It's getting hard to even give away CRT TV's
 

I decided to do some cleaning out and took 3 CRT TV's to the flea market to give them (one a 19" Emerson remote set from '88, a 19" GE remote set from '89, and a 27" Sony Trinitron from 1992). Not that long ago, this flea market was happy to get whatever TV's I wanted to give them because they said people still bought them. Personally, I wasn't seeing any evidence of that and if they were actually getting the prices I saw marked on some of them, then I need to start dragging them home again. Based on what I was seeing, I don't think they were moving as quickly as he led me to believe.

Today, I showed him what I had and he showed no interest in any of them and said that he was trying to get out of fooling with TV's due to lack of interest in used ones. He said he had 30-40 that he needed to get rid of and would likely end up having to pay to get rid of them. He finally agreed to take the Sony, since it was in a black cabinet; but, would not take the two woodgrain-cased 19" sets.

A lady who my Mother knows, who collects things for the needy, said she'd take the other two and she happens to live down the road from the flea market. My Mother asked the lady if the people who'd be getting the TV's knew they were old TV's and this lady, who is in her 80's, feels about like I do about it.....if you're down and out, can't afford anything, and you claim you need a TV, then you should be happy with whatever you can get. Even before flat screens took over, I've tried to give TV's to so-called "needy" people....only to get turned down because they were not big enough, had no remote, were too old, etc.

As far as local places that still have CRT TV's, a few thrift stores still have them; but, they rarely have anything older than the late '90's and they don't appear to be moving. I suspect when these stores get rid of their current CRT sets, that will be the end.

Back in 1995, those 3 TV's that I gave away would have been about $250-$300 worth of used TV's and people would have been glad to buy them; but, today, if it's not a practically brand new large flat screen smart TV for a rock bottom price, they don't want them.

Back 25-30 years ago, there were still picky TV buyers; but, nothing like what it is today. Back then, I could sell just about anything that produced a picture, no matter if it was color or B&W or how old the set was. In fact, I often ran into older people, who only wanted a B&W set.

Something I regret about the past is not saving more of the older tube and early SS sets that I brought home because, today, they are almost non-existent in my area and with so many places no longer taking CRT sets, the situation isn't going to get better.

I dunno, I've been able to give away flat tube and Trinitron sets by marketing them as "retro gaming" TVs. Nintendo Zapper guns don't work on LCDs.

Yes! A lot of kids that grew up in the Nintendo era are looking for CRTs.

People are funny.
When projo's came out they were $2-4Kilobucks.
Two types of people bought them. The very rich & the very poor.
Nobody in between.

Another thing was if I needed something the first place I would
shop was the town dump. Even in the best of times. Saved & made
tens of thousands there.

Last thing is most Dunkin Donuts up here in N.H. had to close to walk ins.
Not because of covid but because nobody went back to work.
Made too much $$ sitting on there asses. Every place you pass has
help wanted signs. Zero real unemployment for anyone willing to
work.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

I have never sold TVs, but have sold tons of audio gear on Craigs and the 'bay over the years. I have also never bought a TV new in my life.

In my neck of the woods, you can't give any TV away let alone sell one. Even later model flat HD panels are all over the CL free section. I watch that section for TVs a lot but the oldest I've found were an '85 Sharp color and an '87 Trinitron.

Passed up a system 3 console a few weeks ago on the curb. It had the touch type channel keypad on the flipdown door. Not their best offering. (plus I already have a brand new condition tabletop with that cabinet style). 9-186 board. Great picture but when its tube gets weak...
it's nowhere near as robust as the earlier system 3 sets with the 9-160 which I have fixed on a component level many many times before.

Daily watcher is a 78 Chromacolor which was also new with tags at a house sale. I don't forsee the tube in that one getting soft in my lifetime--it can be cranked to blinding contrast levels with perfect color, purity, and convergence and doesn't bat an eye.

My point is that we are a small group of analog video enthusiasts who really appreciate a quality-built set with the ability to be serviced. Like an old carb'd engine in a way... the masses abandoned it, but it is a well established technology with tons of tweaking and servicing potential and a ton of character.

My other "daily" sets are:
a 1966 Sears Silvertone 19" all tube chassis b/w built by Warwick. Superb pic, amazing really

1972 Zenith Chromacolor 4 tube hybrid 19CC19. Great set, heavy old world build and a killer CRT. Had probelms with the color demod drifting after warmup. I had to basically rebuild that portion of the chassis and put it all on standoffs to increase airflow under all ICs for future reliability.

