Estate Sale Finds in 2009!

[freakaftr8]

Went to estate sale in Lincoln, CA and found this Magnavox in the back bedroom. This house is all original and the owners passed away. Looks like this set sat here for quite a long time. Complete with 2 remotes. Haven't had much of a chance to look at it but it's clean. Looks very similar to my 1968 Magnavox. Anyone have any ideas about this one?

[drh4683]

This weekend was very successful, I found alot of interesting and rare items.
The first sale was in Westchester, 11019 Nelson St. This happened to be the home of a former Motorola employee. I picked up a radio I've wanted for a long time, a 10T28 table radio from 1960, including its original papers. Next to that was a mid 60's Motorola Transistor AM-FM portable, a true Motorola, as it was made in USA. I got the inside story on the table radio. The lady who lived there was in administration at the Franklin Park facility. According to her story as told to me by the people running the sale (Susan Gallagher is still with us, but now in a nursing home) this particular radio was the model that Motorola photographed for this model's advertising. So if this is indeed true, it has some significant history behind it. Its like new and works great. Susan is 91 now.
I was curious if there were any Motorola TV's in the house considering she was a former employee. I was told no such TV's were in the house. I decided to look around anyway. Sure enough, there was a Moto TV in the basement. A super clean 14 incher color portable from '72. It was just sitting on a cart for some other 1950's TV that was gone. Everything in this house was perfect like the day it was made, nothing was touched it seemed like. That little TV was only $6.00! As I brought it up they asked what I wanted the TV, and I pointed out it was a Motorola as well and the acted all surprised as though nobody knew what it was. The radios all work perfect, but the TV has bad caps on the vertical board (nothing new) as the vertical is folded over twice, but the picture is bright and clear with good color. Its a TS-929 chassis, which is a tube hybrid.
The next sale I went to was in Glenview, at 345 N. Branch Rd. In this house I spotted a clean little 19" Zenith space command 300 portable from '63 just sitting on the floor in the basement. It was $5 half price.
Sale three was in Lincolnwood, 6401 N. Kilpatrick, another not so common TV find, a 1973 Admiral 12" tube type color portable. This one was just sitting on the floor too. $10 took that home.
Sale four was also in Lincolnwood, at 6956 Kenton. Here I found a 1973 Admiral "Solarcolor" console, which is still an all tube type set. Very cheap cabinet, the TV had no mass to it at all. The circuit board looks like GE portacolor, just a big PC board with a bunch of compactrons on it. It works too, still hooked up to the antenna in the front room.

Sale five was by far the best and most unexpected find. As soon as I saw the house, it said "Old TV inside", as I walked in, I stepped onto green carpeting....You know what that means! Then the ladys running the sale who knew me said "theres an old 60's TV in the basement for you, its free". This was about 20 minutes before the sale ended as it was late in the day. Really quick I just glanced around the upstairs to make sure nothing of interest was up there. I then proceeded to the basement. When I got down there, I saw a TV screen with green halo, but I didn't recognize what the kind of set it was until I got closer to it. Once I saw the make, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A 23" Motorola table model color TV in a steel cabinet on the factory cart!!!!! I FINALLY GOT ONE!!!! And its a Quasar II, which is the hybrid works in a drawer chassis. Two birds killed with one stone here as I always wanted a quasar II and a steel cabinet moto table set. Finding this Motorola TV made my day, very much like how me finding that 23" '69 Zenith table color set in Blue Island did last year.
This moto is in great shape too. Looks like nobody ever serviced it. All original tubes are still in it, no missing parts including good antennas. This thing is a tank too, just like the Zenith. A real boat anchor to move by yourself. Upon closer inspection, I was pleased to see every paper tag and label was still present and complete on the back cover. Missing model tags drives me nuts. It was also indeed the factory cart as it had special cut outs for the large rubber feet to fit into.
So Im driving to the last sale all happy because I finally found a steel cabinet Motorola color TV thinking its pretty much a done deal for the day.
The last sale was in LaGrange Park, 1213 Raymond. I walked into this house and again, another Motorola item spotted. Motorola's first consumer portable Stereophonic phonograph. It sounded great as it was playing a Bert Kaempfert album. It was funny as everyone loved this record and I kind of spoiled the sale for everyone when I shut it down to put it all together to buy it. Got that one for $15.00 at half price. I was really surprized someone didn't already buy it.

Once I got everything home, I had to check into the 23" Motorola set. The CRT wouldn't even budge the needle on my RCA CR 3 tester. I raised the heaters to 8 volts for about 30 minutes and the guns came back up. Without rejuvenating the cathodes, I can get about 6-7 on all three guns which track well. So I tried to power it up- NOTHING, totally dead. My first thought was to jump the power switch but it was fine. I then jumped the breaker with the correct 3.5 A fuse. Sure enough, the breaker failed open and wouldn't reset. Static/hash came from the speaker and the tubes started to light up. A very bright picture started flashing from a state of full picture to no vertical sweep, then some smoke started to appear as I saw the 6CW5 vertical output tube flash like a flashcube. I shut it off right away and tested the tube, dead short. I put in a new 6CW5 and all is well. I still cant figure out what was smoking but it was definitly a resistor by the smell. Its still a work in progress, Im glad it came to life with a pretty good picture and the color was good. It will need to be taken apart and recap it so its free of those horrid "ERO" caps that are scattered throughout the set on various boards. The set has intermittent flashing/agc issues which is caused by those junk ero caps leaking. This one was built in October, 1970.

