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One other thing that holds me back on buying broken flatscreen TV's is the price that's often wanted. Back in the day, I never paid over $10 for a broken TV. Now, everyone seems to want big bucks for even the broken flatscreen's. Frankly, I'm not willing to gamble that much money on something that I may or may not be able to do anything with.
As far as everyone thinking they must have the latest thing, I guess that way of thinking has been around since the early days of television. In the late '40's, everyone thought the little 7" and 10" round CRT sets were the greatest. By the early '50's, 17" and 21" sets became common. It was at that point that these small screen sets that were so great just a few years earlier started being replaced by sets with a larger screen. I'd say that by the mid-to-late '50's, the little small screen sets of just 10 years earlier were virtually un-sellable and the only people still using them were the poor and those who used the small screen set for a bedroom TV. Then, color took off in the '60's and that's what everyone had to have. Then, solid state became the norm by the mid '70's and it wasn't too long before people started dumping their tube sets. Then, remote controlled cable ready sets came along in the '80's, etc, etc, etc.
However, the above events are not what ticks me off the most. Up through the '80's, new TV's were, for the most part, quality made and they were not selling for bargain basement prices. Even in my lifetime, I can remember when a 19" B&W cost over $150, a 19" knob tuned color portable was around $350, and a 25" color console cost between $500-$1000 (depending on how nice it was). If you wanted a TV for under $100; then, a 9" or 12" B&W were your only options. Other electronics, such as VCR's and stereo's, were also in the several hundred dollar+ range. Heck, a '78 Sylvania 22" B&W console that was recently resuced from a TV dealer still had the $399.95 prce tag on it. Repair parts usually didn't cost out the butt and repair shops, who stayed busy repairing these sets, were common. And, companies were easier to deal with and they didn't discontinue repair parts 90 days after the set was built.
Starting in the '90's, we started seeing ultra cheap bargain basement priced TV's. TV's such as 27" sets with remote and stereo sound for under $200, 19" TV's with remote for less than $100, 13" color TV's with remote for WELL under $100, VCR's for $39, cheap stereo's for $59, etc. It goes without saying that this junk was built as cheaply as possible and was not meant to last very long or to be fixed. It was also at this point that companies became harder to deal with and repair parts were often too expensive or NLA. It was these actions that put the "mom & pop" TV dealers out of business, as well as many TV shops that USED to make good money at fixing TV's and selling used TV's, not to mention all the AMERICAN jobs that were lost as a result of all the domestic TV manufacturers either going out of business or moving offshore. It all boils down to "big foreign business", who doesn't mind stepping on the "little guy", just as long as they can make the most profit. And, yes, I resent the hell out of it and I refuse to spend money on some modern Chinese TV that is garbage when I can pick up a '70's era TV that is designed to be fixed and will last me for several more years. And, if people think I'm weird; then, so be it.
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