Just purchase on ebay. Worth it? afraid I'd never see another.https://www.ebay.com/itm/194257820814?hash=item2d3aab1c8e:g:W3oAAOSwJg5g~yw k

If you can't fix it your self and it's been professionally gone through then that's reasonable, but if you can fix it or it is untouched and happens to work that seems a little steep.

Judging by the vertical linearity issue on the screen this set hasn't been restored at all, it's another one of those Zeniths that "just works" after many years in storage, at least for long enough to take a photo and unload it onto an unsuspecting buyer who doesn't know the difference between "works" and "managed to light up the screen for a few minutes before all the dried-out capacitors started leaking and fried all the most expensive tubes in there".

I feel sorry for whoever paid that much for it.

Well it was me. I noticed the vertical issue and I'm quite capable of repairing that and what ever else this 58 year old Top of the line Space Command Metal table top TV would need to perform close to new. The CRT is bright and sharp and TV has no major faults. Owner told me that all the tubes are original. So should be low hours set. I know it was pricey but where was I going to find a low hours 23" Top of line SC Zenith from '63. (Peak Picture-Tone Control). My understanding is no scratches looks mint and I see no wear around buttons. Even has focus pot and channel projection film looks nice. So will see when it gets here. How many people sink money into those toast Philco Predicta's that can never perform like a Zenith and built inexpensive and hard to work on as well. Really would like that 17" SC-300 portable from '60 but can't find nice one.

A 23" B&W should be fun to watch! There couldnt have been many portables that size made, or maybe Im wrong. Hope the packager does a good job packing it.

Quite a find! Please post some more pictures once you get it.

I feel sorry for whoever paid that much for it.


Everyone has their own definition of value. Yes, different sets have certain average prices in the market based on their relative rarity & desirability, but ultimately if a person wants a particular object and is OK with paying the asking price, then that's that.

I bet a number of non-collectors would say they "feel sorry" for all of us here for spending any money at all on antique TVs. What some would call "vintage treasures" others would consider "old junk."

People should be happy to see prices for vintage TVs increase. That means a healthy market is forming. The tube audio community started paying so much for NOS tubes, transformers, and audio amps that, guess what? Many small businesses were created to meet the demand for new parts, professional restorations, etc.

Much of the new tube audio products and services are in the USA and Europe and have good paying jobs, all thanks to people that gain so much happiness from a tube audio amplifier that they pay good money for quality products and services. Not everyone cares about tube audio enough to pay the high prices. It is a free market and nobody is forcing tou to pay those prices. The 300B vacuum tube, for example, is being manufactured again, in the USA! It costs a few hundred dollars per tube though.

A vintage Zenith TV like that was hand made in the USA by well paid, skilled labor. It is a work of art, and I am happy tk see it sell for good money. Maybe we will eventually see small businesses form to save these TVs from going to the dump and instead get professional restoration. If nobody is willing to good money for electronics, then expect for all of the manufacturing to occur in sweat shops in developing countries… and expect for most vintage TVs to end up in the dump.

I rarely see functioning non-solid state TVs on eBay these days, and I never see them in my area in Craigslist or Facebook. I hope people see that they can sell such TVs for good money on eBay so that they save them from the dump.

Everyone has their own definition of value. Yes, different sets have certain average prices in the market based on their relative rarity & desirability, but ultimately if a person wants a particular object and is OK with paying the asking price, then that's that.

I bet a number of non-collectors would say they "feel sorry" for all of us here for spending any money at all on antique TVs. What some would call "vintage treasures" others would consider "old junk."

My comment was specifically in the context of the set being sold as working to someone who doesn't know better.

OK, Thanks for clearing that up and I do understand your point. I agree people that know nothing about vintage electronics should not be buying any very old TV's. Most people on this sight have experience and knowledge in this area. Maybe I took the comment as crude cause I knew what I was buying and capable of handle repairs. To me this looks like the finest and best built large table B/W I will ever get a hold of. And if the sweep tube is original I got myself a deal. I will post pictures or even make a youtube "Doug" style video at some point. It was nice to hear from all the members concerning this ebay purchase.

