[Ron Ramirez]

Csustar001

I sincerely thank you, and I will contact you later via PM for details on more photos. I really appreciate it; it is always good to be able to document another Philco set!

As to what it is worth, I think Arran has summed it up pretty nicely. I would only add that rarity does not always equal high value. It's the old law of supply and demand. Let's take a Zenith Stratosphere 1000Z as an example. Those are huge console radios, lots of tubes, and the big black dial that is so popular among radio enthusiasts. Only 750 were made, and a fraction of that amount survive. The radio is highly sought after, and when one comes up for sale, it will command a huge price.

Now let's take the vast majority of console radio-phonographs. Few collectors want them, for the reasons Arran described. They're big, take up a lot of room, and have phonographs that must also be fixed along with the radio. That's usually more than the average collector wants to take on.

I happen to think your 40-515 is a beautiful set, but I would not offer more than $100 for the reasons Arran and I have given.

I wish I could offer that for your set, but three things prevent me:

1) I'm still out of work;
2) NY is a long drive from southern Indiana; and
3) I really don't have the room, although if you were closer and I were working, I would be tempted to try and make room for it.

Raleigh (John) also mentioned good advice worth keeping in mind. The insulation on the wires self-destructs over the decades, making your beautiful 40-515 a potential fire/electrical hazard.

And yes, we get our kicks by bringing a long-dead radio back to life again, even though it sometimes involves a lot of work. There's nothing quite like that thrill of hearing a long silent radio play again for the first time in years, or decades.