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Around here, I see a lot of consoles at the salvation army. Unfortunately, most are from the '80's and '90's. I have gotten lucky and found a couple of older models there. The only bad thing about thrift stores is that the older and/or non-working sets get trashed before they make it to the sales floor. It might do you good to talk to someone in charge and then stay on top of them so they won't think you're just another person full of hot air that doesn't follow through. At my SA, working consoles are priced in the $20-$30 range and the broken ones are $5-$10. Like has been mentioned, estate sales are another good option as long as you stay in the older neighborhoods. Garage sales are often a joke since many of these are run by younger people and their idea of an old TV is a black box Orion from 1997.
I think any tube type color console is worth buying if the price is right, as these are drying up fast. From the tube era, Zenith and RCA were the best performers. Zenith's were really the most reliable because their cahssis were "hand crafted" and not built on printed circuit boards. The RCA's and most other brands were built on a PC board chassis and these older boards can suffer serious damage from heat from the tubes and other components.
As far as solid state; Zenith, RCA, and Sylvania are the ones to look for as far as performance and reliability. Of course, if you find an early Motorola "Quasar" works-in-a-drawer set from the late '60's, grab it. IIRC, that was the first all solid state American color TV. The solid state Zenith Chromacolor's and Chromacolor II's are certainly worth snatching up. They were the most reliable and had a nice picture when working properly. You'll also stand a better chance at having a good picture tube if you go with a Zenith. The early Zenith solid state color sets used a horizontal steel chassis like what would be in a tube set, only it was solid state. These were the best TV's that Zenith made and many are still going 35 years later without a problem.
I'm not going to tell you what to go with if you decide to go with a recent console. I'll just tell you NOT to go with a Zenith! By the '90's, Zenith was the exact opposite in terms of quality that they were in the '60's and '70's. Almost all the '90's Zenith's will have a weak or shorted CRT. In fact, Zenith started sliding downhill when they discontinued the chromacolor II chassis in favor of the system 3 chassis. The early system 3's did make a good picture; but, they had problems with the power supply and horizontal circuits as well as the in-line gun CRT's going weak in a short period of time.
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