Sets you wish you had kept but didn't?

[Adam]

Thinking about all the different color tvs I've had for the "worst color tv" topic got me thinking about this. Which sets did you junk, sell, or give away that you wished you still had now?

for me:
1. late 60s Zenith 16" b/w table set (my 1st tv)
2. 1971 Zenith 19" b/w SC500
3. 1975 Zenith 19" chromacolor 2 in the avanti cabinet, SC600
4. 1983 Zenith 25" system 3, remote, in a metal cabinet

[zenithfan1]

'63 Zenith 26KC20 model 5005 black metal tabletop
'57 Sylvania roundie 31C606MU "The Saratoga"
'72 12" Admiral color portable (my first tube color set that worked right) sold it in 1998
I'll think of more........

[radiotvnut]

This could take all night.

1. '68-'69 20" Zenith metal cabinet table model color set.
2. Same vintage/same type 23" color set
3. '66ish Motorola 23" beige metal color set
4. '60's 23" Zenith B&W space command console
5. Early '70's 19" RCA tube type color hospital set
6. '74 19" RCA accucolor remote tube color set
7. Early '70's 23" RCA metal cabinet "mural TV" (CTC39).
8. late '70's Zenith 23" metal cabinet SS B&W TV.
9. Early '60's 19" RCA B&W (1st TV I fixed).
10. '75 19" Zenith space command CCII (1st color TV that I fixed).
11. The couple of Zenith roundies that got out of here.
12. And a Magnavox roundie that left here.
13. Big RCA CTC40
14. '74 RCA CTC39 steel table set.

[wa2ise]

My father's mother bought a TV new just like this one I have now:

I had it as a kid after his mother checked out, but we tossed it around 1975, as it was just an old small screen TV.

Used to watch that TV instead of homework... And it was also missing the door over the controls too.

[N9ZQA]

Let's see...

1. Mid-60's Zenith B/W, metal cabinet. 2 of them had been in the family for a while, and I was given this one as a kid.

2. "Bradford" branded Portacolor - always was a little flaky, but looking back on it, nothing that probably couldn't be fixed.

3. Zenith 19" 4-tube hybrid - gave this to a friend of mine who needed a TV.

4. Zenith 25" Chromacolor (maybe II) from 1975 or so - worked up until about 1995, then died suddenly - white and blue flashing in the CRT neck.

5. Zenith 19" Chromacolor II - I don't know if it was part of the "Avanti" line, but the cabinet had white sides, and IIRC, the controls were all in a line on a separate area on the bottom front.

6. Mid-1950's Admiral that was in my grandparents' basement when they moved to Arizona. It still worked and was in good shape, but nobody wanted "another old TV".

7. Sears-branded B/W, possibly GE. Cost me 75 cents at a garage sale back in the mid 80's, and worked fine after resoldering one of the filament pins on a tube socket.

8. RCA CTC-something console from about 1973-74. Belonged to my uncle and quit working sometime around 1988. My father worked on it for a while but it kept eating vertical output transistors. Again, just "another old TV" at the time.

-Jim

[Zenith26kc20]

Motorola console with the TS-905 chassis and the 21axp22 CRT.
Zenith metal cabinet painted walnut with 26kc20 chassis.
Still have too many of the rest (many 7 inch electrostatic Motorolas, 10 inch Admiral, 10 inch Motorola).
Like I said, way too many. When I retire (do I hear laughing?) I'll get them all going

[matt_s78mn]

1963 Admiral 19" portable that belonged to my grandparents on my mom's side.

1972 Zenith 19" 4 tube hybrid that belonged to my grandparents on my dad's side. They impulse bought the set so they could watch the Cornhuskers play in the Orange bowl in color!!

1973 Zenith 25" chromacolor 4 tube hybrid (probably the best performing vintage set I've ever owned.)

RCA CTC-9 "winslow" that I picked up at an auction for free, just to get it out of there so they wouldn't have to cart it off to the dump.

Early 70's "Quasar by Motorola" 17" hybrid portable color set.

Late 60's Zenith 14" color portable (i think this was zenith's first small screen portable model.) complete with matching cart.

Zenith Chromacolor II space command corner console set with spacephone, and zoom.