I have a few other things to take care of first before I can put all my free time into this one. The fact that I found so much motorola stuff all in one weekend was quite unreal, just finding two motorola color TV's alone is unheard of.

[drh4683]

I was pretty happy to find this moto, so I got my picture taken next to it before I took it out of its former home. By the way, as for the twin RCA's from a few weeks ago, I havn't looked at them yet other than knowing I have power supply problems in the one as it hums out of the speaker! Not a common occurance in TV's! Thats also a nice magnavox find you got there Shawn!

[bgadow]

What a day! That 23v Moto is a real beauty. They are just loaded with character. The 15" Moto is a set I have wondered about. I don't recall seeing one-I know lots of companies just had them built overseas. Did they build this one here?

I have a 12" Admiral like that, but rebadged as Airline. Put it on the list for "worst color set"! Nothing particulary bad about servicing it, just really cheap and it shows in the picture. I had a Solarcolor console like that once-there is something that I find depressing about those. Small, flimsy chassis, plastic everywhere, from a grand old name that was on its way out. I will say that every one of those 70s Admirals I used to have worked, just not great.

[radiotvnut]

That steel Motorola is a dandy! I've only had one Motorola steel table model TV. It was in a beige steel cabinet and used the 23EGP22 CRT. I got it around '89-'90 and it worked except for a bad CRT. I ended up scrapping it out and my Dad used the cabinet to stick the dog food bowl in. I think the cabinet is still behind my shop. Now, I know I should have kept it; but, what did I know at 13?

Motorola TV's have not been common finds in comparison to other brands. The nicest one I ever had was a late '60's 23" console that was given to me by some older people. It was still in their unused living room and plugged in when I got it. The only thing wrong with it was some minor CRT cataracts. I think I sold that one for $50 (that was back when you could still do that).

I like that Motorola record player as well. I would like to find one of those; but, about the only place I see them is on ebay and they usually go for more than I can afford.

[leadlike]

The cart that the Moto was on is the EXACT same one that our Zenith CCII has been on for 30 years. I also came across that same cart at a yard sale in Seattle, and bought it for 50 cents.

[Spinning Head]

Wow, great finds! It is really strange to come across that many Motorola's in a single day.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

I had an RCA set that looked like this one...

It had a push button that had chroma, tint and contrast pre-settings on it.

Ah, the dreaded "one-button color" common in the 1970's. My grandmother's 19" Hitachi she got for Christmas in 1974 had the good version of one-button color. The button simply switched to a second set of brightness/contrast/color/tint controls on the back of the set. When I visited and she let me watch the set, I adjusted the controls for a good picture and left the other set of controls with the garish settings she (and just about everyone else I ever knew with a color TV from the 1960's through the early 1980's at least) preferred. I could just put it back to "garish" (or "get your money's worth from having color"; see the above comment about dates) with the push of the button when I was done watching.

[AUdubon5425]

Great stuff Doug.

Estate Sales, per se, aren't a big thing around here for some reason. Oddly, the dozen or so I was able to attend this year were devoid of major electronics. You'd see a living room full of furniture and an obvious gap where the console was, or two speakers but no stereo.

[drh4683]

Originally Posted by bgadow

The 15" Moto is a set I have wondered about. I don't recall seeing one-I know lots of companies just had them built overseas. Did they build this one here?

Yep, this one is the real deal. Built at the Franklin Park plant with domestic parts.

[RobtWB]

Holy Cow! What a haul!
That old Admiral color console is my kind of set - like those old 70's sets a lot - and an Admiral to boot!

[DaveWM]

how do you find out about estate sales?

[Robert Grant]

Originally Posted by drh4683

<snip>
another Motorola item spotted. Motorola's first consumer portable Stereophonic phonograph. It sounded great as it was playing a Bert Kaempfert album. It was funny as everyone loved this record and I kind of spoiled the sale for everyone when I shut it down to put it all together to buy it.

<snip>

LOL!! Somebody shares my musical tastes!

I gotta know what album it was.

P.S., congrats and good luck with the new acquistions.

[rca2000]

Originally Posted by Robert Grant

LOL!! Somebody shares my musical tastes!

I gotta know what album it was.

P.S., congrats and good luck with the new acquistions.

You two are NOT the only one's that know who Bert is...or like his music.

And at this time of the year..songs like "jingo Jango", "Toy parade", "holiday for bells" , "Jumpin' Jimminy Christmas", and others-EVERYONE has heard them, whether they know the names of them or not.

Also, I figure you both know names like "Hollyridge strings", Percy faith, Franck Pourcel, James last....the last one in particular has some of the BEST Christmas music, (and normal music too, as do all of the others), there is... his "Christmas Dancing" album is awesome!! Most of them are "German Christmas medleys"--but they sound great, and VERY unique.

ALL of these and MANY more like them-- are on my Ipod.....and my MP3 files.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by rca2000

You two are NOT the only one's that know who Bert is...or like his music.

I have a few of Bert's records. My favorite tune of his is Swingin' Safari.