The story behind all the rare sets

[andy]

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[akent36]

Around 1970 I passed on a 15" Raytheon color set at the Salvation Army because it had a dead red gun. At the time, it was just a big, junky TV that had a blue-green picture.

[old_tv_nut]

Don't know, but I think in many cases sets were saved from the landfill just because the original owners spent a lot of money on them and couldn't bear to admit they were worthless in the current market. I know people in my parents' generation, after having an expensive console for years, would sometimes leave it in place and use it as a base for a later table model. Seemed really hokey to me, but now I'm glad some did that.

[DaveWM]

Ditto the generation that bought these was not of the throw it away mentality, thank goodness...

[bozey45]

In about 1989 I got my CTC-5 from a TV shop in tampa from an ad I ran in the paper for early color sets. I did a partial restoration on the set back then and was unable to continue for various reasons so it's still sitting in the garage in its 1989-90 condition. Being employed at BIG13 in Tampa an engineer there knew of my interest in this type of stuff so he gave me a CTC-11 he had at his house that was the former lobby set at Big13. I replaced the 21FJP22 right away because of a cataract and tried to turn on the set for a short time now and then, a beautiful color picture, so it only has probably 2 hours or so on the tube even now because shortly before moving to my current house in 2004 I turned on the set to a nice loss of vertical output. Have had no time to get to that set since then so it's keeping the CTC5 company in the garage. The same engineer gave me a plethera of old repair manuals from the early to mid 1950's that he had in his TV shop up north and I still have all that stuff also. One of these days I'll get to the 5 and 11 and at least get the 11 going.

[Dave A]

Hey akent, you will remember the name Bill Fisher TV & Appliance in Rockford, IL, my hometown. In the 70's I worked at Ch. 23 as a director doing Bill's commercials. Bill knew I liked old stuff and called me one day to take away an old set he took in on trade. Remember that concept? I borrowed the company station wagon and hauled away my first CT-100 for free. It still worked and pulled in Madison with rabbit ears. But did I have a clue as to what I really had? NO. Just a neat, 20 year old color tv. Eventually the vert output xfmr went and so did the set in a trade to RCA who wanted it for Indianapolis. I got a CC002 VHS color camera. I still have it.

I'll be home after Christmas. PM me and I will buy you a beer and we can swap stories. More stories to follow so I do not hog this fun thread.

Dave A

[peverett]

I have not found any rare TV sets, but have found rare radios. A classic example is how I found my Regency TR1. I cleaned out a TV shop where not only had the owner(who had died) saved just about every thing that had been left at his shop for 40+years, he had also gotten items from other TV repairmen in his city. The TR1 was lying on the floor among the other junk. Luckily, it had not been stepped on and was in great shape-including the leather cover.

I did get some early RCA color sets also-CTC5s and a CTC 9. Other collectors have the CTC5s, but I still have the CTC9(+ a spare chassis).

[ChrisW6ATV]

Here is my "the ones that got away" story:

In 1979-80, I worked at Gemco Electronics in Chicago, until they went out of business. It was at the time a kind of hybrid store with discount household goods, new Sony and Panasonic equipment, and new and surplus electronic parts and supplies. It had started as General Materials Co. after World War II on south Michigan Avenue, Chicago's equivalent of New York's Radio Row (Cortlandt Street).

About this time, I started collecting old TV sets, and I decided only pre-1950 sets were old enough to be interesting and collectible. So, I got a Motorola VT-71, an Admiral 30A15, and a few others, even an RCA 630TS that was in the back of Gemco itself. What I did NOT get, even after I looked at one of their included manuals, were any of the GE 4TM-15 color monitors, new in their original wooden crates:

http://www.earlytelevision.org/ge_4tm15.html

Remember, I had decided to only collect pre-1950 sets, and these were "too new" and were color, therefore also "newer" than my idea of what early TV was. The one monitor on the sales area just sat there with a $75 price tag for the several months I worked there, until shortly before the store closed down and we were packing stuff up and closing out most of the surplus parts. Then, one day two or three guys came in and did a bunch of talking together and to my boss while I was busy doing other work, and they apparently paid for all of these monitors, how much I do not know, but they only wanted the CRTs. So, my boss had me help them open the three or four other crated monitors, and they removed the CRTs and left the cabinets and boxes for us to discard. It could have been Dan Gustafson maybe; he was a big collector in Chicago around that time, I later learned.

