Estate Sale Finds In 2008!
 

Here is the first find for the year at the estate sales on 1-12-08. There were 3 sales this weekend and one turned up another rare find. The sale was at 4109 Lawn Ave, Western Springs, IL. The company "Becker and company" conducted the sale. Ive known them for quite a number of years. First thing they tell me "we were talking about you, theres an old TV downstairs". So I go down and take a look. I noticed an early 50's sonora b+w console in very poor condition and was dissapointed. I figured it was going to be a color set, but you dont know. I passed on that and went up to the bedrooms to see if something else might show up. Sure enough, I walked into the 2nd bedroom and spotted this mint little 14" zenith portable color set from '68 sitting on the floor all by itself. Then I saw the little hanging "zenith" card on the antenna still which Ive never seen. The set was on a dresser that was sold the day before. The photos you see are exactly how the set was found. I used my cell phone for the pictures at the house. I powered it up and it worked fine. (big surprize) Doesnt appear to have ever been tampered with or had the back removed. All it needed was the tri color badge that fell off and was lost. Luckily, I have a few of those from parts sets. The good thing is, there is an indention in the metal door so you can fit the badge exactly were its supposed to be.

As for pricing, it was priced strange at $28.00 but it was half off so I got it for $14.00. I brought it down and mentioned that this is the perfect type of set Im looking for. They didnt know I was interested in portable TV's, nor did they think that set was old enough for my interests. Most people see a set like this and think its only 20 years old. You tell them its a '68 and they look twice.
This set is model Z3508W, it was zeniths very first portable color TV introduced in 1968 and available through 1969. It uses the 15Y6C15 chassis. In 1970, zenith switched to the plastic cabinets for the little 14" sets. I actually have another one of these that I found at the curb by my old home in Downers Grove back in October of '02 that had a shorted filter cap blowing the B+ fuse, thus sending it to the curb al by itself.
Todays find is a much nicer set, just needs a good dusting.

Awesome find Doug! I wish I could find one like that!
Mark

Really is a good day when you find one as clean and perfect as that set is. Big thumbs up, I love the tag! Talk about unrivaled reliability, 40 years its still doing well.

Yes, that's one of my favorite Zeniths. I had 3 of them, all about the same time, during the early 80s. I wish I had kept one!

Charles

I have a parts only version of this set. I have already sent the Flyback and other parts to various members of this forum. However, I still have the carcus, so if you need parts, please let me know-I may have them.

Grrrrrr...I HATE you....(grin) EXCELLENT score, Doug !

Congrats on another great find Doug!
You root out a lot of pristine sets in your travels! :thmbsp:

Nice start for 2008! I hope you have just as good of year for '08 as you did for '07. You mentioned seeing a Sonora TV. I had a 17" or 19" B&W Sonora in a metal portable cabinet. I got it from a repairman years ago and it had already had parts hacked out of it. I hacked more parts out of it over the years.

I have one of those that I found in really rough condition. It looked like it had been outside for several years. I did manage to save it. It took a lot of cleaning and rust removal, but it looks decent now. It has an excellent picture for a portable.

Who made the CRT in yours? Mine has a Zenith branded CRT, but RCA's EIA code. Mine also has an etched safety glass instead of a smooth one.

Sony Projection Set KP-5020
 

This weekend there was an estate sale with several somewhat unusual TV's.
This was held in a vacant storefront which the estate sale people rented. This must have been a very well to do family which was on the cutting edge of technology at one time.

There was a 1970's Sony LV-1901 console TV with built in Betamax unit which they wanted $295 for (would have been half of that today but still more than I really would want to pay, so I ended up not getting it)
It has a Beta-1 speed only beta recorder in it, and I hooked it up to see how it worked. Someone actually had left an old Beta "Adult" movie in there but it was beta-2 speed so I actually saw it at twice speed! It actally did work but I stopped it after a little while of seeing what it was...

There was a Zenith projection TV which has a motorized screen to rise it up out of the cabinet. It ended up having difficult coming up straight out of the cabinet and did not seem to really produce a picture. Not sure why they wanted $495 for it.

I did get a Sony 3-CRT projection unit for $75.00, a KP-5020. It seems to work well although they did not have the special Sony screen available so I think I will need to fool with the projection screen angle to get the convergence completely right.

Also there was a Panasonic 3.5"? B/w portable with built in cassette player, AM/FM and weather radio which I got for $15.00.
And got a Hitachi 5" color portable with channel indicator bar on-screen for $5.00

There was also a Frigidaire space-age 1950's electric range with oven doors which lift up at eye level plus a pull out drawer for the stove burners. They wanted $575 for it, and would have been half today but I really had no good place to put it plus I still thought it was fairly expensive.