I try to discourage noobs from certain sets as Alan does, but only to get them to avoid sets that do not reinforce confidence and may turn them away from this past-time/obsession.

The best and most worthy models to start with may be 60's Zeniths and other bullet-proof sets like this one but if you're looking at a post-war or 50s TV, GE wins on the simple scale with Motorola and Philco a close second. If I left out any of the other makes here, I apologize. The 50s was when BW tv was nearly all figured out and sets just got smaller and cheaper in the 60s as most of those early manufacturers folded:sigh:

In the beginning and after figuring out radios and record players, I took a leap and "fooled around with" then parted out a few RCA's and Zenith's mainly because I was not ready to "troubleshoot" a set that used many more components, proprietary circuits and the difficult issues only this level of refinement can produce.

OK, Thanks for clearing that up and I do understand your point. I agree people that know nothing about vintage electronics should not be buying any very old TV's. Most people on this sight have experience and knowledge in this area. Maybe I took the comment as crude cause I knew what I was buying and capable of handle repairs. To me this looks like the finest and best built large table B/W I will ever get a hold of. And if the sweep tube is original I got myself a deal. I will post pictures or even make a youtube "Doug" style video at some point. It was nice to hear from all the members concerning this ebay purchase.

If you are having second thoughts, please let me know. I will match what you paid, as long as you have it shipped to my house.

For many years, Zenith was my hands-down favorite brand of TV, stereo and audio. When I lived in suburban Cleveland, in fact, for many years my basement was full of 1950s-'60s Zenith televisions, all of which were trash finds, including a Zenith K-2739 23" b&w set. I was able to get most of those sets operating fairly well, although I had to replace all the tubes in the K-2739 because someone had filched all but two of its tubes (the 1K3 HV rectifier and the 23ANP4 CRT; thank goodness there was a TV parts place near me at the time).

However, it was worth it, as when I powered up the TV after installing the last new tube, I had a beautiful picture on all three (at that time, late '60s-early seventies) Cleveland network affiliate TV stations. I even patched an old KnightKit FM tuner into the audio, by taking the audio output from the tuner and feeding it into the TV's audio stages by connecting a shielded audio cable across the TV's volume control. The tuner sounded great, owing to the TV's 6BN6-6BQ5 audio stages and a 6x9 oval speaker in the base of the TV cabinet.

I enjoyed the heck out of this TV for about two years, then, in the summer of 1972, I found I had to move yet again (long story). I hated like anything to have to give up that set, but the place I was moving to had nowhere near enough room for all the TVs in my collection, let alone the Zenith K-2739 (again, very long story and OT).

I moved back to my former home three years later (1975; once again, long story and OT), and began collecting old TVs again, mostly trash-picked Zeniths, of course. One of my favorites was a 1959 Zenith 19-inch b&w portable which, to my amazement, worked as soon as I plugged it in after getting it home. Even the CRT was good, which surprised me since this TV was over 20 years old when I found it.

I kept collecting old TVs, getting most of the sets working as well as I could, until 1998 when I found out, again, that I would have to move (another long story). Since I would be moving to an apartment (the one I live in today, 21 years later), I again got rid of every one of my old TVs, even though I didn't want to.

Oh, well. At least I still have my memories of the large TV collection I had in the early 1970s until '98; these are memories I will keep the rest of my life. I now have an Insignia 32" flat-panel TV with an LG DVD player and a Panasonic VCR, mounted in a cabinet to the right of my desk in my apartment, but I do think from time to time of those old sets I had in suburban Cleveland; believe me, I'll never forget those days. TV was better then, both from a programming standpoint (I still have VHS tapes of old network TV programs from the '50s through about the eighties, and DVDs mostly with programs from that era as well) and also because TVs were made a lot better in those days than they are today; for one thing, the old sets can be repaired if they develop problems, whereas today's flat screens are usually thrown out and replaced when they go bad, because they are so inexpensive these days it isn't worth trying to have them repaired (the cost of repairs would, in many if not most cases, equal or even exceed the price of a new TV).

