For the 2005 estate sales thread, I will include everything electronic I find at estate sale (console HIFI, radios, TV, phonographs etc.).

Its been pretty dissapointing start to the year with estate sales. Have been going to many since the start of the new year and have had no luck finding anything. First TV find of 2005 is this 1958 Zenith space command 400 console with a 29A20Q chassis. Found this set 2-19 in Berwyn at 7040 W. 29th st. for $25. Had the cord clipped off. All the set needed was a detector diode. This set was sitting in the living room and was actually the only thing left in the entire house. The people were about to lock the house up and go as the house was sold out. I was told there was nothing left but a broken TV in the living room.........

Picked up this mint zenith H825 in La Grange Park yesterday 3-5 at 730 Barnsdale Ave for $20. This is a 61 model, which has illuminated dial. This cabinet style dates from 59-67 with slight dial design modifications through the years. This is probably zeniths best sounding table radio.

Great finds! That Zenith is BEAUTIFUL!!! Still has a nice shine! Well worth 25 bucks and more!

I've never seen that cabinet, a real cut-above & a nice find. I also did not realize that the remote was made to clip on like that with these models. I've got one from that basic series but I think my remote is for an older model. I wish we had more estate sales around here. Everything goes to auction in these parts, though I am starting to see more of this type advertised. Went to my first one this winter but the oldest tv was an 80s RCA which I left sit.

That is a nice set. Somewhere I have an ad for a set a lot like it - it's called the Maybrooke. Wonder if this is the same set.

Picked up a nice 23" Zenith space command 400!!!! All original with remote! It was mounted in the wall of the living room so the cabinet is pretty decent. This is a 1963 16K22QS chassis. Nice picture on this one. Works like new after simple tube changes.

back view

inside

This set has a razor sharp picture. Zenith sets had outstanding picture once they modified the IF circuits using 6EH7/6EJ7 IF tubes from the 6BZ6 types.

Nice!

I have one similar to this that I watch in my workshop. I agree, they do have a good picture, especially for such a large screen.

Yours is very nice.

Neat 23" table set! I really like those big lighted channel numbers that some Zeniths had in that era... :)

Your mailbox is FULL!!!!!!

I cleared out old messages. It should be ok now

Doug, I am amazed that the former owners of what is now your Zenith SC400 console cut the line cord off just because one little detector diode was bad. These diodes can't cause a fire hazard as they are in the audio or video signal circuits, but I guess people who don't know anything about the inner workings of TVs don't know any better. They probably figure if a part (or even a tube) is defective, no matter where it is in the set or how big or small it is, the TV is useless from that point on; they don't want to take a chance that someone might plug it in under these conditions.

BTW, you are correct as to the razor-sharp picture of Zenith TVs with 6EH7s in the video IF strip. I had a 23" Zenith K2739 1963 console about 35 years ago with three IF stages, two 6EH7s and one 6EJ7, which I completely retubed as someone had swiped every tube but two (CRT and HV rectifier) by the time I got it. The set had a beautiful picture on all three network stations in Cleveland, even on rabbit ears; it worked even better on the attic antenna in our house then (I lived in a semi-fringe area 30 miles from the stations at the time).

BTW (2): I saw the ebay listing for another Zenith SC400 console, similar to the one you have. It was located in Batavia, IL, probably not that far from you. However, I noticed that the seller stated the distance from Batavia to Chicago as 40 miles. I was wondering about that after you moved there. The distance is probably that from Batavia to downtown Chicago, not to the city's major TV stations; however, seeing that most TV transmitters serving the Chicago area are scattered around the area, the actual distance to any given transmitter may be more or less than 40 miles (the stations located in Indiana may be a bit further away even than that). I think the major network stations (2, 5, 7, 9 and 11), however, are located in the downtown area of the city, as I have seen pictures of the downtown skyline of Chicago and have seen at least two TV transmitters atop the Hancock Tower and others in town (the old Bob Newhart Show on CBS in the '70s showed part of the city's skyline when the medical arts building in which Bob Hartley's office was located was shown).

You have not seen much posting on this thread this year in 2005 so far have you? Its not that Ive been blowing off estate sales. I have been going to estate sales almost every week and have not found a THING! 2005 is a very poor estate sale year and I think my luck of finding nice old sets is almost gone! Im hanging on to basically everything Ive got, as if I were to let it go- thats it- I'll never see anything like it again! Definitly keep all the sets you have!

