05-14-2014, 02:27 PM
Hello to all my old friend here on the Phorum! I have been out of commission for nearly a year. First I had a bad attack of diverticulitis and they fought hard for seven days to fix it but I still ended up needing an operation where ten inches of bowel was removed. Then I went into a deep depression and anxiety since I am unfortunately bipolar. Now I have a kidney stone and if you've ever had one of those you know the pain can be unbearable. But I've got it under control and about ten days ago I snapped back to life just in time to celebrate my and Anna's 24th wedding anniversary with a wonderful dinner and the funny, funny movie "The Other Wife" with Cameron Diaz. I'm also back singing and am getting rave reviews that I have never sounded better at the restaurants and senior centers. Lost 30 pounds so I look better too.
Well, the topic here is "The Big Ones". By that I mean Philco 37-690, Scott Philharmonic, and McMurdo Silver Masterpiece V with 18 super woofer and the Zenith Stratosphere Z-1000. There is one of these babies on ebay right now that looks great. It belongs to a friend of mine who needs to raise about the amount it's priced at. I would LOVE to grab this set but timing is not on my side considering he needs the money no later than next week. I would gladly sell ALL of my big beautiful consoles and about half of my 100 table radios to get the Zenith but as you know that will take plenty of time to find buyers and get full value. I'm not out to lose money but want to improve while scaling down and also to enjoy the best sound. Which brings me to the BIG FOUR question: have you guys ever compared the sound of all of them and which one is the best and why.
This could be a scar venture if I get myself embroiled in it!!
best to all,
Sam
PS. I attended Kutztown Radio Meet and they reinstated my canceled booth. Had a BALL seeing so many friends, eating out, enjoying the exc. outdoors made cheeseburgers, and walking the aisles in awe of so many great finds. But selling was down. I moved only two radios...the World's Fair set and a fine GE-H510U white plaskon beetle. At the same time buying was way up as so many people were in dump mode since they didn't want to drag stuff home. I plowed through 5K and that filled the van to the brim. I jokingly offered fifty bucks to anyone who could squeeze in another radio. I also picked up some of my latest craze of brass and regular blade fans. And at the three and a half hour long auction grabbed specials like a 1947 RCA table TV for only 30.00. Many swell radios from five to fifteen dollars.And I treated myself to the prize of the auction...a HUGE Pilot bakelite tombstone/cathedral set for the reserve of 950.00. Interesting that a guy approached me later with a similar set made by Saba that was a bit lesser in design. We negotiated it down to only $675.00. Those and many other sets are waiting at Kutztown for me to pick them up this week thanks to the gracious offer to store them by owner Jim Renninger. But my wife is not so happy about me going back because she fears I'll spend more money on "that crap". Oh is she getting tough and jaded in her older age. "This crap" has served me well all my life. After three days of Renninger's Kutztown I drove Sunday to Renninger's Adamstown, my favorite buying town, and picked up more great finds like a big Philco console in lovely condition for only 100.00, a tiny deco fan for only 25.00, and even an Edison Amberola phonograph for about half price. Now I owe another thousand dollars! You see I wrote twenty checks and my checking account had just enough to cover that amount but my dear wife took money out without telling me to pay house bills. I could have had 750.00 in bounce fees levied and had my good reputation tarnished. She "solved" the problem by immediately opening an overdraft account for the thousand. But I learned they charge a ten dollar fee for each check that comes through. That does not sound like a very good solution to me when I had several savings accounts with plenty of money in them. But now she has turned all of them, which were joint, into accounts that only she can access. Hey guys is this legal? Can she get away with this....especially my father's inheritance?
Well, despite the negativity here I'm in great spirits. We are selling well on ebay and just had our best month of sales ever. I'm even putting electrolytics into humming sets, best I can do with my limited electronic knowledge. But it makes the radios come to life and more salable. My focus is going to be on the painted colorful plastic radios. My buddy Tom Hayes sold 18 of his wonderful pieces in Kutztown at an average price of 350.00 each so you can figure he took home more than I spent or around 6K. He gave me a special price on one of his sets that I will cherish. It's a red/maroon Truetone table piece that's stylish and has a big dial. And sounds great thanks to his electronic do-over.