Hi Chad, I have that hitachi, it has sound and no raster. Cabinet is pretty nice, battery cover is missing. Do you want it for parts?

I had one of those early '80's Zenith big screen's with the screen that lowered into the cabinet. The screen was stuck in the "up" position and the neck was busted off of one of the CRT's. Otherwise, the set worked. I wound up throwing it out. BTW, I caught a lot of heck from my mother when I brought that one in. I don't think we spoke for the rest of the day!

Estate sale find: 1-19-08
 

There were numerous good finds today at the estates. There were 12 of them that I though were worth attending, but only had enough time to get to 8 of them. Hopefully the other 4 didnt have any TV's..... It was extremely cold here today, it was -8 degrees F when I left at 8:30 this morning and only got up to +5 degrees F at most by afternoon. The sales today were spread all over the chicagoland area. The first sale was far out of my way, but glad I went. It was at 233 Dartmoor Ave in Crystal Lake, IL. Found a 1965 Zenith roundie with the 25MC33 chassis in the french provincial cabinet. It was upstairs in one of the bedrooms which was used as an office. The TV was sitting like you see it with all the stuff on it. It will need some work though. the power cord is missing and the chassis is loose in the cabinet. Like someone tried to fix it but gave up and left the set in peices. It shows some wear and tear but the top is pretty nice yet. I havnt found a zenith roundie for some time at the estates. Have no idea if it works yet, hopefully the CRT is good.
Next TV find was at 6112 S. Parkside in Chicago. I picked up this unique looking RCA XL-100 set with it original pedistal base. the TV is all plastic, even the sides, as is the pedistal. however, the support table of the pedistal is wood! It works OK, but needs some attention.
The next sale after that one was at 4929 Forster Ave, in Schiller Park. It was a two flat and the orignal owner used both living spaces. They even owned another house just like it almost across the alley on another street at 4923 Michigan ave. Both houses were part of the estate sale. At the 4926 house I found one of my favorite sets that Ive been wanting to find. Its a 1966 Admiral 23" color set. Its the chassis that uses the dual 6JM6 horizontal output tubes! the set was preserved as it was in a clean upstairs living room and had a custom made glass top that protected it all these years. It works, but the picture was dim. CRT needs some work, hopefully the cathodes just need reactivation by raising the heater voltage for a while.
I went across the alley to the other house at 4923 Michigan and it didnt look much like a house inside. Everything was tore up and destroyed. Honestly, it looked like the house was vacant for over 25 years. Fortunately, this little '65 RCA b/w console survived in good shape. At first glace, I thought it was one of those ctc-19 mini consoles. I got that set for free, the Admiral cost me $10.00 and got help to bring it down the sprial stair case in the back of the house!
The final sale was the final find for the day. It was at 712 Beverly in Wilmette. Picked up this unique little 12" panasonic color portable from around 1970. Its a "Pana-Color" and is an all tube set. For once I find a nice clean japanese set with intact antennas. 98% of the time, antennas are snapped off on the japanese sets I find. I asked about the price and the guy tells me its broken. I told him Id still like to have it, so he gave it to me for 2 bucks. He told me I could try it out and see if I could figure out what was wrong after I bought it. I waited about a minute and it turned on and worked fine. the guy was old enough to know about tubes in the old sets, but he didnt care, never gave it a chance to warm up!

The worst part about all of this is bringing the sets into the house after being in the zero degree temps. The CRT's all frosted badly when I brought them in and the condensation was terrible. the best thing I could do was to keep wiping them down with a towel, have fans blowing at full speed on all the sets with the back covers off to evaporate the condensation as quickly as possible. the fans did the trick and they dried nicely.

In the photos, you see the original home the TV's were found in followed by a picture of the TV found in that home.

Woah, you find some crazy-nice TVs where you live... Jealous! What CTC is the XL-100 set? Always liked those RCAs, they have a cool look to them.

That RCA b/w console looks just like a CTC-16 control panel, just slightly re-designed.
My grandma on my dad's side had 2 of those RCA XL-100's, in a slightly different cabinet, one in the bedroom and one in the living room. When she passed away, they gave me the sets....one of them is still at my parents' house but the horizontal frequency was off and would not lock in.

I remember that condensation problem from when I was a kid in Ohio, I would store a lot of stuff in the unheated garage at my parents' house and when I would bring a TV into the house in the winter there would be a long wait for it to dry out! That is not a problem here as the humidity is always low and it does not usually get nearly that cold.

