Estate Sale Finds in 2009!

[drh4683]

I've found a few sets this year already, they just never got posted. I finally decided to bring this thread back, and hopefully keep it going. I picked up that '69 Zenith console at the Evanston estate sale on Friday morning. The sale was at 9524 Hamiln, was a family run sale and we were all standing in line getting ready to get rained on. We were ready to have one of the most serious downpours in history that morning.
It was at this sale where saw Max for the first time in quite a few years. He was waiting in line too before the sale started.
This was a nice old house, basically undisturbed in 40+ years. The zenith was up in the bedroom, and as I hoped, it was the 16Z8C50 chassis. The son of the original owner was there, told me it was their first color set, then it became a bedroom TV later on where it never got used again. Not even an antenna, or antenna jack connected to it, it just sat there since the early 80's.
They told me to take the TV for $10. One of the guys working at the sale told me they had a much better newer TV downstairs. This zenith actually works, just a dim picture. Might need a kick start to the filaments to bring it back, looks like it had the back off maybe once. Completely original.

One of the guys working at the sale offered to bring it down the stairs for me and help me load it into the truck. As soon as I got the TV downstairs, I had the truck waiting in the street with the tailgate and cap door open. It got very dark, very quick. The rain started to come down pretty good at this point. We threw a big heavy blanket over the TV and then me and this other guy picked up the set and litterally ran out the door with it to get it to the truck. As soon as the set was in the truck, we were soaked, but the blanket was good enough to where it didn't saturate the blanket down to the cabinet. As soon as I felt the TV was safe and sound, I pulled the blanket off it. Right then and there the rain just picked up fiercly and a huge gust of wind blew the rain sideways, right into the truck blasting rain water all over the TV! NOO!! I had to get in the truck, turn it around 180 degrees so the rain wasn't blowing into the back. Fortunatly I had some towels with me, I was able to dry it off asap before the water ruined the cabinet. The rain was so dense that you could hardly see 10 feet infront of you. I was instantly soaked as I had to run back into the house to pay for the set. And as always, I had to hear people at the sale talk among themselves "I can't believe someone actually bought that thing". I hear it every time! I was asked by someone what I do with it. I told them I wanted it for the cabinet. The one guy says "oh, yes, its a very nice cabinet to make into something else" That ended it. No more me needing to explain why I like the old sets, no more people looking at me cross eyed when I tell them how good the picture is when they are properly working, no more people telling me that its not digital ready and that I'll need a convertor box to watch it. This way, it just speeds up the process, tell them what they want to hear and everyone moves on.

Its safe now, just need to open it up and see whats all wrong with it and get it going again!