard transistor mint it's original opened box - all priced to sell. I was not yet willing to spend much on the hobby and let it all slip through my hands!!

[Sandy G]

Originally Posted by compucat

I would love to have one of those Admiral wooden electrostatic sets.

I've never seen one "In Poison". The Bakelite models must have been cheaper, maybe that's why you rarely see the wooden ones today.

[jr_tech]

In the last picture in the OP; could somebody be so kind as to identify the sloping top set sitting on a VT-71, above and right of two 3" Pilots, at the right side of the picture?
jr

[decojoe67]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

In the last picture in the OP; could somebody be so kind as to identify the sloping top set sitting on a VT-71, above and right of two 3" Pilots, at the right side of the picture?
jr

That one had me guessing too. At first I thought of a 7" Raytheon Belmont, but that's not it. I'm assuming it's some kind of 10" set. I don't know of any other 7" that has that cabinet.
Joe