This is a resale shop find in Aurora, IL on 5-21-05. $20, not bad. Its a KV-1200 which is a trinitron and comes with a factory stand which Ive never seen before. The stand is custom made to fit this TV. It has a great picture but it is not completely solid state as the front indicates. I took the back off to dust it off and found out there is a 3AT2 HV rectifier in the HV cage!
I know "DAN WALSH" owned it, as he inscribed his name and drivers license number on the side of the CRT bezel. If "DAN WALSH" is still around, he would be living in Libertyville, IL and is 64 years old (1941 off his license number) Anyway, I hate when people inscribe names into TV sets. He even inscribed the stand! Its a nice set and dont find them, so Im very happy with it!

close up

TV on, nice picture

Doug,

I just read your post. Sorry to hear you're having no luck with estate sales, but maybe things will pick up eventually. I notice there are very few antique TVs showing up even on ebay these days (I saw exactly one '50s Zenith, and two "Spirit of '76" Zenith Bicentennial portables when I did a search for that brand of television this afternoon); most of the TVs being offered at auction lately have been late model plasma/LCD, widescreen and projection sets, and the occasional 1980s-vintage System 3 color console, not to mention older table models (older meaning 10-20 years). There seem to be more antique/vintage radios than TVs on ebay of late.

Your decision to keep all your old TVs is a good one, if you're not finding many sets at estate sales. I also intend to keep every one of my antique and vintage radios for the same reason as you mentioned. I just scored (as in about two months ago) a Zenith Trans-Oceanic portable radio (solid state, 1958-62 vintage), and also have a Zenith R-70 high-fidelity AM/FM portable (1980), in addition to a K-731 AM/FM hi-fi table set (1963) and a 1951 Consol-Tone, along with a Zenith H-480W AM/FM stereo clock radio from 1980; all but the H480 were ebay scores (I purchased the H480 new). All of these radios work and sound better than most of today's import sets. Who knows when, or if, we may see the likes of these sets again? As far as radios go, I think we'll still see them showing up on ebay from time to time (I see Zenith three-way portables, consoles, etc. almost every day there), but the collector's market for old TV sets is not what it once was. The Big Lots stores have a slogan, "When it's gone, it's gone"; the same, it seems, can be said for antique and vintage radios and TVs made by the original Zenith Radio Corporation, et al.

I don't see very many old TVs on curbs or treelawns in my neighborhood anymore either, although the other day I did spot a 32" Mitsubishi color set near the trash barrels behind the apartment building where I live. I didn't grab the set for three reasons: one, I wasn't sure whether it was working or not, 2, it was far too big and heavy for me to lift, and finally, I knew I wouldn't have the room for anything that big, not to mention the fact that I already have a 19" Thomson-built RCA that still works well on cable (I bought the set new five years ago and it still works great). These are the kind of TVs we are seeing more and more on treelawns nowadays, as folks get new high-definition widescreens (they may not realize that even analog televisions will work with high-definition signals if a converter box is used between the cable or antenna and the set; the fact that analog sets won't produce HD pictures, however, may be the reason these sets get pitched when their owners get new high-definition receivers/monitors). The days of finding very old antique TVs on the streets, etc. may well be reaching their end, if they haven't ended already.

BTW, you are right about your Sony Trinitron not being 100-percent solid state, if there is a 3AT2 in the high-voltage cage. I wonder why Sony would advertise a TV set that way if they knew it still had a vacuum-tube HV rectifier? Maybe they don't consider the HV rectifier a tube. :dunno: The set wouldn't be 100-percent solid-state anyway even if the HV rectifier were a high-voltage diode, as all TVs manufactured before the flat-screen (plasma, LCD) era have at least one vacuum tube in them (the CRT), even if the rest of the set is solid-state.

I have some small B&W Philco TVs that say "Solid State" across the front, but have tube HV rectifiers. I guess that this tube and the CRT did not count.

Since hanging around here I have been paying lots more attention to what shows up in my travels. I did have some near misses in the last week. Stopped out to the local auction barn the other night after a friend called to tell me about some test gear they had. I knew the test gear wouldn't really interest me (and I was right) but I owed it to him to take a look. It was mostly military surplus meters. They did have, in the trash pile, a big color console but it turned out to be a Matsushita Quasar, all solid state, of course. There was some newer stuff on the pile but I didn't even bother to look. Years ago I got a working c.1960 Zenith bw console from there & then a higher-end GE color console from the late 60s. Both gone, sadly. Went to the flea market yesterday, lots of tv sets but all solid state. Most intersting was one guy with about half a dozen early 80s GE 19 inchers, obviously out of a motel.

