Classic Hifi Care

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Bill

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.

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!

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!

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

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

Bill

William wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 12:51 am 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...

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.