[drh4683]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Dykro Inc., the Motorola distributor in Milwaukee, would send a letter to the dealers toward the end of the model year, with a lower price for the sets with the more ornate cabinet styles, as they didn't sell as well.
The dealer could sell the set for the same price as the sets with the plainer cabinets.

One of the things that really hurt Motorola the most was the fact that console TV sales were in decline throughout the industry, a trend that started around 1970/71 and continued throughout the decade. Motorola typically enjoyed the profits on the large screen consoles like they did in the 60's as those had the greatest profit margins vs. the much more competitive portable sector. The console decline in the early 70's was one of the biggest reasons Motorola decided to abandon the consumer division as they saw the writing on the wall that it would be impossible to compete with Japanese dumping of the portable color sets which were just about to flood the market.

If there was indeed some kind of fire sale going on Motorola end of year console models, then perhaps these three sets were bought on impulse because they were "too good of a deal to pass up"? So as a result, they were bought as good "secondary" sets for rooms that were not always used? Anything is possible I suppose.