[Electrohome]

I have that 1968 14-inch Zenith color portable that weighs a TON w/the all-metal cabinet, hand-wired chassis. I got it in North Bay, yes got it in North Bay in June of 2002 a few years before things went south here in North Bay for finding TVs:-)

[drh4683]

Adam,

You had a space command 500 b/w set? I never knew 500's were available in b/w. What did the remote look like? I thought the 500 was only for color sets. I have a '72 sc 500 4 tuber and the remote looks just like the original sc 600 remote with only 3 buttons instead.
Time to check some brochures when I get home to see what one of those looked like!
I'll have to make my list later. Fortunately, many of the sets I regret getting rid of came back to me years later from going to estate sales.

[Adam]

I mistyped, I meant SC100. You posted an identical set in the estate sale thread a few weeks ago.

[AUdubon5425]

I'd keep one of these if I ever ran across one:

1970 RCA Trans Vista CTC-40 - Lundberg model - would love to have this one again
1977-78 19" Zenith B&W portable (black cabinet with silver trim)
c.1970 RCA tabletop color set with 2-button ultrasonic clicker with long chromed buttons

[zenith2134]

these might sound weird but theyre mostly sentimental.

1. 1981ish Sanyo 19" color SS w/modules and metal cabinet and knobtuner...made a very nice pic

2. the mid-seventies Curtis Mathes color set that was in my grandparents house circa 1992. it wasnt the best pic but it was pretty solid as far as i can remember and looked cool too ..

[bgadow]

1) Late 60s Philco-Ford color console, danish modern. Great picture.
2) '67 GE table model color set; I had one "hand-me-down" as a kid and later another one with a tuning meter. Both were awful sets, but I wish I had one now!
3) '67 Motorola table model color set. I had 2 of these at the same time, almost identical. I should have kept at least one of them.
4) Late 60s Sylvania color console, small-I think the crt was less than 23v. I junked it because the vertical went out.
5) Admiral roundie in a heavy console cabinet. Needed refinishing and cataract surgery. I watched the first gulf war coverage on that set. Junked.

[drh4683]

Back around 1995 there was a christmas party at the home of our Pastor from Church. In his basement on the cart was a big metal cabinet Coronado color set from around '68 in working condition with the dull grey screen (thats what I used to call it as a kid) and it didn't even have cataracts. I thought it was so neat, I remember him telling me he got it at the resale shop in 1984. As a kid, I asked if I could have it if it ever broke.
He didn't say much, he always looked at me like I was some kind of dumb kid because I liked electrical and mechanical stuff unlike the rest of the kids my age who were into sports and all that other crap.
The day came it broke, it was around 1997 and it got brought into the basement of our church where I spotted it one week after church with the back cover off on a table. Pastor brought it to the chruch as one of the congregation members offered to fix it. He was an electrician, not an electronics tech. He had no idea what he was doing. I remember looking at the back of it and Pastor came downstairs and saw me and ordered me to get away from it as I had no business touching it. At the age of 13, I knew more about TV's than that 50 year old electrican, I know that. He told me Ed said the TV had some other serious issue as it wont turn on and that he jumped the power switch and then gave him that stupid line about "Tubes arn't available anymore". So Pastor decided the TV was unrepairable based on the opinion of a person who had no idea about anything inside a TV. I offered that I try to fix it and he said "No, its going in the trash". I asked if I could have it then, and he refused "No, I won't let you have it, we're throwing it away". I got so angry with him for that, that TV was like brand new. I never forgot that, and that TV got crushed and destroyed for nothing and there was nothing I could do about it as I was at that age where I had no control over these types of situations. To this day, I can't understand why he was against me having it. He knew I always liked it, it broke and he threw it away right in front of me. Im irritated just thinking about it again.

[David Roper]

I wish I hadn't thrown away my parents' first color TV, a Packard Bell 23" console from 1966. At the same time I pitched an unusual Magnavox 24" set with a little RF remote control receiver in it. The remote was long gone by the time I got it, so I don't know what it looked like. The channel selector was just a little doorbell button and you could set the motorized tuner to turn off the set when it reached a certain channel number. Oh agony...around the same time I pitched a CBS-Columbia 360 console from 1954. An idiot who lived here at the time went on a housecleaning rampage and wasn't cognizant of the fact there was a CRT cup in back. I was not home at the time and he was just determined to push that pesky TV set against the wall....

Crack! WHOOOSHHHHHHH

Psych, it was a 21" b&w. But a really nice one that I have never seen again anywhere since.

A couple of GE sets from 1955 (one was the infamous lowboy) I had as a kid but slipped out of my hands already while I still lived with the folks are also missed.