1980 Toshiba blackstripe 19", the pix quality rivals a good
Zenith and it runs cool as a cucumber.

The purely tube sets are not daily sets in my house. I use them
sparingly.

What blows my mind is that the Sony KV-32FS120 was about a thousand dollar set in 2004 and now they are scrap WORKING like new! I have one of them in the garage from the curb.

I watch an entry level 19" Zenith from '84 (9-181 and 9-186 modules). Although not as good as the older models, it has a decent picture. I've also got a 19" first generation System 3 from '78 (power transformer and 9-153 module) and it has a better picture than the newer Zenith.

In the bedroom, I have a 12" RCA B&W and a Zenith tube 14N22 chassis B&W console from the late '60's.

About 10 years ago, I was given one of those big 36" Sony HD CRT sets and when it would power up, it had a great picture. I had every intention of fixing it, but never could spare the bench space or find someone to help me put it on the bench. Sadly, I ended up rolling it to the curb and had it been working, I would have had a hard time giving it away.

I, too, have never bought a new TV and as long as I can keep picking up someone else's junk, I don't see that changing.

Yeah I've seen the same thing. The donation / charity thrift stores around here haven't been accepting CRT sets for about 5 years or more now cause the don't sell. It's a shame cause it was a great place to pick up sets for 5 bucks or less.
I used to go in there and stock up on 13" color sets with rotary tuners for surveillance monitors.

And the you can go on ebay and the same TV's are on there for a small fortune. Even the 12" B&W solid state sets fom the early 80's are going for a fortune from delusional sellers
(WOW, VINTAGE, RARE, ULTRA RARE L@@K @T!)
Buy It Now $175.00.

I've had a hell of a time trying to find a nice early 80s RCA or Zenith 13" set, because any time one DOES pop up it's gone almost immediately to the retro gaming crowd.

At the S.A. fambly store near where I work, it is an unofficial e-waste drop off. Over 2 years, I rescued about a dozen or more small screen sets ranging from 1970 to 1984. I go by every week and EASILY spot something that is not black-gray plastic. TVTim finally got a remote control (!) 15" 1972 RCA BW thanks to this SA. I have several 12" BWs, all working with minimal effort.

Unlike the county I live in, which has a free drop off for CRT and other household "hazmats", waste management in the county this SA is in charges to dispose of CRT sets. Apparently, folks were dropping them off there after hours or after a donation was refused.

These will get recycled otherwise and SA just palletizes wraps and they go somewhere. I often pick one up while they're open and if I'm asked to, make a donation. The facility where I live will not let you take anything though. I have tried to get them to understand, through pictures of what they should sell, not recycle!

The last RCA that I picked up must have been about 10 years ago. A spare XL-100.
I also picked up a few early 13" Hitachi sets around that time

Those XL-100's are tough. I ran one every day for 18 hours a day from 2007 to 2018 without servicing. I stopped using it after it would start arcing somewhere when it was first turned on in the morning. I'm assuming it's a cold solder joint or carbon tracking. After all those hours the picture is still just as sharp and bright as when I got it in 2002 at a thrift store for $2.00

I missed out on a bunch of TV's around 2008. There was a local electonics guy that passed and had I known I probably could have had around 150 to 200 sets for taking them away. There was a garage that was about 16X24 that was TV's up to the rafters, then a woodshed that was solid TV's, and more sets in the carport and in the house. He seemed to be picking sets up in the late 1970's early 90's so there was a lot of late 50's early 60's tube B&W and color. Loads of early 70's color sets. All that ended up going to the E waste recycler before I knew about it.

I put a 27" Citizen set with remote at our local makerspace for free. Works great. Bright picture. Has a fairly well documented Jungle chip for RGB conversion.
At the end of the year I'm being asked to take it back because it's been on the table for five months and it's just taking up space.

Out here in BC where the houses are expensive and the tastes of Millennials is even more expensive it's a weird hard sell where most people won't take any other brand of CRT off your hand unmodified unless its a Trinitron. With the flow of PVM's out of Hollywood North in the last few years everyone has a taste to play Street Fighter on only the highest quality tubes. :smoke:

Our local value village occasionally gets CRT sets and even computer monitors in and they sell. Mind you the prices are all over the place (a 27" for $2.99 and a 4" color portable for $25) but it's a massive change over ten years ago when they refused to accept CRT's.

Around here (Melbourne, Australia) it seems to go in waves. I've sold 10+ CRT TVs in a week, then I won't sell any for a months. Sometimes when I advertise I notice more ads will appear. I guess people will see my ads then think - those things are worth money, I'll try to sell mine. Then it takes a while until they sell or give theirs away before I can sell again.

