Vintage Radios for sale.

[William]

I came across these two ads and thought I would share. This guy has radios....

https://muskegon.craigslist.org/atq/d/s ... 55469.html

https://muskegon.craigslist.org/atq/d/s ... 58898.html

https://muskegon.craigslist.org/atq/d/s ... 63804.html

Then there is this ad:

https://nmi.craigslist.org/atq/d/kalkas ... 90381.html

It seems Michigan is full of people that want to downsize their collections.

Bill

[electra225]

They have a lot of stuff for sale. Those stacked consoles look like a lot of them are Zenith.

[William]

Since it's not all that far away I'm half tempted to give the guy a call and go check it out. It would be interesting to see 2300 radios and other stuff all in one place.

Bill

[Firedome]

2300 radios?.. that makes my head hurt.
Most our age are realizing it's time to downsize, and I don't want to do to my kids what my uncle did to his:
18 rented & 4 owned garages chock full, mostly car parts. Guess who in the family was the "car guy" and had to deal with it.

[hermitcrab]

30 bucks for that 1938 zenith is a good price...mine sits in the dining room

[19&41]

Those Zenith consoles are the closest thing to an investment one can have in the old radio hobby. I said closest, mind you.

[William]

Hey Elton, maybe you should have two of those Zenith's than you would have stereo.

Bill

[Motorola minion]

Nothing more fun for me than sorting a box of tubes I wonder how many Sparton sets are there.

That collection is in fine shape, he could truck them to other parts of this big country and sell all of them. I have maybe 20 of those 1930s consoles that were rescued all over the area.

The Zenith seems to get the most attention yet Philco made a more rugged set IMHO. Never had a bad power transformer in a Philco.

I have more Philco than all others combined, they are always for sale on CL/FBM and if less than 20 bucks, I go for it. When restored they are just as good as any other radio.

[Firedome]

Yes nothing's more fun than the "treasure hunt" of sorting a big box of tubes!
Back around 1997/8? I stopped at a tiny rural TV sales & repair business that had a big 'Zenith TV" sign outside of a home-based shop on a pretty rural road just S of Gettysburg PA on the way back to MD, just over the border. I was coming back from visiting our daughter who was at college about 20 mi from our home. I asked the older gent there if he had tubes as I was looking for a 6CA7 for something or other. He said "yes" and he'd like to get rid of all of them! I said how much and he replied with a reasonable number, maybe $75 or $100 for everything, and he then showed me his stock room...shelves full! Turned out it filled up 2 big empty Zenith Color TV boxes, maybe 1000+ tubes or more? Every one new in box, not one pull in the lot! Getting home and dumping it all out on our LR floor was a thrill that I still remember! I pulled out most, but not all, of the good audio/radio stuff and wholesaled the rest to a professional tube dealer that covered my investment and more. A fun pre-internet and eBay experience that probably would not happen today!

Equally fun was almost 20 years later when my late Uncle gave me his metal floor cabinet of new & used tubes for free!

[Motorola minion]

I have no trouble selling them once working, but it takes time and patience for them to be daily-driver material.

Given enough time, I enjoy restoring these as much as any other console and parts are rarely an issue. Big sound! I do all my ID'ing using radioatticarchives.com

As you see from the picture below, the northeast (and midwest too) has them in SPADES!

[hermitcrab]

Now I realize why I can't sell my collection... everyone has one...

[William]

I have three floor radios in my house. One is a Philco, one is a Zenith, and on is a Coronado.

Bill

[hermitcrab]

Hey Elton, maybe you should have two of those Zenith's than you would have stereo.

Bill

Ha!... I am in the same boat as the original post is... more stuff than I can get rid of...

[Firedome]

My first "sound system" was a '40s RCA radio/record player. Those and radios like those Dave pictured are so plentiful and usually sell for so little it hardly seems worthwhile to spend a lot of time or money restoring them, unless for collecting purposes, 'specially since they don't sound all that great anyway for regular use: boomy bass, rolled off top, veiled mid-range, and take up a good bit of space. Sound quality really progressed greatly in the '50s.