A find at last! Found some nice sets this weekend for good prices. Picked up a nice 68 RCA GJ-709WR! the "Bradfield" An RCA console remote set! A CTC-35 chassis.
Heres how it was found:
Found at a home in Addison, IL on 6-4-05. The house was loaded with stuff, tons of stuff. I saw the remote control for this TV sitting on top of a new sony triniton set. My first though: Someone just wanted the old remote control. Then, I realized the sony TV was sitting on top of another console, completly covered with a blanket. All kinds of stuff was in the way of this set, once I moved it out of the way, I lifted up the blanket and there it was!
Cateract free all original set. Got the set for $25. Luckily someone at the sale was able to help me get it into the truck.

Once I got home, powered it up, blank raster no sound. I hate that symptom but at least the fly was good. Tubes were all good, even the 6GH8's. I think the previous owner tried to fix the set with this problem thinking tubes would do it. It didnt, so I got new RCA tubes in the set!
Had to pull the chassis. Found a burnt up 405v B+ drop resistor on the deflection board (3300ohm 3w wire). That resistor was B+ for the AGC and IF circuit. Did some tests down the line and found the cause of the burnt resistor to be a shorted 1000pf cap on the IF board, to the grid of the 6GM6 2nd IF! As a result of that cap shorting out, too much current was drawn through a 470 ohm carbon resistor, drastically lowering its resistance to 50 ohms! That resistor over heated and once that resistor went down in value enough the wire resistor went up in smoke. I first Disconnected the shorted cap and jumpered a new 3300 WW resistor then powered the set up, sure enough snow sound came back. Changed the defective components and an out of tolerance 180k resistor on the IF board.
Another typical RCA problem is a locked up UHF tuner. the lubricating grease dries on the dial shaft where is slides through a bushing, making tuning impossible. Took the mechanical components apart cleaned and lubricated.

Slid the chassis back in, and the picture came on nice and clear. Just needed a touch up of the convergence and grey scale.
Remote control just needed a touch up on the oscillator coil in the hand unit and changes all the functions as it should. Its not a low hour set, but not a high hour set either, shows its wear and tear for being used over the years. The set now works well and has a really nice color picture, better than the photo I took!

this is the original remote control for the set. The RCA block letters were used, durring the 1968 transition when RCA VICTOR name was dropped. The TV Bezel is RCA VICTOR as its the same bezel used 67 sets.
Next to the remote are the defective componets. That yellow resistor looking part is actually a 1000pf capacitor.

Typical good working RCA has a near perfect picture! (For whatever reason, my camera makes the set look like its out of convergence. It converged great!) You dont need HDTV with when you have an old RCA TV!

Same house, another TV find! Upstairs in the hall was this nice Philco safari! Turns out, this set was all complete and it even worked still! Nice bright picture. Didnt need to touch a thing but clean the volume control. The vertical size was good. Got this set for $30. The people running the sale knew this TV had some value. Thanks ebay.......Luckily it was far cheaper than ebay prices.

good picture on this one. Never had a safari untill now.

Typical good working RCA has a near perfect picture! (For whatever reason, my camera makes the set look like its out of convergence. It converged great!) You dont need HDTV with when you have an old RCA TV!

Congratulations on getting that RCA "Bradfield" set working so well. It may be the resolution of my computer monitor, but I couldn't see any misconvergence in your set's picture (or the effect of it, as you say your camera causes). My RCA (Thomson) 19" color set, which I purchased new in 1999, makes a good picture as well; when these new sets are working as they should they work great. I understand Thomson has finally licked the OB tuner problem in their newest sets (actually in the last couple years), by getting the tuner off the main PCB and mounting it separately, in another section of the cabinet. I had mine repaired for a tuner-related problem several months after I bought the set, but the technician did a complete resolder of the ground points around the shield as well as correcting the problem I called him for. That was all the set needed. It has now been some time (I forget whether it's two, three years :dunno: ) since the repairs were made; the TV still works like a champ on cable, VCR and DVD, with the picture absolutely excellent, even if it is only 19 or 20 inches (the warranty info for this set refers to it as a "nineteen-twenty inch mono" monitor/receiver, so it may be a 20-incher after all).