One thing that might drive the waves is retro gaming conventions... There's people that keep like 20 CRT TVs and 20 N64s to hold Smash Brothers tournaments at conventions....If those TVs only get used once a year and they don't work on a pre-convention test the TV guy is going to need a bunch of sets quickly.

If I dealt in BPC (thank God I don't) I'd look for local gaming and vintage PC conventions and Target my ads for a month or two prior.

5Please don't forget about tube swaps in og arcade cabinets fellas. (LCD conversions are sad and pathetic instant gratification. Not to mention what is known as "the jaggies" with the resulting picture). I'm a tube collector/labeled hoarder, been saving/selling off here and there 10~yrs. I live in KY across from Cin, OH and I am even saying now that the curbside finds are drying up now. There's a guy that is my "competition" I guess a few miles away. Big difference though, in front of his garage as recently as this past trash night, there were 2 carcusses with the cases and tubes w/necks smashed :bash: netting him $2 in scrap.
In contrast, the last CRT I found a cpl weeks ago (after 2-3mths of drought) was a Super Scan(neverheardofit)/Funai tube vcr/dvd combo. I had very little hope of it being anything useful. Turns out it is a match (incl h/v ohms) for a k7000 tube :rockon:
I own upwards of 100 sets, late 60s-fwd (EDIT*-27" and smaller haha). I intend to have a few for me the rest of my days, (turned 51). I am not saying I will ever get rich off doing this, but I do enjoy it. Seems like, imho, the next x-number of yrs will be the time to flip some to the millenials. Just a few days ago, I saw a news piece on one of the networks, with guys in there 30-40s eagerly collecting VHS tapes. They all had tube sets. ****
My whole point of these ramblings: You guys that are throwing away sets, if inclined, may want to pop off the back first and web search the tube numbers and see if in fact there are any that are useful for arcade cabs. If you find any potential matches, check/document the h&v ohms and verify neck type and viola. Those purists will surely appreciate and pay some $ for it, win-win. And also don't forget those "Barcades" are popping up more and more too! One of the Brits I chat with in Discord said that the depot that services the arcades still in existence are importing tubes from the U.S. now. This post wasn't meant as hype, for ex: I junked cars that were almost worthless 2-3 decades ago and if I still had them they'd make me A LOT more money than 99% of any low-risk investments around now.
2nd edit- How could I forget?? This is so good to see for the future/interest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l6mUYQhgSU - Custom modded new CRT chassis. PLEASE TAKE A STEP BACK BEFORE SIMPLY TRASHING A TUBE.

I've had mixed results when it comes to buying/selling/flipping CRT TVs specifically color sets, in Elkhart County, Indiana where I live none of the Thrift stores (GW mainly as the only SA that was left in my area closed its doors permanently at the beginning of the pandemic last year) haven't accepted CRT Televisions since 2014 (CRT TVs larger than 9") they still accecpt CRT TVs that are smaller than 9" (the ones that are the small 5" and smaller portable TVs with A/V Inputs and radios built into them), but I have found many older CRT TVs (B & W and Color sets) on facebook marketplace locally for for well under $100 and I've been able to get them fixed up and I've put them to use or sold them (or people I know from church have given me old CRT Televisions as well.

I've only ever bought a new TV once and it was a 15" LCD HDTV but it died after about a year and a half, other than that I've only ever bought used TVs or curb picked TVs and fixed them up and used them, until they died and were no longer able to be repaired anymore. I've got 3 small CRT TVs a Magnavox (Philips) 13" Color CRT TV from 1989 with its original remote which still works yet that I got from someone from Church, and I have a 9" Zenith Color TV (System 3) from 1986 that still works like brand new yet that I picked up from SA several years ago for $5, and then I have a 5.5" Montgomery Wards (Toshiba rebadged) portable color TV from 1984 that also works like brand new that also came from SA for $5 just shortly before they quit taking CRT TVs in 2014.
I use them mainly for bench testing VCRs that I work on and DVD Players and Video Game Consoles that I'm working on.

My Current HDTV is a 65" Smart Flat Panel TV that I "Trash picked" from the local recycling center at the grocery store (recycling center where you take cardboard boxes and glass jars and plastic jugs etc.) and it turned out the only thing wrong with it was that there was no more updates for the smart software on the TV, but everything else on it works fine, and I just use a Roku for the "smart" functions of the TV and I use a good quality Amplified HDTV Antenna for my OVA Channels (which there are over 30 channels in my area).