Over the weekend, my wife and I did some antique shopping, and in one shop I saw a Philco 37-38 shouldered tombstone battery radio.
Here's what was done to it - the photo finish was completely stripped off (looked like plywood!), the grill cloth was replaced with something that was purple burlap, and they wanted $80 for it!
At least it was marked down from $100 to start.
No thanks.
Bill
You could have asked them if there was a typo on the price tag, as in $80 instead of $8.
Antique stores never cease to amaze me. A lot of them seem to think because something's "old", it has to be worth a fortune. I'd say the biggest laugh I ever got at an antique store was a late '40s GE AA5 radio (nothing special) with a $300 price tag on it. Of course this was up around the Washington DC area.
Tom
I forgot to mention - it was also mssing 2 knobs, and one of them was the tuning dual knob!
$8 would have been a fair price for it. The cabinety issues were obvious; who knows what evil lurks in the heart of the chassis?
Although, if was as low as $20, I would have started thinking about it, but only then. (I'd have taken it for $15!)
Bill
Get out the handkerchief, guys!
There's a flea market hereabouts that I go to a lot. A few years ago I happened to look under a table in the outside area, and recognized a Philco shoulder tombstone with a rather obvious 16/116 chassis, looking at it from behind. I looked at the front , it was a '35 vintage 16. How much, I asked? Ten bucks, he said. I didn't want to waste time negotiating, so I paid his price. I did restore it, and let it go, as I already had one.
Some times, you just have to pay the price!