I agree with you as to HDTV (I intend to keep my set as well even after the digital transition--I'll just have Comcast put in a high-definition cable box when the time comes), although I do wonder, since you don't have cable, what you'll do with all your sets once the analog stations are taken off the air at the end of next year (if we can believe what the FCC is telling us about the transition from analog to digital--personally, I don't).

For that matter, have you finished putting up that giant TV antenna farm you said you were going to install when you moved from Downers Grove to where you are now? I looked up Batavia, IL on the Internet (Google) the other day, and found out that you are over 40 miles from Chicago. I don't know how far that places you from the city's TV stations, but in any case I bet your antennas are huge deep-fringe systems.

Congrats on your finds, Doug! Man, that RCA makes a nice vivid picture! The Philco is really neat, too!

NICE NICE NICE!!!!!!!!! Like the RCA and kudos on getting a Safari. I tried to get one on eBay, and those usually go pretty high. You got a good deal!

That RCA is a good find...looks like a ctc-31 or 38 but has the "deluxe" chassis like the CTC-16.

Good job Doug! That RCA looks as good as new!

Nice Sets! The picture on the RCA is Amazing. Did you take a look inside that Safari yet, I've always wondered what they looked like inside...

Ive had this TV for 2 years now. Got it from Mr. Stout here on the forum.
Ive been waiting to find a cart big enough to fit this set ever since. Its a 25" table set, so I needed a big 30" cart which I finally found this weekend! Picked up this cart for $5 at an estate sale in Elmwood Park, IL. Not sure if its for a zenith or RCA but the cart was all by itself in the basement like 99% of them are- cart but no TV. Finding a cart for a 25" table set is very rare. So now the FL532WR is finally complete! Now it can be watched without it being ontop of a console! The console can be spared too by not supporting the massive load of the set as well.

Found a nice little 16" RCA EB395W XL-100 as well. Picked up this set in Hinsdale, IL for $10 half price. The set was in the living room on the floor. This one works pretty nice and is like new. This one was built august 1977

inside view. XL-100's and chromacolor II's are the end limit of my interests. They are solid state, but have similar characteristics to the construction of the tube type sets.
Just to note, that little RCA dot-bar generator at the right was found at an estate as well this weekend.

Another good thing about the cart... now you can move it around on the wheels instead of lifting.

My parents' second tv was an RCA nearly identical to the smaller one you show above, except ours was a 19". They got 20 years of use out of it, and it still played pretty good once they got rid of it.

Charlie, you are correct. thats the best thing about the cart, being able to move around. I never used the set before as it was always too bulky to move around to watch. I can just roll it away from my display of sets to the other half of the basement to watch from the recliner!

Today's CRT-based TVs aren't exactly small either (referring to the size of the cabinets and their weight). :no: I have two sets here in my apartment, an RCA (Thomson) 19" built in 1999 which weighs the proverbial ton, even though it is solid state, and a Zenith SMS1917SG 19" built in 1995 (also SS and remote) which is also quite heavy. Given that these sets are both solid state, the only tube in them being the CRT, I would think that tube is what weighs the most--the larger the screen, the heavier the CRT (the 25" tube in your RCA must weigh at least 25 pounds alone). By contrast, I am sure the new flat-panel HD sets are a fraction of the weight of even the newest of today's CRT sets (although, again, the 27" flat-screen sets weigh a lot, the reason being the picture tube; I hate to think what a 32- or 36" CRT set must weigh--probably 200 pounds or more). My RCA set is on a wood (oak) utility cart on hidden casters (boy, does it look nice--it gives the illusion of the cabinet sitting flat on the floor) in the main part of my apartment, which is where it will stay--I won't move the set myself (off the cart) unless I have to; the same goes for the Zenith, which is in my bedroom on my dresser. The latter doesn't get much use (except to back up the living-room set), but the few times I've had to drag it out to the front...oh, brother. Zenith's newest CRT based consoles are no doubt heavy as well (even with the Gold Star guts), but I understand the wood used in those cabinets isn't real mahogany, oak, maple, etc.; rather, it is cheap wood with the "finish" pasted over it. Zenith used the same technique, called "photo finish", on many of its large table-model radios of the 1930s, so this dodge is anything but new.

BTW, I saw the cart your 25" RCA now sits on. It reminded me of a similar cart I found in the trash some 20 years ago; I used it with two Zenith color portable TVs I had between 1982 and 1999.

