A coupl'a cool estate finds today ....

[Thumper]

I went to an estate sale this morning and found a couple of old radios. I love those old sets and have a hard time passing them up when I run across them, PLUS ... I've made some pretty decent money selling them to collectors. I usually like to stick with the smaller, table-top models, but today I bought one of those plus a large floor model. Man, the wood cabinets on these things looked so nice, I first thought they were replicas. Anyway, here's what I came home with today.

This is an old Truetone floor model. It's a 3-band radio (Broadcast, Middle Wave and Short Wave) and all parts are there (chassis, tubes, speaker, etc), but the power cord has deteriorated so much it has bare wires showing.


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And here's an old table top Philco Cathedral model that is in excellent condition. I can't believe how nice the cabinets are on these old things.


6837

[BarryBobPosthole]

Since he's been in radio and tv almost all of his adult life, I've bought my step Dad quite a few cllectible radio sets like those over the years. Most of them are tube type and work remarkably well given their age. They put some thought into designing and building that kind of stuff back in the day.
BKB

[Thumper]

Yep, I've bought quite a few. The big sellers are from the "art deco" era and are bakelite or plastic. It's pretty much the norm for these old radios to need "re-capping" as those old cardboard capacitors leak after a while and all you'll get is a "hum" when they're turned on. Re-capping is pretty much the standard with these things if they haven't already been refurbished. Most people just want to put them on display anyway. Who listens to AM these days?

[BarryBobPosthole]

My folks have an AM Stereo station that plays a slightly different format than their FM and they have lots of loyal listeners. Its the more 'local' of the two channels but the listeners on it tend to be pretty loyal. Lots of local businesses have the AM on in their stores or offices.

Their FM transmitter and antenna is up on a mountain just south of my hometown. They drive up there in all weathers to do maintenance, and its 4wd country even in summer.
Funny thing, they originally built a chain link fence around the building and had a big sturdy door and lock. People would back their trucks up, tie a chain to the gates or door, and yank them off just to see what was in there. Once they figured out there wasn't any copper to steal (or know where to look) they'd leave it alone. So they leave the gates open and don't lock the doors any more and just installed a video camera. People look in and go on their way.

BKB

[Thumper]

Well, I listed that Philco at 2:30 this afternoon for $175.00 and it sold in 8 hours! I'm thinkin' I may have under-priced it. :(