Spectacular Westinhouse...but,
 

Found this tonight you know where. Few hours to go and many dollars to be bid. At least if you are going to quote Christies Auction house, spell it right.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-Westingh...1%7C240%3A1318

I think the seller has a VASTLY inflated idea of what it's worth..."Krysti's" or no...

I wonder where they get these outrageous estimates from?
Does anyone really think any Post War console is worth $3000.00?? even if it is in in great shape and an uncommon brand.

I might give $250-$300 for that set IF I really really wanted just one nice old set.

I have the tabletop version of the TV, I gave $100 for it.

I've seen Christie's estimates be off by a factor of 100 in some cases where they don't have experience with the particular item. I could imagine someone paying $850. Not me. But someone. I'd be surprized if it were collectible enough to be worth $3K.

Oddly enough if it were a piece of furniture in that condition it probably could sell for that. But, more people are interested in furniture than old TVs.

John

Look at the sellers feedback and join date. A definate newbie doing a typical newbie mistake. Probably picked it up at an estate auction for $50 and since he/she probably never seen an old one then it has to be a "rare and one of a kind" item that he'll/she'll be able to retire on. And i'm sure "Christi's" gave them a quote free and clear for an Ebay item....not! I could see $500 max if all were in working condition but no more than that.
-Tony

With "exposed wiring," the seller ought to be ecstatic getting $100 for it.

He's definitely in La La Land...

Anybody know the Model Number? Looks like an H-207 or 217?

LJB:smoke:

Still, it does look nice...

nice set , but not worth that even completly restored . Its a shame if it were a hell of a lot cheaper i would be bidding on it being i am in NJ .

I bought from a seller with a similar feedback rating and I regretted it. Fortunately they weren't dishonest, just incompetent and things eventually worked out over a month later.

Just because I've bid in a couple of Christie's auctions I received postcards asking if I had anything to auction myself. They seemed to be a bit hungry for business. I doubt that they would evaluate an item on ebay, but he might have approached them before listing it.

For an item like this the feedback rating is a definite turnoff.

John

I wasn't even aware that Christies had a television department much less a postwar model department. I often drop a strong hint that why stop there at asking $500 for a $5 TV. Go for the gusto and ask $5000, it will even make you feel far more important!!

About 35 years ago, I was at a flea market in NJ and this strange guy had a violin that was in pieces that he was touting as a real Stradivarius and asking $250,000 on a crummy cardboard sign marked "CHEAP". He was explaining the "Stradivarius seams" in the pieces of trashed wood like he really knew what he was talking about. Here we were, about 25 miles from NYC and if it was real, could have gotten more if he would take it there. (If it was real) Idiot!

If Christies told you that it was worth that much----SELL IT TO THEM!!!! Idiots!!!

Well, the auction has ended. In his messages he said he would ship it to Christie's if it didn't sell on ebay. We'll have to keep an eye out and see if it shows up in one of their lots.

John

On the same note, I went an auction here a few weeks ago, and was surprised to find a large tote full of old caps resistors miniture tubes and the like, hamfest leftovers. in the same lot, old stiff wire from the 50s, couple stripped radio chassis and a 60s portable tv that looked like it had been used as a skid plate. The auctioneer started off jokingly at $150 :no:You guessed it this guy says yep, I swear, the auctioneers jaw droped a foot, :jawdrop:without missing a heartbeat he said sold...:sigh: the guy toted his treasures to his car and had the biggest grin, like he got a real deal. I asked him why he wanted the stuff so bad, and he said." that after Feb that this stuff would sell for 10 times what he paid, because they use these parts to fix tv sets " and they wont make them anymore!!!!!!!!!!!:smoke::smoke::smoke: just one more joe cool to deal with.

:banana:TEE HEE HEE, After reading this one I have to ask myself which one of you was the BIGGER FOOL? The idiot buying the junk OR YOU for NOT getting his name, phone number, address and tag number SO WE ALL CAN HAVE A HIT ON HIM!!!!--FOOL! I'd sure like to run him through my warehouse and explain to him how this and that is not made anymore!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL....what a Twit.

I get free stuff like that on Craigslist. They either give it or throw it away.

