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I remember one story about a TV from the Zenith dealer that I picked up when I was about 16 or 17. It was a first generation Zenith system 3 console from '78 and they had scratched whe word "JUNK" on the top and side of the cabinet. Well, I brought it home and fixed it. I don't remember what was wrong with it; but, I'm sure it was a simple fix. My Dad, who was a woodworker, told me, "Son, you'll never get $100 for that set with the cabinet scratched up. Let me sand that cabinet down and refinish the top and side and then you can ask $125 and give me $25 for my efforts". I agreed and he sanded down the top. Before he could get a chance to finish the top, some guy came to look at the TV and he didn't care about the top. He was in love with the picture and wanted to know how much. I told him $125 and he pulled out the money without blinking an eye. My Dad thought it was funny that the guy bought the set before he had a chance to finish the cabinet and he didn't want the other $25.
Then, we bought a new refrigerator from that dealer and my Dad had to run his mouth to them about how I fixed that TV that they tossed and he got a real nice "well, I'm glad he could get some good out of it and I'm proud of him" speech. It wasn't a month later that they put out a Zenith CCII console that had a decent cabinet with no "JUNK" carvings in the wood. When I opened it, every module was busted in half and the connecting cables from the tuner to the chassis had been cut. Not to be outdone, I splced all the wires back and repaired the cracked modules. Once that was done, a new tripler got the set back going. And, I told my Dad to keep his mouth shut. I guess it's things just such as I described that I have a problem with destroying, or attempting to destroy something, where it can't be fixed.
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