05-20-2016, 12:38 AM
There was someone in my region that had a model 511, or the succeeding 1929 equivalent. In his case someone had clearly repainted the cabinet and speaker, and fairly badly, but the seller insisted that it was all original simply because he bought it that way from the previous owner. I think that he wanted something like $150 for it, which he did not get as the craigslist ad expired and then it was reposted.
Metal box table sets don't tend to be very valuable as a rule, even the famed Atwater Kent ones tend to be low dollar radios, probably because like 1950s "portable" TV sets they all tend to look alike, and the survival rate tends to be quite high. One of my favorites for looks is the Radiola 33, they are not rare but they tend to have problems with broken pot metal trim parts, the chassis inside isn't really anything special either. It seems that certain colours turn up more often then others in the 500 series metal box Philcos, the Labrador Grey 513 seems to turn up the most followed by the Mandarin Red 512 and the Nile Green 514 though that doesn't necessarily mean anything. If you find one make sure that it has the matching speaker to go with it, they were painted to match the cabinet.
Regards
Arran
Metal box table sets don't tend to be very valuable as a rule, even the famed Atwater Kent ones tend to be low dollar radios, probably because like 1950s "portable" TV sets they all tend to look alike, and the survival rate tends to be quite high. One of my favorites for looks is the Radiola 33, they are not rare but they tend to have problems with broken pot metal trim parts, the chassis inside isn't really anything special either. It seems that certain colours turn up more often then others in the 500 series metal box Philcos, the Labrador Grey 513 seems to turn up the most followed by the Mandarin Red 512 and the Nile Green 514 though that doesn't necessarily mean anything. If you find one make sure that it has the matching speaker to go with it, they were painted to match the cabinet.
Regards
Arran