50 sets in one auction!
 

Seller says some of them are new.
Someone really needs to check this out and see what's there.

I know no one will have room for 50 large sets at once.

http://cgi.ebay.com/LOT-OF-50-OLD-VI...item439e181d8b

that is amazing! I don't think I've seen so many in one place at one time.

Wow, thats unreal. Some of those look like real unique offbrand sets. Hopefully they can be saved!

He says he's selling in LOTS OF 50, so there must be more!

John

OMG! If this were local I would get them and make room even I had to build a room. This would keep me busy for years. I hope someone who loves old sets gets these and not the recycling crowd.
Packard Bell made some amazing sets. The cabinets and chassis are heavy duty.

I am just trying to get my head around the vehicle needed to pick up 50 sets, and then the size of the storage building.

OMG, my Mother would disown me if I brought home 50 console TV's all at once; however, I do see some interesting sets there that I'd love to have. If they were closer to home, I'd try to work up some kind of deal to save at least some of them. This is indeed a once in a lifetime find.

A moving truck would do the job. I wonder how many lots of 50 there are and what the history is with this collection. This has to be the largest collection of tube sets left in the world.

The load floor on U-Haul's largest van is roughly 23x7 feet. Putting fifty sets in one of those would mean stacking them at least two high and possibly some on top of those!

It would also cost me about $900 to do it from about 700 miles away. Not including the storage unit I'd have to rent.

Bah...

I did e-mail the seller and ask how may sets there are in total.

no way she would go for it...

Honestly Im thinking about it. But I got to also be real. I would have to fly to SC, rent a U Haul and drive them back to Los Angeles. I figure the truck would get 5 mpg so the total cost would be about $4000. I live on a 3 acher defunct farm so space is the least of my worries.

There must be less expensive ways to move them. Maybe more complicated. I wonder what it would cost to containerize them and ship by train to CA?

John

Definitely looks like an old TV sales & service shop out-of-business. Probably a few nice sets, and also, with a hoarder like the owner of that shop, I can nearly guarantee that there are other rooms; perhaps filled in prior decades to that one!!!

Charles

GAWD I would love to go see all that stuff. God (and that guy) only knows what kind of goodies are in there.

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That is what I was thinking, I have a bad feeling that a lot of these are going to get trashed or recycled. I wish someone would make a deal with him or something.....

Wow....There's some interesting sets there, but I'm on thin ice with the wife now with all the TVs (over 200) and other stuff I already have.

:dammit::dammit::dammit:

Always too far away to be feasable.

Sure hope someone is able to save these - looks like there may be some neat sets there.

200 tvs!!!? I thought I was bad:D

There's no "may" about it, there IS some neat sets in there!

The seller replied that he hadn't counted them all, but there could be 100 or more.

Last night I was seriously thinking about how these sets could be saved. The only practical solution I came up with would be to rent a storage unit near the seller in So. Carolina and move them there. But then what?

Perhaps we could set up some sort of collective or fund to offset the storage costs, and anyone participating would be entitled to "x" number of sets, which would have to be shipped or retrieved within a year's time.

Personally, I am willing to make a trip out there to retrieve the sets and store them. Obviously, I would need help.

If anyone thinks this could work, reply here or send me an e-mail at
[email protected]

Something like that may work.

Im looking into shipping them. Im SERIOUSLY working on this one. If I can do this somewhat reasonably Im going to go for it.

I have a few questions like how many are bw are they all there because the crts are dead or are they victims of infant mortality.

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Wow,, you dont see something like that everyday.

Hey there AUdubon,

If you or any other collector can devise a viable way to save these sets, I would gladly send some cash to help, regardless if I get any of these sets.

I would sure hate to see these sets sold for the value of the copper winding in the yokes, and if I could help in any way to prevent that, count me in.

I hope someone saves them. If AUdubon goes for it I'll see what I can contribute. But I have no preference as to who tries to save them. I just hope no scrap copper dealer wins.

John

I agree with this. I fact...I think we should set up a seperate thread soon, JUST for some sort of "Fund" to secure and store these sets. My rough calculations tell me that if just 20 us of commit to 50 over the next month or so, that would raise $1k, probably enough for some sort of short-term storage, till some sort of more permanent situation could be made. . Maybe through Paypal or such.


I would be willing to contribute my share. I CANNOT tell others "here", if you now what i eman, and I imagine many have the same "situation".

Dan and I spoke on the phone this evening. The main problem is that we haven't been able to get much information out of the seller. As of now, we really don't know the particulars on what is there. There are only six sets clearly visible in that photograph. What if most of the rest are particle-board Quasars and mid-90's Zeniths? Or there could be sixty roundies in there - we just don't know.

We're both going to try to get some more information out of the seller and post an update tomorrow.

I think we need to get as much information as possible out of the seller before taking this further. Those sets on the shelves are certainly tube sets; but, who knows what the ones on the floor are. I just know that I've been in a few of these "too good to be true" moments before and it's very frustrating.

Judging by how closely they're crammed together, the ones in the photo ain't roundies.

I have to agree... But I do see some B&W consoles there, including a Zenith solid-state 23" (on shelf to right). I'm fairly sure I see some CTC-38-ish consoles, and who knows what all else. As I said in my earlier post, I'd be shocked if that's the only room full of sets he has!!!

Charles

I just talked to the seller. They were a Packard Bell distributor for the state in the 70s. He says 90% are Packard Bell sets. Some new, some returns, some that were attempted fixes etc.
He is willing to work with me.
Ill have to think about this for a few and see what audobon has to say.
Packard Bell......hmmmmm

PB made roundies fairly late; I had a 1967 PB roundie.

Charles

If I was to go harvest a load of them how many of my fellow west coast people would be willing to come pick up a few at a reasonable price and help me offset the $3k it would cost for me to get them here???

Someone here has a NOS Packard bell from the 60's, I wonder if it came from this same place?

I'd love to have a NOS set but I need to get rid of a few, not take more in!

bid placed.....:smoke:

Excellent. Now, let's wait and see how it goes.

Excellent! I'd like to be able to help out any way I can. Whats with the rush rush on the sellers part with the 12 days after the auction deal? Did he loose the building or something? Whatever the case, whoever goes there needs to get as may pictures as possible. I'd really like to make a vacation out of it and go out there to check it out, not that I need any more TV's. He's probably got parts and service manuals etc all over too. This sounds like a real gold mine for us.

'large copper wire yokes'. I hope some of these sets get a better fate than being
junked for scrap copper. Good luck to the courageous guy who is bidding on them!

Said he needs to clean out the space and get it leased out or he has someone who wants to lease it.

He will work with me a little bit on the time but only a week or two.

This is a massive project for me and insanely expensive. I really appreciate all the support.

I will take tons of pictures and video and a good inventory of whats there and get it posted.