CT-100, gone for 750 Bucks

[CT-100]

Videokarma is a forum for the exchange technical ideas, not the type of story-telling posted below. Unless there are objections though, I will share some background before discussing the restoration, at least what little has taken place thus far.

I had previously entered “CT-100” on eBay as a search criterion with email notification enabled. As a consequence, soon after the auction began I received an automatic ping from the eBay SMTP servers in San Jose. My first thought was this was probably another auction for a CT-100 schematic or something else of little consequence, but I immediately viewed the auction anyway.

I am stating the obvious here; everyone must have thought exactly the same thing: “what’s with the “Buy-It-Now” option?” I actually sent the seller an email asking if “they would consider holding the set until I could drive up to get it if I won”. While I was waiting for the answer I called “the boss” and asked her if she particularly cared if I purchased a CT-100. “Buy it if you want too, but I do not have the time to drive to Pennsylvania with you to pick it up.” By then, I fully expected my Buy-It-Now execution to come back “auction [already] ended”, but it didn’t. I didn’t pounce on this item; I just gave it some thought and then purchased it.

As a side note, in the summer of 1968, my dad transported two CT-100’s from our home near Washington, D.C. to his mother’s in Kenosha, WI. Regrettably, both of those sets were eventually lost, being discarded as trash, but that is where I started looking for a 100 when I decided to try to locate one. Since I had early exposure to these sets I had a fairly good idea of what I was seeing in the auction. I also remember my father getting one of them to work. One had a bad 15GP22; the other one produced a beautiful picture once repaired.

Although I actually spoke to the seller, the set was listed by a friend with eBay experience. It is the friend that I eventually met when I arrived to retrieve the set. Apparently the original purchaser was the seller’s father who, for years, operated an appliance business in the area. He purchased the television new when it was introduced. After retiring the set was left in his daughter’s custody, eventually being listed on the auction site.

I live in Northern Virginia, so the trip wasn’t that difficult, about 5 hours one way, door-to-door. I was to arrive at the seller’s home at 10AM; I made it at 10:10. The home was 3 miles north of a coal mining community and the sides of the road, and almost everything else, were covered with black coal dust.

The home was modest but quaint, next to a brook with an interesting pet; a skunk. I got the sense the skunk didn’t exactly want the set to go. She didn’t come out for a visit, but hid, stamping her front paws loudly as I spoke to the person helping me load the set. That is the normal warning behavior for Mephitis mephitis (a.k.a., a skunk). This was an insightful skunk for sure.

I was told a number of emails were received after the auction ended informing the seller of the sets potential value. It was their choice to complete the transaction and I did not conceal what I thought the value may be. Further, the person I meet with explained the TV had recently been plugged in and turned on and that the screen lit-up, but no picture was displayed, possibly because of that new “digital thing” the TV stations were doing. I did not attempt to check the set and, as it turns out, that was a good choice for a couple of reasons. The last remaining task this CT-100 performed in the seller’s home was to act as a “TV stand” for a new flat-screen television. It was a function it performed dutifully.

See the attached photo’s of the set being transported back to VA., and its arrival at my garage.