Estate Sale Finds In 2005!

[captainmoody]

Good job Doug! That RCA looks as good as new!

[maxm]

Nice Sets! The picture on the RCA is Amazing. Did you take a look inside that Safari yet, I've always wondered what they looked like inside...

[drh4683]

Ive had this TV for 2 years now. Got it from Mr. Stout here on the forum.
Ive been waiting to find a cart big enough to fit this set ever since. Its a 25" table set, so I needed a big 30" cart which I finally found this weekend! Picked up this cart for $5 at an estate sale in Elmwood Park, IL. Not sure if its for a zenith or RCA but the cart was all by itself in the basement like 99% of them are- cart but no TV. Finding a cart for a 25" table set is very rare. So now the FL532WR is finally complete! Now it can be watched without it being ontop of a console! The console can be spared too by not supporting the massive load of the set as well.

[drh4683]

Found a nice little 16" RCA EB395W XL-100 as well. Picked up this set in Hinsdale, IL for $10 half price. The set was in the living room on the floor. This one works pretty nice and is like new. This one was built august 1977

[drh4683]

inside view. XL-100's and chromacolor II's are the end limit of my interests. They are solid state, but have similar characteristics to the construction of the tube type sets.
Just to note, that little RCA dot-bar generator at the right was found at an estate as well this weekend.

[Charlie]

Another good thing about the cart... now you can move it around on the wheels instead of lifting.

My parents' second tv was an RCA nearly identical to the smaller one you show above, except ours was a 19". They got 20 years of use out of it, and it still played pretty good once they got rid of it.

[drh4683]

Charlie, you are correct. thats the best thing about the cart, being able to move around. I never used the set before as it was always too bulky to move around to watch. I can just roll it away from my display of sets to the other half of the basement to watch from the recliner!

[Jeffhs]

Today's CRT-based TVs aren't exactly small either (referring to the size of the cabinets and their weight). I have two sets here in my apartment, an RCA (Thomson) 19" built in 1999 which weighs the proverbial ton, even though it is solid state, and a Zenith SMS1917SG 19" built in 1995 (also SS and remote) which is also quite heavy. Given that these sets are both solid state, the only tube in them being the CRT, I would think that tube is what weighs the most--the larger the screen, the heavier the CRT (the 25" tube in your RCA must weigh at least 25 pounds alone). By contrast, I am sure the new flat-panel HD sets are a fraction of the weight of even the newest of today's CRT sets (although, again, the 27" flat-screen sets weigh a lot, the reason being the picture tube; I hate to think what a 32- or 36" CRT set must weigh--probably 200 pounds or more). My RCA set is on a wood (oak) utility cart on hidden casters (boy, does it look nice--it gives the illusion of the cabinet sitting flat on the floor) in the main part of my apartment, which is where it will stay--I won't move the set myself (off the cart) unless I have to; the same goes for the Zenith, which is in my bedroom on my dresser. The latter doesn't get much use (except to back up the living-room set), but the few times I've had to drag it out to the front...oh, brother. Zenith's newest CRT based consoles are no doubt heavy as well (even with the Gold Star guts), but I understand the wood used in those cabinets isn't real mahogany, oak, maple, etc.; rather, it is cheap wood with the "finish" pasted over it. Zenith used the same technique, called "photo finish", on many of its large table-model radios of the 1930s, so this dodge is anything but new.

BTW, I saw the cart your 25" RCA now sits on. It reminded me of a similar cart I found in the trash some 20 years ago; I used it with two Zenith color portable TVs I had between 1982 and 1999.

It doesn't really matter, IMO, what make of set the stand was made for (RCA, Zenith, etc.), as long as the TV fits on it and the stand will bear its weight without caving in. Obviously, your RCA set fits that stand perfectly.

[bgadow]

That tv does look pretty sharp on that cart! And plenty of room for a top-loader Betamax, too!

We hit a ton of yard sales yesterday. Some close calls. A mid-80s Zenith 19" for $5 & then a NAP Sylvania Superset 19" complete with the original (and clunky) remote, also $5. Left both of them sitting, I really, REALLY do not need to start collecting 80s stuff! Later at a moving sale I walked in the garage to find a 23" Admiral bw combo. I've no room for it but figured if it was really cheap I'd drag it home. $25 was not cheap enough. It will probably meet a sad fate

[Chad Hauris]

Went to an estate sale Fri. and saw a huge mid 1970's Magnavox console with TV, radio and phono for $25...the ladies there asked if I could get it playing as they knew I could figure it out...got the radio playing and the TV just needed fine tuning. You just had to know the procedure for turning it on. Did not get it as I have run out of room for really big consoles although if it were a tube type I might have made room to store it... hopefully someone bought it as I was able to get it working to demonstrate.

Also saw a late 1970's Hammond organ spinet model...priced at $550 and it sold within several hours of the sale opening. I know that the B-3 hammond has some "fad" value but it seems like some of the other models may be increasing in collector value. At another sale I saw an old RCA console radio/phono (in good cabinet condition) also sell for around $550.
It may be that some of these items which were not really collectible in the 80's/90's are starting to become fashionable items.

I think this is also starting to happen in the Jukebox market where models like the late 60's Wurlitzer Americana are starting to increase in collector value.

[drh4683]

I havnt found a portable tube type tv in over a year! Ive been patient going to many estate sales on saterdays, the majority were dissapointments. I was stunned to find a CTC-22 playing in the bedroom in a NEWER HOME yesterday! An absolute unexpected find! I'll tell you this much, the last time I found a CTC-22 at an estate sale was August 18, 1998 in Downers Grove (I keep a record of all my estate sale finds)
Went to a sale at 4501 madison, Brookfield, IL. It was a newer home, so normally, I dont expect a thing as far as old TV's go. Everything was new downstairs so I figured the rest of the house was a waist of time to go through.
ANyone who was to go upstairs had to take their shoes off (which Ive never had to do at an ES before). I asked, are there any TV's up there. "yes, there is one in the bedroom but you probably wont like it as its a newer set". For the hell of it, I went up and checked anyway. I was blown away to see it was a mint condition CTC-22 on top of a dresser and working!

Snatched it up at half price, so I got it for $10! It still has the model tag on the back which is rare. Its an EM-417W the "URBANITE" and is a 1969 model. This is the newer generation of the 22. It has the newer knobs and RCA logo.
Got it home, and it has all original tubes inside. Even though it worked, it was somewhat of a weak picture. all 8 of the 5GH8's had to go! Its got a nice sharp and bright picture!

[drh4683]

top view.

[drh4683]

inside view. Super clean low hour set. The knobs have no wear at all. The PCBs are like brand new.

[drh4683]

its got a very nice sharp picture.

[Sandy G]

About all the carts I've seen have been broken down, prolly from having the TV & half-a-ton of magazines, VCRs, general crap piled on 'em...Seems like lots of 'em had little plastic wheels that kinda disintegrated after awhile, too. Finding one that isn't ready for the landfill is lucky.-Sandy G.