Doesn't every collector deserve one?

[Phil Nelson]

I know you're all secretly craving a Muntz.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/clt/2164013307.html

Something tells me the price might be negotiable:

"I have no idea of the value but must be worth something. It's in my way. Do you want it?"

Phil "No Affiliation" Nelson

[Eric H]

Someone should grab it!

"Has 6 small glass tubes and 2 large ones"

I know Muntz was famous for being cheap but I'm sure even his sets had more than eight tubes, or is that just all that are left?

[cwmoser]

I'm relatively new to this hobby but have restored two TVs so far. Muntz TV's I hear a lot about for their "reduced circuitry". Wouldn't mind getting one to mess with if I ever get a chance to buy one. I'm 62 years old but I really don't think I've ever seen a Muntz TV. I worked in Electronics but not TV servicing. I don't recall the Muntz brand at all - I recall only brands like RCA, Philco, Admiral, Westinghouse, etc. Here in North Carolina, most places you only had one local station and if you wanted to watch other TV channels you needed a good antenna and have to put up with snow and fading. Maybe Muntz's with their reduced RF amplifiction just were not sold in our area?

Carl

[jbivy]

i talked to that seller and it seems the price is VERY negotiable.

id say 60 would take it.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Eric H

Someone should grab it!

"Has 6 small glass tubes and 2 large ones"

I know Muntz was famous for being cheap but I'm sure even his sets had more than eight tubes, or is that just all that are left?

Set has 16 tubes plus the CRT. HV cage hides 3 tubes, plus the 5U4 is behind on top of the power transformer. Lot of room in that chassis to work on.

[Sandy G]

"Madman" Muntz was a postwar car dealer one of whose slogans was "I'd GIVE 'em away, but my wife won't let me..." He even tried to get into the car-making business, but like all the postwar Henry Ford wannabes, he didn't last too long. The TV business in those days was almost as white-hot as the car business, he tried to get into it w/a set that had the absolute minimum # of parts possible. His sets reportedly worked reasonably well if you were VERY close to yr local transmitter, but were pretty hopeless if you weren't.

[GeorgeJetson]

Muntz was a character alright!
I've seen vintage advertisments that Muntz would put on cars saying "Join the millions of happy pedestrians....sell me your car"

One ad shows him in cartoon form with trademark Napoleon hat riding a toy horse with the caption "I'm not crazy,its him (pointing to horse) you've got to worry about".

When he opened his stereo stores in Los Angeles he staffed them with beautiful women and then took out an ad in the local papers begging customers not to go to his store on such and such ave just to flirt with his girls!

Muntz was a master of self promotion,we dont have any real zany characters like him today.

[50scraze]

Theres one in my area but the guy wants so much for it that any reasonable offer would be insulting...

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/atq/2108170686.html

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

"Madman" Muntz was a postwar car dealer one of whose slogans was "I'd GIVE 'em away, but my wife won't let me..." He even tried to get into the car-making business, but like all the postwar Henry Ford wannabes, he didn't last too long. The TV business in those days was almost as white-hot as the car business, he tried to get into it w/a set that had the absolute minimum # of parts possible. His sets reportedly worked reasonably well if you were VERY close to yr local transmitter, but were pretty hopeless if you weren't.

I grew up in a suburb of Cleveland that was nearly 30 miles from the three (at the time - late '60s-'70s) local TV transmitters, which were located in a southwestern suburb of the city. One of my neighbors had a Muntz 19" console TV hooked up to a conical rooftop antenna; it picked up all three stations fairly well. The reason this set worked so well (!) in our near-fringe area was probably, even likely, because of the large chimney-mounted antenna; if my neighbor had tried to get anything on that TV with rabbit ears, he would have been lucky to get one station, much less all three. The problem in our area was not simply distance from the transmitters; terrain features, not the least of which was an area the locals referred to as "the shelf" because of an area resembling a shelf in the suburb next to us, also played heck with our TV reception, depending on where in the area you lived. Heaven help anyone with a Muntz TV who lived out in the sticks. Unless you used a very good antenna with these sets, you'd be hard-pressed to see anything at all but very snowy, weak images from the Cleveland stations in a fringe or near-fringe (or even far suburban) area.