Now we are hearing stuff about "next-gen" TV, which will require replacement of a perfectly good flat-screen TV with one capable of receiving the new signals, although I understand there will be converters available when the time comes (perhaps in five years), so we may not, probably even likely will not have to worry about junking a perfectly good flat screen just because the TV transmission standards will eventually change. However, your next TV after your present flat screen goes bad may well be a next-generation one; only time will tell.

From what I have read about the next-gen TV standards and how they will affect today's television system, though, it may very well be a change whose time has come, after all, although I do wonder in the back of my mind why the change is being made in the first place. Color and stereo sound, not to mention high definition TV, were very important and worthwhile changes, IMHO, to North American television, but I'm not so sure about next-gen TV. However, things are constantly changing in our world, so I guess we had better get used to the idea because it's coming, and nothing is going to stop it. For all I know, the new system may be even better than today's HDTV.

Is Ohio some fairy tale land where high quality 1960s tube TVs grow on trees or something? Looking at the prices these TVs sell for on Ebay, why isn’t someone making a small business around saving these TVs from the garbage, restoring them, and then selling them for $$$ on eBay?

Is Ohio some fairy tale land where high quality 1960s tube TVs grow on trees or something? Looking at the prices these TVs sell for on Ebay, why isn’t someone making a small business around saving these TVs from the garbage, restoring them, and then selling them for $$$ on eBay?

I've had trouble moving working a non-space-command version of that set that was recapped at the ETF for $25. There aren't many people who would pay over $100 for a 60s TV other than a predicta or a Danish modern console (and the market for those that drives price is interior designers that have THOUSANDS of dollars to play with, not TV collectors).

Most TV collectors won't pony up more than $100 for something that isn't a rare 40's model or an early and or roundy color set.

Most TV collectors only pay big money for sets when there's a demand high enough that they have to outbid each other or the interior design crowd to obtain one.

May not make sense to you, but that's the prevailing behavior the market shows.

Looking at eBay, the lowly regarded GE Portacolor has sold 4 times this year on eBay. On the low end, a Portacolor that shoots out sparks and does not work at all sold for $150. Other Portacolors in working condition sold on eBay this year for as much as $500!

I think there is a market for restored color tube “portable” and table top TVs. The consoles are an issue when it comes to shipping across country. Other than Portacolors, I have only seen one other tube color TV on eBay and it is local pickup only.

Nifty little portables are irresistible props to many, even non-working sets are being preserved then sold as their aesthetic allure fades, all the while being inside somewhere dry, not in a barn or forgotten in a basement.

Bet this bump in value will provide this hobby with future repair parts or even restoration.

I got the TV It's Ch# 16K22QS Tv is in nearly mint condition and may have never even had back removed ALL tubes are original with date codes 30 to 40th week of 1962. Chassis is clean with no rust. Does have vertical Lin. Issue could be part of can electrolytic from Vert output tube cathode. Also Focus control don't have good range. I needed to set to limit for best focus. When Vol is turned up I see movement in Horz. width. Cans may be week. Nice bright "Sunshine" CRT. You would be very lucky to find a set in this condition. Horz tube don't even look burnt. 3DG4 does look worn. Waiting for Photofacts. Eye Of The Beholder or 15 months wearing mask. If anyone has the correct SC 400 Remote for this I would be interested.

Jug looks strong on it. Nice find. Good luck finding a remote. Maybe remote can be repaired? That’s a Zeno question that he could probably answer. I thought the mechanical remotes had some replacement spring parts that could be replaced.