A cousin of my wife told me at a family reunion a couple months ago that he was doing some work for a nice old lady who had a ton of radios in her basement. She was trying to unload things since her husband and passed on some time back (he was a bit of a hoarder, but a neat one). She couldn't go down in her basement anymore and would probably just let me have whatever I wanted. He sent me a couple picks and it turned out to be a collection of late model plastics. There were a bunch of SS junkers and I left probably over half of them to get donated (I did haul em out of the basement for her). The husband was a big garage saler, apparently.

I basically grabbed anything with tubes. I've dusted them off and have to figure out how to display at least some of them. Here's a few crappy cell phone pics.

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=187777&stc=1&d=1439929567
http://videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=187778&stc=1&d=1439929567

There are a couple of Halli tubers (one is a 120) and a SS Halli (WR-4 or some such) that seemed real heavy so I grabbed it. A lot of garden variety kitchen radios and clock radios but some of them are cool looking. 50s-60s kitsch. :thmbsp: I haven't really collected this era of radios - closest I've come is Bakelites, and none of those here either. But I may have saved them from a sad fate (her kids didn't want them) and there are a few treasures. I insisted she take some money, and it wasn't very much, considering.

Thought you'd get a kick out of this one: it's a Lloyds! :banana:

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=187779&stc=1&d=1439929567

Probably the most valuable is a Zenith Royal 500 pocket transistor with a perfect leather case. Apparently there were multiple models from '55-'65 but this one is just a "500" and says "Tubeless - All Transistor" so I'm thinking it might be the first edition? Gotta do some research.

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=187780&stc=1&d=1439929567

All in all, a great day, and Mrs. Tox even helped unload them and said which ones she liked.

Lordy, it looks like that Royal 500 may be a 1955 original. I'm going to have to open it up and see if it's hand wired.

http://radiojayallen.com/zenith-royal-500-series-transistor-radios-%E2%80%93-the-%E2%80%9Cowl-eye%E2%80%9D-radios/

The Regency TR-1 only came out in 1954 so the Royal 500 was right behind it on the market.

Lordy, it looks like that Royal 500 may be a 1955 original. I'm going to have to open it up and see if it's hand wired.

http://radiojayallen.com/zenith-royal-500-series-transistor-radios-%E2%80%93-the-%E2%80%9Cowl-eye%E2%80%9D-radios/

The Regency TR-1 only came out in 1954 so the Royal 500 was right behind it on the market.

The knobs were different on the real early one, plus it was a hand wired chassis. IIRC, this model was a 1956 model. :scratch2:

I once bought one of two and wired 500s that were at an estate sale for 20$....Then after me and the repair man who taught me how to work on tube radios were unable to fix it I sold it at a meet for the same price......Once I knew what I had I came to wish I'd kept it and bought the other.