LJB:smoke:

You know what they say, when your dumb, you gotta be tuff:D:D:D I'll bet he will show up again some where, you bet I will get his name and number. and then we will reap the harvest (By the way, I have a late 60s BW chassis, needs a new tube to work, a little rust here and there, used only one time as a boat anchor,) $375 firm serious offers only:lmao::lmao::lmao:

To many on eBay, "rare" means, "I haven't see one of these for sale at K-Mart in over three weeks".

That guy gets my favorite Bugs Bunny quote,,,, " What a maroon,,,hehe, What an ignoranimous, ha ha ha". But it is a nice looking set.
Dan

That explains why auctioneers always start high-if only for just a second! Man, if I could get that guy over to the tv shop I'm cleaning out-my friend Tony could retire in style!

Yah I know... keep rubbin it in, :yes::yes:

"....what an Im-bezzle! What an Ultra-maroon"

LJB:smoke:

PS: Relisted Yet? No? Must be at 'Christi.'

ROTFLMAO.

Perhaps his house is about to be auctioned by the mortgage bank.

His 6 year old daughter Christi told him "I think it's worth 3 million zillion bucks" and decided that a zillion is 10 e-3 :-)

Hmmmmmm......look familiar? He's a persistent fellow isn't he? It showed up on CL today. It looks like the same MO.

http://southjersey.craigslist.org/clt/1015143287.html

Gee, and he said he'd take it to Christie's if it didn't sell on Ebay!

John

Christie's, Craigslist-ies... I always get those two confused! :stupid:

Its going to be for sale for a very long time

I think it's back on Christiebays:yes::yes: http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-Westingh...emZ26035802616
:scratch2:

And it's gone again.

John

Probably sold at Kristi's Auction.

Aux Contraire mes amis............

http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-Westingh...1%7C240%3A1318

And check out the new lower bargain price........

$201, not a bad price considering the condition, maybe he read this thread, glad it's too far away from me to even consider it. :yes:

Too far for me also. Not that I'd have room.

Check out his new feedback rating too! There's no record of a negative feedback. Someone must have withdrawn a feedback. Maybe they worked things out.

At least he finally adjusted to the real market.

John

Now here is a question. Does anyone have a spare channel selector knob like the on on this famous console? I have a table model Westinghouse and it looks like that one. Mine has a knob that does not match. Just thought I would ask...

did any AK membr win this auction

Hi-I was the high bidder on the Westinghouse TV/phono/radio combo. I wasnt even aware of this thread until after the auction ended. I have been a very occasional lurker on this forum and figured now would be a good time to finally sign up. I basically threw in a last minute low bid, not expecting to be the winner. The price I paid was probably still too high, but I have been looking for a nice combo unit for a while and just liked the looks and condition of this one. Plus I was going to be in the seller’s area of southern NJ anyway (I live in the DC area) for an unrelated trip so I figured if I won it would be easy enough to pick up--which I did on Tuesday.

Anyway, the unit is an H-207 and is as nice as it looked in the auction pictures. While not mint, it is pretty close to it. It looks almost new with only a light few scratches here and there. I was pressed for time when I picked it up, so I didnt have much chance to talk to the seller. Basically, they ended up with the TV when they bought a house and it was in the basement. I gathered their over valuation of the unit’s worth was based on extrapolating off the auction results of a pre-war Westinghouse TV, which is obviously a whole different ball game.

The seller said everything works—not sure to what degree they mean though. The electric cord for the TV has a lot of exposed wire on it, so much that I cant imagine they actually plugged it in. All the rest of the wiring including the cord for the radio/phono appears to be in great shape. Although the radio chassis seems pretty clean, there is about 60 years of dust on the TV chassis.

I haven’t had a chance to do much with the unit yet but I hope to get the variac out this weekend and at least check out the radio and phonograph. I have a Sams photofact on the way. My intention for the unit is for it to be more of a display piece than to actually use it. My house is filled with stuff from the 1930’s-1950’s so the unit fits in perfectly. I hope to restore the radio and phono, but I doubt I am up to the task of restoring the TV from a technical perspective. I managed to get my Predicta Holiday up and running a few years ago, but I think I got extremely lucky with it. It didn’t require much in the way of repair, just resoldered some wires and resistors and replaced a few parts. Having since learned a little more about old TVs I am hesitant to try my luck again as apparently I was very fortunate to not have electrocuted myself or burn something up in the TV in the process!

