Went to two sales yesterday, turned up another nice clean set. The sale was at 508 N. Main in Mount Prospect, IL. There were no pictures of this set on estatesales.net, I just got lucky and saw it sight on scene when I decided to go this this sale.
In the basement I found a very unique space command 400 color set from '68 in the corner. I say unique because this is the only rectangular color TV model zenith offered as a space command 400 and only available in '68. Interestingly, I did find this exact same model at an estate sale on 7-8-06 in Berwyn, which I bought and restored but couldn't get rid of the mildue issues on the cabinet. I was so dissapointed with that one because it was in a damp basement. I no longer have that one, another collector has it who can apparently deal with the mold/mildue issues it had.
So yesterdays find is near mint from a nice clean basement was nice and dry too. Right as I was pulling the set away form the wall, the people running the sale say "its the TV guy". I kind of laughed like yeah that me as thats pretty much who I'm known as at all these estate sales around here. They even offered to help me move it up the stairs and into the truck which was great. I got it for $20.
I didn't see the remote for it, but as soon as it was scooted away from the wall, there it was, sitting on the floor underneath the TV! Its the regular space command 400 remote too, no "color TV" or anything on it. So seeing that remote also answered my question if the 68 sc400 remotes should have been the regular plain "400" or the one that said "color TV" like the '64 models. I'm under the impression this set was zeniths cheap attempt at giving you a color set with remote control as basically all the color sets were using space command 600 by 1965.
I then saw a table full of old zenith radios, none which I bought ($50 for a plain 60's table radios that werent in great shape was a bit too much!) I did see a box with many RCA tube boxes. Right away, I recognized all the numbers as ones being out of the color TV. Sure enough, most of the tubes in the boxes were the original zeniths. Inside one of the tube boxes was a receipt from May, '79 when he went to Tri-state electronics in Mt. Prospect (still in business, I go there all the time!) for a bunch of RCA tubes he bought. In fact, some of the tubes he bought were still brand new in the box. There were some other tubes in there, like a 6DW4 and 6JA5, so I know they also had a 4 tube hybrid at one time but its probably long gone as it wasnt at the sale. A couple empty TV carts though as usual. He apparently did a shotgun tube recplacement to fix a problem as he was a do it yourselfer but not a TV man. Fortunately I got most of the original tubes to put back in the set to keep it original.
As I went to pay for the TV, the guy at the register told me they had some papers for that TV. He goes sifting through a folder next to the cash box with manuals and gives me an envelope with all of the original documentation for the TV. I couldn't believe it. Even had the hang tags and the sticker that went on the CRT. It was bought new on November 25, 1967 at Fujawas Furniture in South Bend Indiana. Wonder why they bought it there though?They used to live on the north side of Chicago as can be seen on the registration, and then moved to Mt. Prospect which was not that much of a move.
This should be a nice one to work on, clean non smoker set and from a house with baseboard heat. There is almost no dust inside the set! It should have alot of potential, havn't tried it yet, but I checked the G2 controls, and all were set low, so that give me hope the CRT is still strong. Its got the 20Y1C48 chassis, which as I've said recently, I find so many set with this chassis for some reason. '67-'68 must have been a huge year for Zenith TV sales in the Chicago area. I would guess many of the networks were broadcasting many color programs by '67. Alteast my dad tells me he remembers lots of stuff being in color starting around '67. (my grandparents on dads side bought a motorola color TV in 1966, which apparently started a huge argument between my grandparents my dad told me. Grandpa bought it as a gift and grandma said they couldn't afford it, but then saw the pictures in color for the first time and the rest is history....haha.
