bakelite admiral craigslist find

[annuvin]

seller wants $40 and i'm itching for my next project, should I pull the trigger on this admiral? I'm told it's the largest bakelite tv ever made.

[Electronic M]

There were larger screen versions that were bigger, but they are also less common.

If the case ain't cracked you can't go wrong @ 40$ IMHO.

[Sandy G]

Yeah, if the Bakelite's good, that's a pretty good price... Only other concern would be if the CRT's OK..IIRC, those Bad Boys have 2 Chassis, too..

[oldtvsandtoy]

Yes Buy it. Bad tube or not well worth the price. Bring it to me and I would give you 2x the price.

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Yeah, if the Bakelite's good, that's a pretty good price... Only other concern would be if the CRT's OK..IIRC, those Bad Boys have 2 Chassis, too..

[bandersen]

I'd definitely check it out. If the cabinet is damage and CRT OK, it's a good deal. However, I'm a little wary because all the knobs and channel plate are missing and coudl be hard to replace. Also the grille cloth looks torn at the bottom. Good luck!

Here's what the knobs look like.

[annuvin]

looks like it could be a money pit to restore, I bet i'd never find a complete set of knobs.

[bandersen]

I wouldn't go that far. I could certainly help you out with some of the knobs

[Kevin Kuehn]

Heck if the Bakelite is not cracked up the cabinet should be worth the $40.

[Bill Cahill]

I'd definately buy it. Knobs are a little hard to get, but, not terribly.
I even had to get the channels escutcheon, but, managed to find one for mine...................

[bars&tone]

Originally Posted by Kevin Kuehn

Heck if the Bakelite is not cracked up the cabinet should be worth the $40.

I was getting ready to say the same thing.

[kramden66]

get it , regardless worth it

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by annuvin

looks like it could be a money pit to restore, I bet i'd never find a complete set of knobs.

On a set like that the CRT and cabinet alone are probably worth around 200$, start adding stuff like tubes to that and that set starts to have a good amount of value as is. I've seen that model in restored shape for sale for well north of 400$ so even if you toss 50$ of knobs in it and a c-note for a CRT you are still not too deep in it.

If that set were offered to me at that price and if the bakelite looked solid I'd buy it regardless of the condition of the rest.

[tvtimeisfun]

Buy that tv do not pass this set up.....Timothy

[Tubejunke]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

On a set like that the CRT and cabinet alone are probably worth around 200$, start adding stuff like tubes to that and that set starts to have a good amount of value as is.

On both the buying and the selling end I wish that we could consider the worth of the tubes. If you are letting go of a set with a good set of tubes and you have new capacitors or whatnot in it, most sets would command more than they typically do. I know that sets like this Admiral fall more into the true "collectable" category so I'm just generalizing. So generally you might get $50 for some average 50s set for instance. It really doesn't cover the tubes, much less the C.R.T.

Recently, due to space and a woman I have had to dump sets at local thrift stores and as much as I hate to do it I remove the tubes. Who wouldn't unless they were completely getting out of vintage electronics? I hate to do it because I feel that it lessens the potential of another person successfully getting the set going, thus increasing dumpster potential, or even worse fish tanking!

Bottom line I guess is we have a hobby, and like restoring automobiles or any other (unless you collect gold and silver) hobby, it's more about the love than the money. Inversely you will get your heart broke.