If anyone has any questions or restoration tips particular to Westinghouse—let me know!

Lars

Lars,

I don't think I have one set in as nice a shape as that one. Congratulations on getting something in such beautiful condition - and at a decent price too! If that guy hadn't come to his senses, that set might have sat around until someone finally just threw it out in frustration. I'm glad it found a good new home.

Personally, I find restoring the phonograph mechanisms more of a challenge than fixing the TVs. 90% of all problems in a TV are really, really easy to fix. And people here will surely be glad to help you through the other 10%!

--Dave

I am glad the set found a nice home.
Dan

That is a beautiful set. I'm glad it was found by someone that can appreciate it for what it is.

There's a chance that the record changer is a Voice of Music. If you get a chance, please post any numbers you find on the bottom of the changer.

I just restored a Model 951 that was in pretty bad shape. The person at thevoiceofmusic.com was extremely helpful and for that brand of changer, nearly every part is still available.

John

Hi again-I appreciate everybody's comments. I finally managed to test out the unit on Monday. I brought the radio up slowly on the variac, the AM radio works great. Unfortunately, the FM is DOA. The tuner cables are broken so I had to tune it from the back by spinning the big tuner wheel. I had a bit of a Twilight Zone moment as the first station I was able to pull in was playing big band music from the forties! I was surprised at how good the radio sounded--a large speaker mounted in a big wood cabinet definitely produces some mellow tones.

As far as the phonograph, it turns on and the turntable spins at two different speeds, but not much else happens. I manually placed the tone arm on a 78 record--I could hear the music coming from the needle but not through the speaker. At the end of the record the tone arm just continues to sit on the record and doesnt return. So it looks like I have some work ahead of me.

I dont know if the changer is Voice of Music or not. The only info I could find was that some parts had VM Corp 1594 and VM Corp 1635 on them. I guess the VM could stand for Voice of Music? There was also a V6267 in big letters on one part. The tone arm has a sticker that says "Webster electric".

I didnt try the TV as I need to install a new cord as the old one is pretty much unusable. I am not expecting much from it though.

Anyway, although I have some experience repairing old stuff (lots of pinball machines, coke machines, several old Buicks etc) and have done some minor work on my Predicta, I dont have a great deal of experience with old electronics. I have done some circuit board repair so I am at least somewhat familiar with basic electronic concepts/components and soldering etc. I would like to restore the radio but it would be great to get the record player and TV working at some point as well. I dont want to trouble anybody on here with a bunch of dumb beginner questions, so I am hoping somebody could direct me to some websites that might give some basic repair tips for the radio and phonograph. I know the radio and TV will need to be recapped and the bad resistors replaced but beyond that I am not sure what else will be involved. As I mentioned in my first post, I realize working on old TVs can be a bit dangerous if you dont know what you are doing, so I will probably hold off on that for a while. But I am glad to hear 90% of TV repair is easy--it is that other 10% that scares me a bit!

Thanks!

Lars

Do you see any numbers under the phono similar to what's described here?
http://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/other.htm

For radio repair information, here's one such site:
http://antiqueradio.org/begin.htm

I think everyone here at AK is happy to answer beginner questions. At least they've been patient with mine.

If you didn't hook up an external antenna and the internal antenna wasn't connected, it's unlikely you would have received any FM stations. But, it probably at least needs recapping.

In a metal radio of the same vintage that I recapped, I checked the paper capacitors after replacing them. One out of the six that were in this simple radio were good. The others were shorted.

John

This will be a very good project; it will take awhile but, man, what a feeling of accomplishment when you are done!

I would start with the radio; I doubt it is a real complicated chassis and should be easy to recap. From there move to the phono; you know, I've brought back to life dozens of radios and TV sets but I've done almost nothing with phonographs. A whole different segment; there are folks out there who are really good with these and know all the tricks. Cartridges and rubber parts can be replaced or repaired.

The TV is a good way to finish things off. Look at it as just a big tube radio. The HV demands respect, true, but so does the B+ in a radio, or the AC line for that matter. The good news is that most sets like this didn't get stored away due to a catastrophic failure; most just gradually died of bad caps and nobody wanted to bother with fixing them.