CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

Daxi Don · Joined: 24 Dec 2006 Posts: 75 Location: Indiana

CEDatum is receiving stylus carts for repair from some very unhappy CED collectors who purchased carts from on-line sources including E-Bay. In all cases the sale lists the cart as NEW, BRAND NEW, UNUSED , in SEALED BOX etc. RCA's last stylus production was in the mid 1980's so any cart available right now is at least 33 years old and mature vintage. Stylus carts can degrade with time and storage. The usual problem is a weak or broken fly lead - so the cart cannot track the disc. Our caution to you is - never buy a stylus cart that is advertised for sale AS-IS,

ketonic_dude · Joined: 20 Jul 2012 Posts: 547 Location: Mankato, MN

Thanks for the post Don. I saw them on ebay and I would never buy a stylus off ebay because I knew exactly this. I'm curious if anyone was able to get their money back since the cart was advertised as new, which would mean working, and when they received it, it was not working.

jsdspif · Joined: 16 Jan 2016 Posts: 279

John at cedatum told me he bought a box of 100 new sealed cartridges and I think he said only 2 of them worked but he was expecting it. For the ebay sales I don't know how it works if they say new unopened but then say as is no returns. I bought a new one off there but they had a funny title for it and I think I paid $15 or something and the fly lead was gone, I think it's the fly lead? the little copper looking strip, just sort of disintegrated, but I was expecting that. Years ago I was on a tractor forum and someone posted a link to ebay where someone paid $99 for a tractor manual that was on a cd and then they posted about 10 links where you can download the manual for free. It was an old manual from a company long gone so it wasn't any copyright worries so everyone wondered why would someone pay $99 for it???

dumbchemist · Joined: 27 Oct 2011 Posts: 546 Location: Central New York

Back many years ago, I bought my stock of RCA 154216 styluses from Pacific Electronics (I think this was the place) in California. I bought them one or two every 3 to 6 months in order to get an inventory. I currently have 4 styluses that I have marked as "Good" and 3 that are marked as "Bad". Eventually, I will send the 'Bad" styluses to CEDatum for cleaning, grading and/or rebuilding.

The only styluses that I buy off E-bay are the ones for the Hitachi chassis players. I have 9 of those styluses. Of those 9, 3 are in generic boxes, 2 are in generic Hitachi boxes labeled part # 46-33276-3 and 46-33223-3. I have one stylus in a Radio Shack box with part # CT-0313. I have 2 styluses in Hitachi boxes labeled: CTG-100 and CTG-200. The last stylus is my most recent purchase. I bought it from a person in England who claimed that he/she had it retipped in the USA. After being returned to England, the stylus was never used Its price was a little high ($60 + $40 shipping); but, it was worth it as the Hitachi styluses are getting harder and harder to find.

I plan on sending the 9 Hitachi styluses to Cedatum for cleaning and grading in time.
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Sears 934.54780150 & 934.54810350
CED-1
Hitachi: VIP2000, 3-VIP1000, VIP201P
GEN10301
RCA SJT-200 SJT-400
DiskLord DP-830

kitchensynch · Joined: 24 Feb 2013 Posts: 1087

Was that Pacific Stereo?
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A New Vista of RCA Victor COLOR!

dumbchemist · Joined: 27 Oct 2011 Posts: 546 Location: Central New York

ketonic_dude · Joined: 20 Jul 2012 Posts: 547 Location: Mankato, MN

I'm afraid I have some bad news for you dumbchemist, John no longer has the parts available to rebuild Hitachi model styli. He can only do RCA ones and he said his supplies for those are starting to run low too. I'm going to work with him before or after the next workshop and learn more about it to see if I can come up with a way to keep rebuilding them or even start making new ones.

dumbchemist · Joined: 27 Oct 2011 Posts: 546 Location: Central New York