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Electronic recyclers : (
Kind of in the vein of the "Stop appliance genocide" thread.
I saw a announcement in the local free paper about a free electronics recycling program going on for a few hours today. I figured it was state run and that I'd get there and hang out for a while trying to intercept anything interesting before it met it's demise. I showed up and found out it was a private recycler, parked at the curb with a box truck. People were driving up and handing him their stuff, he'd cut the cord and hand it to his assistant in the truck. I asked him if he ever gets any 30 plus year old stuff. "Yup, all the time. . .consoles, lot's of 9" too etc." I told him what I'd be interested in and asked what it'd be worth for hime to hold that sort of thing and call me. He said he just recycles, he didn't resell, refurbish etc. Now, I didn't stick around cuz I figured he'd get pissed if I disrupted his business and I didn't really want to see anything interesting get "slaughtered". But I don't get it. Lets say it takes him an hour to dismantle an old Zenith, RCA or whatever, and he gets $20 for the parts/materials. Wouldn't it be easier to pick up the phone and give me the $20 for the tv intact and save the hour labor??? Then I could either use it myself, pass it along to you guys etc. Al Last edited by Retro in RI; 03-15-2014 at 10:09 AM. Reason: spelling |
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I've found that the whole key to getting in good with situations like this is to not be selective at all. For example, if you tell him, "I'll pay you $20 for any television that has tubes", you'll get the goods. Probably a lot of crap, but the less he has to think about it the easier it'll be to get the good stuff.
Problem is, you're gonna have to separate a lot of wheat from the chaff and shell out for sets that YOU would probably pass up at the curb. But typically these guys are so fearful of being taken advantage of that they'd sooner see a TV scrapped rather than saved, just so YOU didn't make a pile of cash that HE could have missed out on. Everyone fantasizes about that ultimate "pick", and it's that mentality that you're working against. If you play it by the odds and just take every tube set he gets and pay him for it no matter what it is or what it looks like, you'll be golden. Start to cherry pick, and you might as well forget it.
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"Restoring a tube TV is like going to war. A color one is like a land war in Asia." |
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If the recycler knows you are serious then you will probably get a few calls from him. Years ago, I was told about a guy that recycled computers (this was a LONG time ago). I bought complete working PCs with monitors for under $30. This was in the days when Pentium I computers were coming out. My original PC served me well for many years and it did not cost a bundle. I say go for it! |
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Yes you can call me "Squirrel boy" Last edited by Username1; 03-15-2014 at 04:33 PM. |
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Audiokarma |
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Yah, first I doubt they get anywhere near $20. a set..... The plastic/wood is worthless... Most sets have very little metal, unless its an old tube set with metal chassis..... And the "picker" mentality does rule.... Once you mention there may be a value, they check it out on the internet, see the $2,000. sets, and begin thinking If you're interested, then it's worth $$$$$$$ Also unless you supply him with pictures of the set your interested in, you will have 30 sets you are not interested in waiting there for you to hand him cash for..... It would be best if you intercepted, the set as it arrived, or agreed with him to take one or two as they arrived for well above what he might get for it, but then there's the picker factor....
Don't forget this is also not his first day, he may have already been through it with some total AH in another town with an old tv, and got burned, they guy pissed him off, or they dropped it broke it, and he had to pay hazardous material clean up fees by the town....... You never know.... There was a local guy here that use to run ads for antique sets on CL, he was quite smart in his wording, and included pictures of the types of sets he was interested in, and pictures and descriptions of sets he was NOT interested in, and he gave prices he was willing to pay, and that he worked alone, and if the set was in a hard to reach part of your house, he would help with another person from your house bring it out and load it. You might try something like that, advertised in areas and times when you see there recycle drives......
