I see that a 7JP4 just sold for for $240 online (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180328995966). I wonder if the winning bidder was serious about actually paying for it?

I haven't paid that much for any of my 7" sets, including some that were working and in pretty nice shape. And this was just the tube! Parts sets, including a tube in unknown condition show up every once in a while and usually nobody is interested in them. It never ceases to amaze me how parts sets usually go wanting while parts sometimes command sky high prices.

I've passed up parts chassis containing a 7-inch CRT for a few dollars on several occasions at our club swapmeets although I've always kicked myself afterwards. And I was recently the only bidder on a 10" set at a club auction. As I was dragging it out, getting covered with dust and flaking varnish I kicked myself for buying it! I got it for a buck (which is actually a buck more than I've paid for some in the past.) Yet the 10BP4 is good and the same set with everything except the CRT removed might have brought a hundred dollars. Go figure!

I can rarely bring myself to part out a set that might even be remotely considered to be restorable. But I sure do wish I had invested in a few more of those 7" chassis...

--Dave

It's a problem that I worry about. I sometimes think we aren't paying enough for complete sets, radios too.

I bought a working Majestic 71 radio that's in good condition for $100. There was an auction on Ebay for parts from a Majestic 71. The speaker, chassis and power-supply were available separately. I was going to bid on the power-supply just to get some parts from it to make mine more authentic.

All the parts went for over $100 each. Someone would have paid about $400 for enough parts to complete the radio and still wouldn't have the cabinet.

That's a lot of motivation to part out radios and TVs. Someone just selling grandma's old TV to get it out of the way would probably keep it intact to keep it simple, but an individual who resells estate items for a living would want to maximize their profits.

John

I can rarely bring myself to part out a set that might even be remotely considered to be restorable.
If you dabble in boatanchor radios, I have done from time to time, you'll see things that make you sick. Somebody will tear up an easily restorable Hallicrafters SX-28, put the knobs in one auction, the front panel in another, the cabinet in another, the dial scales in another, and keep stripping until they can't get any more bids, then throw the remainders in the landfill :(

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

I've gotten (to my intense surprise) over $250 for a 7" tube on eBay. The whole key is that a reputable collector (the seller of this one) has stated that the tube is good, and was actually tested in a TV and not on a checker. If I were a new collector, and had just re-capped a set, I'd rather pay $200 or more for a KNOWN good tube, than to buy up a load of them around the internet and hope one might be OK.

Charles

It always hurts me to see anything parted out, but I've had to do it myself...not with "small-screen" sets, though. Strange to hear folks bellyaching about not being able to find a crt, yet they pass up complete sets that end up in the dumpster.

7-12" sets are still coming out of the woodwork and can still be had for pocket change. Right place, right time.

John, the Majestic hits home with me. I had what was once a very nice Majestic highboy; the radio was all there, the cabinet wasn't too bad but the legs were badly beaten. Try as I might I couldn't give that radio away. I finally sent the cabinet to the landfill and put the rest in a box up in the attic. Yes, it hurt to do that, but I will never come up with the space or the time to have that set fixed and properly displayed. Someday I will find a needy home for the rest and someone elses set will live on. That era of radio too often is unloved. I have a halfway decent Victor that I paid maybe $20 for. I'm told the amp chassis is worth many times that. I watched a couple guys fight over an identical set (in better shape than mine, actually) just for the amp. One of the bidders was a friend of mine, who would have given me the rest just to get it out of the way; but the other guy came out on top so I guess it went to meet its maker.