The PHILCO Phorum

I retrieved this from my grandmother's house when we moved her out about 5 or so years ago. It's been in my garage ever since. I won't even dare to turn it on since I know that you can damage the unit if the system is not looked over powering it on.

The radio sat in the basement of my grandmother's house in Bayonne NJ for decades and possibly suffered some slight water damage on the bottom. It looks like my grandfather may have painted it as well.

I was hoping it would be worth something when I hauled it out of her house, but have found little in the ways of determining a value.

At this point I would be willing to sell it just to get it out of here. But I also don't want to be taken, if any part of it might be worth something.

Does anyone have any idea what it might be worth? It's not in perfect condition.

Thanks,
Jim Makowski

Note from site admin: Sorry, but the photos which were attached to this post are no longer available.

Hi,
Not a real desirable radio to begin with and those cabinet issues are a strong negative. Chassis looks clean. Probably do well to get $40. Richard

Hi,

It's a shame it was painted red; that has pretty much destroyed any collector value. Those are nice radios, in spite of having the obsolete 42-50 mc early FM band.

Jim--I'm not a collector or an expert, so I haven't much to add to the 'value' discussion, at least not in terms of cash money.

If it reminds you of your grandmother, or you have fond memories of the radio in its working days, then its value is easy to determine: priceless.

You'll get more value out of it in returning it to operating capabilities and enjoying it for yourself... need a project?

The radio itself has no sentimental value for me. It may have had more for my father who passed last year. But for me it has none. I took it more from a possible sales perspective than any desire to keep it myself. It was either I took it or it went into a dumpster. I just was hoping to get some feel for the value before I offerred it up for sale. Never like the idea of selling something worth a lot for a pittance so someone else can get rich from my mistake. So I try to investigate the value of things before selling.

I have enough projects around the house not of the antique variety to even think about attempting to restore this radio.

Thanks for the feedback.

Interestingly enough, I was surfing ePay looking for new ways to get in trouble, and I came across a 42-400 that had been painted gray. I briefly wondered if they originally came that way, but decided ultimately not.

War story

I moved back to my hometown in the early 70s and one day I came home to find a TV set sitting in my driveway. It had belonged to my granny in the 50s...she passed away in 1967. I was thinking " who/what/how someone put that all info together?" I did eventually meet the person who dropped it off and it was a close family friend.

I kept the TV for a while and actually used it. No restoration needed. I eventually got tired of getting up and retuning it, readjusting the vert and horiz hold and returned it to the curb since old TVs were not in style at that time.

If this were to happen today now that I'm an old nostalgic fart it would become an instant family heirloom. But I know darn well that it would have never survived the past 35-40 years of moving around and changing tastes. But I'll get over it At least it hadn't been painted.

It's a rather nicely styled console, but like most 1940s console radios they aren't worth a huge amount of money, so I wouldn't worry about someone giving you a lowball price and flipping it for $500. As has been mentioned the big turn off is the paint job, it's completely restorable but anyone buying it would factor that into the price, whoever buys it would do so for a restoration project or for parts for another restoration project if don't think that it's worth the effort.
Best Regards
Arran

I just stumbled across this one on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/300479381451

It's been painted white, and it sitting with no bids at $40 with 8 hours to go as I type this. This should give you an idea of the value of yours in its present condition. I should add that I frankly doubt that the one on eBay will sell.

When these radios haven't been painted, they are very nice sets, and very good performers once restored.

Bill, I remember two radios from my childhood; a nondescript Motorola AM radio with phonograph, and a Crosley "Jeweler" radio that looked similar to this:

http://classicradiogallery.com/radiopage...-110u.html

except ours was green.

Now if someone dropped a green Crosley Jeweler set off here, it too would become an heirloom, as a replacement for the one from "back then" that I tore up in my youth, long after it stopped working. If I had known then what I know now...I would still have the set.

Speaking of childhood radios, my Grampa and Grandma
had a radio in their kitchen and eventually
their livingroom for decades that I remember well.

It's in this picture of myself at aboput 1 yr. old
in Grandma's kitchen sink getting a bath.
(...and yes, it's a hot-chassis AA5 type set!)



Once I started collecting, that old radio came to
mind and I found it was a 1947 Emerson model 535.
Consequently, I found a very "minty" 535, complete
and with cardboard back intact at a swapmeet and
scooped it up and recaped/restored it. Two years
older than me in this picture.

"Grandma's radio" is the prize of my collection now. Memories . . . .


Someone will have to pry it from my cold, dead hands. ;-)

Chuck

Looking over this thread, I wonder just vwhat all those self-proclaimed "artists" had against the finish on those 42-400 sets? I've had one since 1948, with the original finish, and it's a handsome set. It was the top of the line for Philco radio consoles. It had the prewar FM band on it, and was the first radio I heard FM on. The audio in the set is superb.

Like many say, consoles are valuable only if they are some sort of heirloom, or just so pristine, you dare not molest them. Obvoiusly, the original guy here has no use for the set (especially after Gramps raped the cabinet finish), so it'll probably end up on the curb. You rarely ever see one of these for sale, but destroying this one will make the rest more valuable.