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Yes you can call me "Squirrel boy" Last edited by Username1; 03-15-2014 at 12:11 PM. |
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I suspect that he might not have the proper permits to be a "seller" and could be in violation of some local regulations if he started selling stuff off of the back of the truck.
jr |
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A few years ago, I ran an ad in the local paper looking for old tube TV's with knob style tuners. For the exception of one beat to heck 19" Zenith B&W TV from the late '70's, all the callers had modern BPC/SPC. When I was a kid, "tube TV" meant a set that actually used vacuum tubes. Today, "tube TV" means anything with a CRT, even if it's from 2009. I was thinking the "with knobs" part of my add might weed out a lot of unwanted junk; but, that was not the case. I too certainly couldn't afford to pay $10-$20 for every crap TV that I didn't want just to get that one set of interest.
One of the biggest drawbacks with placing ad's or expressing interest in a particular type of item is people then think that said item is worth big money. They don't understand that we might be wanting these items because we enjoy playing with them, not because we intend to "cash in." Fact is, if I were to die today, my Mother would probably have to pay someone to get rid of 85% of what's over here.
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http://www.youtube.com/user/radiotvphononut |
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Small miracle I got my Zenith. I clearly expressed why I wanted the set and my knowledge of it in my response to the ad just to try to sound serious about it. The seller lives in the province but is still nowhere near me. I said I would pay extra for delivery as I couldn't get it myself and that I was willing to wait a couple of months or so. I had it within three days.
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VK member Username1's comment on older home computers (PCs) got me thinking of my own IBM Aptiva 595 system, my second Windows PC. It cost some $3k when it was new, 14 years ago, and is probably worth next to nothing today. (I tried upgrading this box to Windows XP from Windows 98, but it didn't work very well; insufficient memory, RAM, and other problems.) I do not use or need this computer any longer, as I have a Windows XP system and a cheap Android tablet now, but I would not dare simply put the old IBM system out for the trash without first removing the hard drive. I erased the drive the best I could, but there is probably still enough sensitive information on it that could be recovered by a cyberthief using data recovery software. Even if I could have completely reformatted the disk, there would still be some remnants of sensitive information on it; without going into details, I can't afford to have that information get into the wrong hands.
I would, however, retain the monitor, keyboard and mouse from the IBM box for standby use with my PowerSpec Windows XP PC, if need be. The monitor has a problem (a bend in the raster, probably caused by the degausser being stuck on due to welded thermistor contacts), but it works well enough for temporary standby service if necessary.
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Jeff, WB8NHV Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002 Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten. |
Audiokarma |
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If the degausser was stuck on, you'd know it!
They're only made to run a split-second and if it's on any longer, it starts smoking. The monitor probably has bad 'lytics in the power supply or correction circuits. |
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Jeffs; There are plenty of formatting programs that "zero" all data locations on a HD, they typically do not format a drive quickly, a 20GB drive may take an hour. Some write over a spot twice, and even totally re-write the master and sub directory blocks. Most formatting programs, especially Quick formats usually just mark the directory block (AKA FAT) as empty, essentially saying the drive is empty, but has not erased anything until new data is written over older data.....
To really really make your drive un readable change file formats, and zero all the data..... For example FAT32 to NTFS. Or just do like they do on the tv news..... Smash it with a hammer..... Yah, my first computer was $3K too.... Mac LCII With 100Meg HD Still have it... Free Data Destruction Software: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolso...n-software.htm
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Yes you can call me "Squirrel boy" Last edited by Username1; 03-17-2014 at 11:23 AM. |
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And the Mac pricing trend continues today. My first Mac was a IIci, got it in Y2K I believe. Got to wonder what my PowerBook 1400cs cost new. Might be something of a rarity as it's labeled 1400cs/166 when it actually runs at 117MHz. Also, I have a DayStar 33MHz 68040 upgrade card for the Mac II series, save the IIfx of course. Unfortunately I don't have the adapter necessary for pre-IIci units.
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I always feel this way, what I don't know, won't hurt me! |
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I complemented them on their saves and handed one of my cards. About a year later I was back and the four sets were gone, the guy there told me the stuff got stolen and they weren't saving any more I called the dude in charge and he told me they get paid by the pound, some company in Balty-more.
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"When resistors increase in value, they're worthless" -Dave G |
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