[Jayce]

Actually found this at a resale shop sitting on a shelf with some cookie jars. In fact, when I first saw it from an angle, I thought this was a cookie jar until I got closer. Tag said: "Bakelite Radio, $60 FIRM". Then my jaw almost hit the floor as I was holding what appears to be a completely intact, Catalin radio! A cute little RCA that appears to have an intact case and is only missing the cardboard back. I can live with that... Once this is going, it is going to take its place beside my nice, Philco 38-12CB. I am really on the jazz right now! Never thought I would own an intact, Catalin radio!  

   

   

[Radioroslyn]

Nice find!!! It's a little 4 tube trf set. http://www.nostalgiaair.org/pagesbymodel...015390.pdf Too bad it's a curtain burner.
You may want to consider changing the tubes, 6K7 for a 12K7, 6j7 for a 12J7, 25Z6 to a 50Y6 and the 25L6 to a 50L6. These would be drop in replacement no rewiring the sockets and the pilot lamp will work if you remove the resistor across it. This way you won't need a resistance line cord or a line dropping capacitor. On these small sets it can be a problem finding space for a large cap.

Terry

[KCMike]

 Great find Jayce. Just never know when you will find something nice or where.

[Paul Philco322]

If I was in the shop it would have been a cookie Jar. Even as a Shelf Queen it is very fine.

Paul

[morzh]

Yeah, I saw it and thought Jace got himself a catalin radio cheap.
See? Sometimes luck is a lady!

[JimZ]

Cant beat that find easily. Fairly uncommon and absolutely keep it. You can find the model but not alot of info here on those RCA "tulip" grill sets. With no cracks or case damage and complete chassis/good dial/knobs thats gotta be worth 4 figures to a catalin collector.

http://www.goldenhue.net/

I believe the backs have been reproduced.
I base that $ value on one sold at radio attic some years ago that went for 1500.

[Jayce]

Ok, if I just read your site correctly, I not only scored a nice Catalin radio, but the most desirable of the tulip grill RCA's to boot? I'm feeling a little faint here... Some people I know are trying to urge me to 'flip' this radio and use the money for other projects, but I think it's going to stay right where it is, beside my nice Philco 38-12CB. Hopefully, it will be able to play some music someday in the future.

[Arran]

Cant beat that find easily.  Fairly uncommon and absolutely keep it.  You can find the model but not alot of info here on those RCA "tulip" grill sets.  With no cracks or case damage and complete chassis/good dial/knobs thats gotta be worth 4 figures to a catalin collector.

http://www.goldenhue.net/

 I believe the backs have been reproduced.
I base that $ value on one sold at radio attic some years ago that went for 1500.

 Radio Attic only posts asking prices, not sale prices. I don't want to be a pooper as $60 was still a great deal for an all original catalin, but the catalin market has been in the garbage can for years, thanks to at least one unscrupulous dealer. This dealer would buy up badly damaged catalins, sort of patch up the cabinets, not tell anyone that they were repaired, and then employed use of photoshop to make his sets look much better then they really were. Another fraud was to mix and match trim parts on sets like Fada 1000 bullets and on Addisons to create "Rare factory colour combos" that never existed.  As a result the values of most sets have fallen to less then half what they once were at the height of the boom, some to less then one third.
  If this set were mine I would restore it as it was the day it left the RCA factory. Yes you can swap in different tubes to add up to the 120 volt line voltage but keep in mind that catalin can discolor and deform with heat, and both the 50L6 and 50Y6 are very hot running tubes that you would be playing inside a very compact cabinet. What I would do since you can't really get a "curtain burner" cord anymore, is to rig up the line dropper outboard of the chassis in a  project box with a capacitive dropper inside, or a bucking transformer inside to drop the line voltage down to 63 volts.
  Another possibility would be to use a diode dropper (actually two 3 amp diodes in series) and some resistors for the pilot lamp tap, and also a current limiting thermistor as the diode dropper is kind of hard on the tube filaments.
A capacitor dropper may even fit, paradoxically a smaller value capacitor creates a larger AC drop, and with four tubes adding up to 63 volts you will need to drop 57 volts, less if it has a pilot lamp. These days they are making large value plastic film capacitors pretty compact.
Regards
Arran

[JimZ]

LOL. Pooper ^^. No way to poop on the RCA..it is what it is. With the qualifications I mentioned, I think most guys will understand and agree with a 1000 rough estimate of retail value. Without getting into the weeds and attempting to recreate a value chart for every example sold its a fair rough estimate.
The offending "catalin weasel"BTW that helped the market crash on many catalins..I know who you mean. And I caught him recently selling with another Ebay username. Even same selling pattern as before..listed radios suddenly become vapor due to "error in listing " disease.

The one Jayce found? For me its value is similar to maybe an Emerson 5+1 model depending on color. I think one is as uncommon as the other and similar style/

[Jayce]

Regardless of what it is worth, I am very happy to have found this little radio. For one thing, I really do love the little compact radios of the pre-war era, but it's always been easier to find consoles rather than the compacts! I also consider myself very lucky. The last catalin radio that came up for sale near me sold for $900 about five years back. Here I am, a person working in a grocery store and I now own a radio that I thought I could never own. Always thought I would be able to own a Philco 38-690 or stumble on a cheap Scott (that almost happened years back..) before I would ever have a catalin sitting on a shelf in my bedroom. I get a goofy grin every time I look at it.

[JimZ]

There you go. It's a pretty little radio you got at a steal..and one you probably would never have paid retail in buying.
Value is what its worth to you as its a keeper.
I can remember one selling in about 30 seconds on Ebay. Listed as black bakelite radio for a BIN of $99 or so.
Seller hadnt realized they made them in black catalin. Same model as yours and the least common color.

[Arran]

 By the way, with regard to that site with the catalin radios on it, the dates posted on the Addison sets are wrong. Both the small model with the gothic grille, and the large model with the shortwave band and rectangular bars are post war, 1946-47 not 1940. For some reason this error is repeated ad infinitum all over the internet and in most of the books, some suggesting manufacturing dates as early as 1938 even though all these sets used 150 ma series string tubes which debut in 1939-40. Jayce's new set is a perfect testament to this, it's an RCA and it uses 300 ma tubes with a curtain burner resistive line cord, and RCA was the one who developed 150 ma series string tubes (at least the octal ones). The silly part is that I can even prove this, via not only the Radio College of Canada manuals but with a factory service folder from 1947-47.
  I am actually surprised that this error has slipped by as one of the fellow's whose radios are featured is Paul Pontrello who is a very knowledgeable guy and a straight shooter. Mr. Pontrello pioneered the art of cabinet repair on catalin sets, but unlike another individual listed on that site he discloses the fact that a cabinet was repaired, and unlike that individual you could hold the cabinet six inches from your eyes and have difficulty detecting the repair.
Regards
Arran