Only 15 hours left! Someone needs to save this one! The seventeener's are almost gone due to being harvested for parts. The CRT and several other parts work in the Predictas. They are worth more but I think these are really cool.
http://cgi.ebay.com/tv-old-antique-philco-seventeener-gold-retro-vintage_W0QQitemZ230211547387QQihZ013QQcategoryZ88 433QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I've always liked the 17'ers. There was a seventeener II in the brown fake looking leather case about 6 months ago on ebay that only went for about 25 bucks IIRC.

I hope someone can grab it at that price. It would be nice if it could be saved by a local collector instead of it being smashed in shipping.

It went for $105.99 did anyone on AK get it?

I had a Philco "Briefcase 19" portable TV in the '70s (trash find), almost like the Seventeener being discussed except for the slightly larger screen. Mine had a white plastic front, green cabinet, 19-inch CRT, and worked great the short time I had it; in fact, the set became my daily watcher in 1973 when my Silvertone color set went West (video PCB cracked). My Philco wasn't in the best shape, either, when I found it. Worked well enough, but the built-in antennas were missing. This was probably the only portable TV I've ever seen with the rabbit ears built into the set's carrying handle, which turned 90 degrees in both directions. That was such a great idea, IMO, that I'm surprised other manufacturers didn't pick up on it, unless Philco secured an ironclad patent on the design. That is, every portable TV I've ever owned has been equipped with a built-in VHF antenna (in fact, all portables these days have at least a monopole antenna for VHF, a trend that may end next February when TV goes 100-percent digital), but the Seventeener and the Briefcase 19's handle-mounted rabbit ears were very unique designs. My best guess as to why this wasn't used by other manufacturers (if Philco didn't have a patent on it, of course) is that the mechanism used for the rotating handle may have been very expensive to make when the set was new in 1961, a cost that would have been tacked on to the sales price of the set.

Those Philco Seventeeners were neat sets! :thmbsp: I had a couple of them over earlier years. One even still had the squeeze bulb remote control with some rotted out tubing that I replaced. IIRC that series of set was one of the few portables of the time that actually had the standard 3 pix IF stages instead of the ridiculously poor-performing 2 stage setup--such as made famous by Muntz and Hotpoint. :rolleyes:

This Briefcase 19 with stand is still sitting unsold at a local mall.

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=126889&highlight=briefcase

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html