I'm proud of one of my color radios on ebay. See here. I wrote the auction and photographed with my trusty iphone 5. I don't know if I can post photos here, but go to this link to see: http://www.ebay.com/itm/271487740914?ssP...1555.l2649
Cheers to all!
Sam
Well, the topic here is "The Big Ones". By that I mean Philco 37-690, Scott Philharmonic, and McMurdo Silver Masterpiece V with 18 super woofer and the Zenith Stratosphere Z-1000. There is one of these babies on ebay right now that looks great. It belongs to a friend of mine who needs to raise about the amount it's priced at. I would LOVE to grab this set but timing is not on my side considering he needs the money no later than next week. I would gladly sell ALL of my big beautiful consoles and about half of my 100 table radios to get the Zenith but as you know that will take plenty of time to find buyers and get full value. I'm not out to lose money but want to improve while scaling down and also to enjoy the best sound. Which brings me to the BIG FOUR question: have you guys ever compared the sound of all of them and which one is the best and why.
This could be a scar venture if I get myself embroiled in it!!
best to all,
Sam
PS. I attended Kutztown Radio Meet and they reinstated my canceled booth. Had a BALL seeing so many friends, eating out, enjoying the exc. outdoors made cheeseburgers, and walking the aisles in awe of so many great finds. But selling was down. I moved only two radios...the World's Fair set and a fine GE-H510U white plaskon beetle. At the same time buying was way up as so many people were in dump mode since they didn't want to drag stuff home. I plowed through 5K and that filled the van to the brim. I jokingly offered fifty bucks to anyone who could squeeze in another radio. I also picked up some of my latest craze of brass and regular blade fans. And at the three and a half hour long auction grabbed specials like a 1947 RCA table TV for only 30.00. Many swell radios from five to fifteen dollars.And I treated myself to the prize of the auction...a HUGE Pilot bakelite tombstone/cathedral set for the reserve of 950.00. Interesting that a guy approached me later with a similar set made by Saba that was a bit lesser in design. We negotiated it down to only $675.00. Those and many other sets are waiting at Kutztown for me to pick them up this week thanks to the gracious offer to store them by owner Jim Renninger. But my wife is not so happy about me going back because she fears I'll spend more money on "that crap". Oh is she getting tough and jaded in her older age. "This crap" has served me well all my life. After three days of Renninger's Kutztown I drove Sunday to Renninger's Adamstown, my favorite buying town, and picked up more great finds like a big Philco console in lovely condition for only 100.00, a tiny deco fan for only 25.00, and even an Edison Amberola phonograph for about half price. Now I owe another thousand dollars! You see I wrote twenty checks and my checking account had just enough to cover that amount but my dear wife took money out without telling me to pay house bills. I could have had 750.00 in bounce fees levied and had my good reputation tarnished. She "solved" the problem by immediately opening an overdraft account for the thousand. But I learned they charge a ten dollar fee for each check that comes through. That does not sound like a very good solution to me when I had several savings accounts with plenty of money in them. But now she has turned all of them, which were joint, into accounts that only she can access. Hey guys is this legal? Can she get away with this....especially my father's inheritance?
Well, despite the negativity here I'm in great spirits. We are selling well on ebay and just had our best month of sales ever. I'm even putting electrolytics into humming sets, best I can do with my limited electronic knowledge. But it makes the radios come to life and more salable. My focus is going to be on the painted colorful plastic radios. My buddy Tom Hayes sold 18 of his wonderful pieces in Kutztown at an average price of 350.00 each so you can figure he took home more than I spent or around 6K. He gave me a special price on one of his sets that I will cherish. It's a red/maroon Truetone table piece that's stylish and has a big dial. And sounds great thanks to his electronic do-over.
I'm proud of one of my color radios on ebay. See here. I wrote the auction and photographed with my trusty iphone 5. I don't know if I can post photos here, but go to this link to see: http://www.ebay.com/itm/271487740914?ssP...1555.l2649
Cheers to all!
Sam
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