What are you using to haul all that stuff Doug, pickup truck or van? That looks like a great find of TV's but it makes me tired just thinking about all of the hauling labor! The only time I ever got that much at one time was Texas Recycles day and from an old TV shop and there was no need to extract the sets from out of houses.

Wow, this is an amazing post. It's great to see the house and the TVs.

Congrats, those are some beautiful sets. :thmbsp:

Snade

Ive got an '04 Chevy silverado 1500, extended cab w/ standard 6ft bed. Actually, that truck you see in front of the white house that I found the admiral TV in is my truck. Everything gets proper padding and is secured for transport. I have a bunch of those moving blankets and ratchet straps. Smallers sets I can fit into the back seat like the XL-100 and the panasonic.

Looks like you done good at the sales this weekend! Lesson to us all is that one never knows what he will find unless he goes to the sale. What year is that XL100? It reminds me of a Zenith 4 tube hybrid that I had back around '95. It was a 19" in a decorative plastic "fake wood" cabinet and had a matching pedestal that it sat on. That set had an arcing tripler and I gave it to a friend who fixed it and sold it for about $75. Had I had half a brain, I would have kept that set.

Awesome finds Doug,:thmbsp: That Zenith has a great cabinet, it sure is hard to find the french provincial.

The RCA XL-100 is a CTC-71, model FS484-L "model year 1974". I always liked how rca put the model year on the model tag on some of the 70's sets.

That RCA is really cool.:smoke: Is it attached or separate from that base? I wish they put the year on all of 'em! But some is better than none.:rockon:

Crazy nice finds there Doug! Ususally my back seats are always folded down in the back of my Chevy Tahoe, It's great for hauling sets around, especially those entertainment consoles!

Some Dones back pills are always nice to have around when moving those big, heavy sets!

estate sale find: 2-9-08
 

This is a rather unusual find. Found it yesterday at 404 Orion St, here in Batavia. Its probably the cheapest tube type TV ever made. Its a 16" 1973 General Electric model SF3206WD. Its a 4 tube chassis. Very small board. Probably the lightest TV in existance of its size. Only 2 IF stages and both amplified by one compactron tube. Still has a tube type sarkies tarzan VHF tuner. Even has instant on. and the CRT is even good! Must have never been plugged in. Set works pretty good too. Being such a cheap economy set, the picture is bright and clear but pretty soft. Looks like I was the first to take the back off. Its these cheap sets that never survive. I dont think Ive ever run across a GE portable b/w of this type before. Anyone know what a set like this would have sold for new? Still a USA made set with usa parts.

Thats pretty neat, Doug. you don't see many of those. Always thought GE made cool looking sets. I think they sold this model for about $100.00

I don't think I've ever seen a 16" SF set; but, I've seen plenty of 12" versions. Most were the late '60's style with the knobs below the screen. I did see one from the mid '70's in a simulated wood plastic case and click stop UHF tuner. The case was the same type used on the later XB chassis solid state sets. I believe there was a '76 model red, white, and blue SF chassis set. I'm sure '76 was the last year for this chassis.

I have one of the 12 inch versions that appears to have a chassis similar to this one. The sound portion in mine is solid state with an integrated circuit and output transistor.

I also have another GE with a 16 inch or so screen. I have not had the back off recently, so do not remember the chassis layout. What I do remember is that the CRT has the smallest cathode of any I have seen. Of course, it is very weak.

Madman Muntz had nothing on the General...

I have a GE set which uses a 5-tube chassis...can't remember what the tube numbers are, but the functions are:
1. Horiz output & damper
2. Vertical output, oscillator, and feedback diode
3. Video output and AGC keying
4. 1st and 2nd IF
5. Sound detector and output
This set does not have a seperate horizontal oscillator tube or transistor that I can see...somehow it uses feedback off the flyback to make the oscillator work.

I think in the set in question here it uses a transistor for the horiz osc and it probably has the IC sound discriminator and transistor audio output.

Yep, that's an SF chassis alright; looks remarkably like the one in the far-more-common 12" SF sets. That chassis looks *tiny* compared with that 16" CRT though!
I guess I've never seen a 16" version of that.

The SF sets seem to be pretty bulletproof, but as you'd probably expect, they were el-cheapo "value leader" TV's and not great performers.

Still kinda neat though!