Muntz TVs definitely would not have worked well with analog signals where I live today, a small town about 40 miles east of the transmitters, unless a good antenna was used. Today's DTV, with an ATSC->NTSC converter box? I don't think so. Unless you use a high-power fringe-area antenna ahead of your converter box, a 1950s Muntz TV won't pull in much of anything -- meaning, of course, don't try to use one of these old sets with a converter box and simply rabbit ears for an antenna. You will be setting yourself up for a heck of a disappointment if you do, since, as has been noted, Muntz televisions did not have the most sensitive tuners on Earth -- no thanks to Madman Muntz's pinchpenny nature; he wasn't about to put cascode tuners with high-gain tubes like 6BQ7s in his TVs. His sets probably sold very well in prime signal areas, within ten miles or so of the transmitters, but he probably lost money trying to sell them in weak signal zones -- if he could sell them there at all, which I seriously doubt. If these TVs sold in poor signal areas, I bet his dealers had a good stock of fringe-area antennas and preamplifiers or set-top boosters as well; if not, the local Muntz dealer probably told prospective buyers to invest in such an antenna or be terribly disappointed.

[GeorgeJetson]

Originally Posted by 50scraze

Theres one in my area but the guy wants so much for it that any reasonable offer would be insulting...

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/atq/2108170686.html

For $2,000 it had better come with some Muntz Jet parts!

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

Today's DTV, with an ATSC->NTSC converter box? I don't think so. Unless you use a high-power fringe-area antenna ahead of your converter box, a 1950s Muntz TV won't pull in much of anything -- meaning, of course, don't try to use one of these old sets with a converter box and simply rabbit ears for an antenna. You will be setting yourself up for a heck of a disappointment if you do, since, as has been noted, Muntz televisions did not have the most sensitive tuners on Earth -- no thanks to Madman Muntz's pinchpenny nature; he wasn't about to put cascode tuners with high-gain tubes like 6BQ7s in his TVs.

It should work well, the converter box will do all the heavy lifting as far as pulling in weak DTV signals. The converter box has a small channel 3 or 4 modulator that takes the decoded digital video baseband signal and feeds it to the modulator and that produces the same amount of power regardless of the DTV OTA signal strength.

[dieseljeep]

I have a Muntz 17B6 series chassis that I have still to restore. It is a table model that has a Proxylin covered plywood cabinet. It uses a 20DP4 crt. I was lucky to get a like new Rauland aluminized CRT. The original one had the neck snapped off. It was no loss, as it had a brightner on it. I saw an ad for this set advertized for $99.95 when they were new.

[50scraze]

Originally Posted by GeorgeJetson

For $2,000 it had better come with some Muntz Jet parts!

My thoughts exactly George!

[stusnyder]

Originally Posted by 50scraze

My thoughts exactly George!

You see this all over the place. Just because something is " old " people think it's priceless There was a philco floor model radio for sale in the local craigslist. Cabinet was nice, guy said it worked and wanted 500.00 for it.
When I replied that I wanted what he was smoking, he dropped it to 250.00...basicly told him he would never get it and offered 50 for it...I tend not to spend more than that for anything unrestored....he declined the offer, naturally. Told him to have it appraised and email me a copy

[50scraze]

Originally Posted by stusnyder

You see this all over the place. Just because something is " old " people think it's priceless There was a philco floor model radio for sale in the local craigslist. Cabinet was nice, guy said it worked and wanted 500.00 for it.
When I replied that I wanted what he was smoking, he dropped it to 250.00...basicly told him he would never get it and offered 50 for it...I tend not to spend more than that for anything unrestored....he declined the offer, naturally. Told him to have it appraised and email me a copy

At least you got a reply! When I try to explain to people that the market for old TV's is very small and the value is way less then what they're asking...well..I rarely hear from them again!