Seaside Story

 A Story Of One Man's Collection

Many people ask us where we find the old radios that we bring back to life. When we first started, we found radios at a New England institution, the Elephant's Trunk in New Fairfield, CT. Since then, this flea market has gained fame as the location for the hit show Flea Market Flip on HGTV.  Flea markets continue to be great places to find old radios.  We also find old radios at tag sales and we love a good antique market. (More stories on these in the months to come) 

Collection From Seaside, Oregon - Hundreds and Hundreds and a Model A

 

This story is about a time when we went to visit a guy who contacted us about his father's radio collection. His father collected radios for years and kept them in his home and garage. He had hundreds of old radios and there were all types and brands.  He wanted to sell the collection.

Here are a few jewels from that collection:

1939 Kadette Model 76. This radio needed complete physical and electronic restoration. The wood cabinet was coming apart at the seams. It needed to be re-veneered. The electronics were original but needed restoration too. The grill cloth was toast. This finished piece was sold to a movie production company to be used as a movie prop.

 

 

 

Here is a 1938 Packard-Bell 5A Kompak. This is one of the earliest Bakelite cabinets offered. It was a revolutionary material when it was first introduced. Think carbon fiber back in the 90s. It was a big deal. This particular piece was uncracked, no chips, and working perfectly after restoration. Sweet.

Here’s a fan favorite; a 1940 Emerson Model 126. No cracks no chips.

 

Here are some other ones from the lot:

PALMETTO GREEN METALLIC 1951 Crosley Model 11-125GN

 

1955 Sylvania R598-10895 in chrysanthemum pink. This particular radio found a very happy home with an enthusiastic collector.

1935 Colonial mini tombstone! This one was one of the seller's favorites. He hesitated to sell. I can see why!

The seller's father lived in Seaside, Oregon. Seaside is a great little beach town on the coast about an hour and a half from Portland, Oregon.  So, it is a vacation and a business trip for the family. 

Here’s what the Seaside Oregon website says:

"Seaside, Oregon’s first seashore resort, is one of the coast’s most popular year-round family destinations with its famous Promenade, Turnaround, Aquarium, arcades, shopping and history. It's easy to Seaside!"

So after a few hours on the beach we go the seller’s house.  We meet with seller and we start going through his collection. The man had a lot of great radios. There was a garage that was stacked to the rafters with these gems. In the middle of the garage, we find this! 

 

If you look on the side of the garage, you can see the radios along the wall.

Here are the radios piled not so neatly for the ride home. Fortunately, it was not raining on the trip back which in the northwest is very, very uncommon.

Inspecting our acquisition once we get home...

It has taken me years to restore radios from this collection. From time to time, I go back to this collection and work on a few more. There are others from this collection that have been inducted into my secret stash.