A friend of mine found a CTC-16 combo at an estate sale in Encino, CA. It's in a provincial cabinet, mint condition, but has a newer Kenwood turntable in it. I haven't gone to see it in person, but I may go today or tomorrow. The estate liquidator thinks it's worth $1000s, but I put in an offer of $20 through my friend who was there. Liquidator is going to talk to the estate owner, who evidently wants the house empty post-haste. I have the feeling I'll get it for $20 :)

Charles

:tresbon:
...What about:
- tuner,
- synchronisme separator ( only a diode? )
- sound intermediate frequency,
- extra hight voltage rectifier ( a valve? )
:scratch2:
I have the schematic diagram of a 12 tubes Irradio set from the 50s who has a PL81 pentode as an auto-oscillator horizontal final stage.:yes:

Wow. You gotta take me with you. I'm over in Oak Park. You can keep the TVs. I'm just looking for stereo and albums.

Gianni, yes I think I forgot these functions! The tuners are completely transistorized. I think the sync separator is in the same tube as the AGC keying and video output. I'm not sure what the sound IF is...may be a transistor stage but will double check. The HV rectifier actually is another tube.

Thank you!

Estate sale find: 2-16-08
 

There were 5 sales I went to today. Found three sets, all at the same house at 1915 Buckingham Ave in Westchester. Entered the house at the back door and first place was to the basement. I heard a TV playing and it was a '74 RCA mural TV (hotel set) had the built in AM FM radio. Same exact TV I had growing up, except this one is mint. Ours saw tons of use my brother and I beat it up over the years as kids. So it was nice to get another one in nice shape to see what ours used to look like.
Looked around and then saw a very interesting set with the doors open! Its a 1971 GE table color set! Even had its original factory cart. Never seen a table set with swing out doors. This set is like new. Just needed a good dusting. Ironically, this one appears to have never been serviced, just like the cheapy b/w set I picked up last week. Didnt expect to start finding GE TVs all of a sudden! These are as rare as the motorola's.
This set reminds me of a big portacolor. Its all plastic cabinet with some type of composite plastic swing open doors. Needs some work, but the CRT is bright so I have something to work with. My first GE tube type color set that is not a portacolor! Like any GE TV its a cheap set, but this must have been a "high end" cheap set since it has the gaudy cabinet, light up dials and light up buttons on the control panel. Pretty neat. Full of compactrons inside. Still yet to pull the back off though.

Went upstairs and the finds were not over yet. In the living room was this 1961 space command 400. The TV still worked, still hooked up to the antenna and still plugged in! The remote chassis was off, so the tubes didnt boil away. The TV still worked, and good! Its hard to believe a TV to still be "in use" for almost 50 years. Obvioulsy it saw little use, but the fact that it was still in the front room hooked up! Didnt see any other TVs upstairs. There must have been another set they used more frequently.

Heres some interesting facts though. The man that lived in this house (Edward Bratyanski) worked for Hotpoint Corp. (originally a chicago based appliance manufacturer) as a quality control inspector at the plant on the north side of chicago. There was a large b/w picture on the wall in the basement of his 25th anniversary of employment party held at the plant on February 2, 1960! So he started working for Hotpoint in 1935! His wife Mary recently passed. There was alot of hotpoint stuff in the house as well as GE. Im guessing the GE TV was some kind of deal or gift since he worked for hotpoint. Im amazed how one of these sets survived after all these years. It probably had some kind of senimental value, so it survived. Just so you know, Hotpoint was its own company until 1967. thats when GE bought them.

Looks like you had a good "TV day" as well. Did you by chance buy that record player sitting next to the RCA?

Wow, I hope 2008 will be as good (or better) as 2007 for you. This Saturday was my first luck at estate sales in a long stretch.

That house looks like it could be down the street from me! It seems that like Detroit suburbs, Chicago has a lot of brick houses. But in all my travels through the Chicago area, the houses seem to have extra tall foundations (i.e. at least twice the number of steps up to the front door) with very few garages. This style of 1-2 steps up and detached garage in the back yard is by far the most common in the 50s-60s vintage Detroit suburbs. However, like most other good things from that era it seems to have gone out of fashion and the "new" style appears to be a 25' driveway and attached garage. The great thing about this is how you get front-row seats to all your neighbor's garage junk, and whatever eyesore cheap car they drive. 1/3 of the front of your house is a door for your car! Home aesthetics are apparently now measured in the number of cheesy-fake peaks you have on your castle roof.

Back to the TVs...

Wow that GE is ugly, and I'm pretty tolerant of gaudy cabinets, but wow. Good that you saved it, 'cause I doubt many survive.

Was that Zenith hooked up to the VCR on the top?

That is the nicest SC 400 B/W I've ever seen.

Great to see that GE! I'm assuming it's the series string chasss, like C2 or CE? Somebody on here has (or had) a very similar set, with the doors and everything, except it was a very early GE solid state set from about '72.

Man, I really wish we had sales like that around here. I am starting to see a few advertised but they are all newer houses, people who moved here to retire. Not much in the way of old electronics to be found like that.