It doesn't really matter, IMO, what make of set the stand was made for (RCA, Zenith, etc.), as long as the TV fits on it and the stand will bear its weight without caving in. Obviously, your RCA set fits that stand perfectly.

That tv does look pretty sharp on that cart! And plenty of room for a top-loader Betamax, too!

We hit a ton of yard sales yesterday. Some close calls. A mid-80s Zenith 19" for $5 & then a NAP Sylvania Superset 19" complete with the original (and clunky) remote, also $5. Left both of them sitting, I really, REALLY do not need to start collecting 80s stuff! Later at a moving sale I walked in the garage to find a 23" Admiral bw combo. I've no room for it but figured if it was really cheap I'd drag it home. $25 was not cheap enough. It will probably meet a sad fate :(

Went to an estate sale Fri. and saw a huge mid 1970's Magnavox console with TV, radio and phono for $25...the ladies there asked if I could get it playing as they knew I could figure it out...got the radio playing and the TV just needed fine tuning. You just had to know the procedure for turning it on. Did not get it as I have run out of room for really big consoles although if it were a tube type I might have made room to store it... hopefully someone bought it as I was able to get it working to demonstrate.

Also saw a late 1970's Hammond organ spinet model...priced at $550 and it sold within several hours of the sale opening. I know that the B-3 hammond has some "fad" value but it seems like some of the other models may be increasing in collector value. At another sale I saw an old RCA console radio/phono (in good cabinet condition) also sell for around $550.
It may be that some of these items which were not really collectible in the 80's/90's are starting to become fashionable items.

I think this is also starting to happen in the Jukebox market where models like the late 60's Wurlitzer Americana are starting to increase in collector value.

I havnt found a portable tube type tv in over a year! Ive been patient going to many estate sales on saterdays, the majority were dissapointments. I was stunned to find a CTC-22 playing in the bedroom in a NEWER HOME yesterday! An absolute unexpected find! I'll tell you this much, the last time I found a CTC-22 at an estate sale was August 18, 1998 in Downers Grove (I keep a record of all my estate sale finds)
Went to a sale at 4501 madison, Brookfield, IL. It was a newer home, so normally, I dont expect a thing as far as old TV's go. Everything was new downstairs so I figured the rest of the house was a waist of time to go through.
ANyone who was to go upstairs had to take their shoes off (which Ive never had to do at an ES before). I asked, are there any TV's up there. "yes, there is one in the bedroom but you probably wont like it as its a newer set". For the hell of it, I went up and checked anyway. I was blown away to see it was a mint condition CTC-22 on top of a dresser and working!

Snatched it up at half price, so I got it for $10! It still has the model tag on the back which is rare. Its an EM-417W the "URBANITE" and is a 1969 model. This is the newer generation of the 22. It has the newer knobs and RCA logo.
Got it home, and it has all original tubes inside. Even though it worked, it was somewhat of a weak picture. all 8 of the 5GH8's had to go! Its got a nice sharp and bright picture!

top view.

inside view. Super clean low hour set. The knobs have no wear at all. The PCBs are like brand new.

its got a very nice sharp picture.

About all the carts I've seen have been broken down, prolly from having the TV & half-a-ton of magazines, VCRs, general crap piled on 'em...Seems like lots of 'em had little plastic wheels that kinda disintegrated after awhile, too. Finding one that isn't ready for the landfill is lucky.-Sandy G.

Found a couple nice sets this weekend. Got a rare set, one I never see. Its a 22" zenith steel cabinet b/w solid state set from 1975. Its has a 22FB12 chassis. Built just like a tube type set but solid state. 1975 is the first year for zenith having a 100% solid state line up both b/w and color.
Picked this set up at 1507 Grove ave in Berwyn, IL for $10. Found it in the basement on a table hooked up to the outdoor antenna. Luckily, the original cart was still around. it was supporting the "new" tv upstairs in the living room. I was able to get the stand as well.
Its got good zenith razor sharp picture, especially the b/w sets.

take a look inside. Still point to point, using the zenith "dura module". A very well built set. This was the last of the good b/w zeniths!

Another good find in Berwyn, IL yesterday. This one is a 1965 admiral portable b/w set. This is a USA designed and built set! Most sets that look like this are the japanese types. This one works very well. Found at 2520 elmwood ave for $10.00. Also found in a basement on an end table hooked up to the outdoor antenna! Works like new and all orignal tubes yet!

Hey, Doug--what's that console the Zenith is sitting on? Can't remember seeing gold knobs like that before.

veg