[andy]

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[RobtWB]

back in my early teens my dad and uncle would go to a recycle junkyard that dealt with everything imaginable. the junkyard had everything from massive amounts of 50's/60' militarty surplus electronics to used auto batteries.

this was long before i started collecting tv's.

i remember stacks of safety glass from disassembled console sets. old console sets. pre and post war b/w sets. all sitting out in the elements rotting away.

oh to go back in time

[jeyurkon]

Originally Posted by RobtWB

back in my early teens my dad and uncle would go to a recycle junkyard that dealt with everything imaginable. the junkyard had everything from massive amounts of 50's/60' militarty surplus electronics to used auto batteries.

this was long before i started collecting tv's.

i remember stacks of safety glass from disassembled console sets. old console sets. pre and post war b/w sets. all sitting out in the elements rotting away.

oh to go back in time

There might still be a few places left where you can go back in time. I picked up an old Philco antenna rotor control on eBay. I wanted a rotor to go with it. The place I called to get one said "you want what!" "Well, I've got a bunch out in the snow rusting. I'll pick out one of the better ones for you." He did and charged me almost nothing, except for the shipping. It was in great condition and only needed cleaning and re-lubing.

John

[jr_tech]

In the early 70s many poor starving young engineers got by watching tired old ctc-4s and 5s (and a few old Westinghouse sets as well).

The tuners on the 4s needed much attention. One lunch hour, my manager took an extended break to pick up a couple of tuners that a local re-builder had just finished, while I covered for him. About 12:30 I got a call "Hey jr, I am down at the tuner shop and he has one of those big OLD RCAs with the little screen that you are looking for...he wants 50 bucks for it".

We settled on 35$ and my manager loaded it up and delivered it to my house... Can't get management like that today!!

The 4s and 5s (and 21" round screen Westinghouse sets)*... those mostly just got junked when it was not economical to keep them up... there were plenty more out there for cheap viewing.

*One ex-Westinghouse engineer hung on to a 22" Westinghouse rectangular screen set until the early 80s, when he moved, and gave it to me.

jr

[bgadow]

At the one ETF convention I attended I listened attentively to one fellow tell his stories about some REAL finds. (prewar stuff) I don't know who he was (I don't think he is on here?) but he put loads of time and effort into the hunt and didn't give up easily. Sounded like he was mostly "hunting" in the NY/CT area where many retired RCA et al engineers lived.

I also recall a great little article that Harry Poster wrote in the late 80s about a big haul he made. As an empty pocketed teenager at the time I was enthralled!

Main thing, I think, is to keep looking, keep asking. My 15GP22 set might still be out there, who knows?

[kx250rider]

The 22" Westinghouse that Steve K has the restoration thread on, was found by me out back of a TV repair shop in Chatsworth, CA in the mid-80s. One of my CT-100s was from an old printing shop; owner heard I liked old TVs, and he had this extra-heavy one to get rid of. I also found a CBS-Columbia 360 color set with the 19VP22, in a drainage ditch, but in mint condition! That was a close call, because I went home to get my truck, and when I got back, someone was loading it in a van! I had to buy it off him. He wanted the mahogany to make a dollhouse. I've found a variety of late 50s & newer roundies in alleys and at garage sales; a Raytheon C-21C1B, a few CTC-5s, etc. None in the past 10 years, however.

Charles

[Steve D.]

Starting back in the early '60's I used to haunt the used TV stores in the L.A. and Burbank area. They used to stack em high. Mostly, at that time, late 40's 7" & 10" for $5.00 apiece. Also found several CT-100's usually stashed in a back corner. No body wanted them. I picked up and got rid of several of these over the years. A CTC-4, used as a monitor, from my days at KTLA-TV. Also a Moto 19" color and several CTC-5's along the way. And passed on a working 22" Westinghouse at a TV repair shop in Westwood, Ca. I was young and dumb. Still have a CT-100 from a former RCA Service Co. employee. And my CTC-5 from a private party. Lot of sets came and went over the years.

-Steve D.