I went to the Goodwill Recycling center in Santa Ana today to pick up a Toy I had won on their Auction Site.

I was told to go in the back of the Warehouse to pick it up, on entering I saw pallet after pallet of CRT type TV's stacked 7 ft all and wrapped in plastic, labeled "Scrap"!

I looked them over pretty good and didn't see anything I'd lose sleep over losing, the oldest thing I saw was a Sony 12" Trinitron, possibly late 70's early 80's with knob tuning and a Sharp Lynitron of similar vintage.

There was a Toshiba 16:9 CRT set in one of the bundles and a large (36"?) Pro Scan in a tall console.

Most of it was Black or Silver Plastic junk from the 90's like Sharp, Sanyo, Magnavox, there were some Panasonics and Sony's also.

Seems a shame to send them to recycling when many of them could be fixed for a few bucks but there's just no profit in it I guess, especially when they get so many sets that don't need repairs they can sell.

At least they're not going into Landfills or beside the road.

ey, my uncle ordered one of those Proscan (RCA) 32" bpc stereo sets in about 1992 or 3...from a catalog...i remember it costing about a grand then...the catalog was 'fine living ' or something, and came with the stand with VHS storage and an optional VCR he didn't buy. Ran that set til about 2003 when he bought a Samsung DLP set...not sure what he watches now, but it's definitely a flat panel.

Good to hear about this event, Eric. and yeah I've seen a fair amount of late seventies-Sony 12inchers...good sets..have a kv-1215 somewhere.

Most thrift shops scrap older TVs that are from the the 70s and 80s, possibly 60s even if they do work.. They see that no one buys them, so they don't even make it out to the floor, so they scrap them.. I Haven't seen a vacuum tube set in the Goodwills and Salvation Armys in over 20 years, but you know the newer generation of people probably don't realize these sets take a moment to warm up.. You would be amazed of the stuff you don't see thats donated to these places, THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT OUT TO THE FLOOR..

Something I posted about last year-I was pulling into the parking lot of Goodwill just as another guy left. He had dropped off some things, including a pair of very clean 70s color portables. (a 19" Sony and a 13" CC2) I tried very hard to buy them but all the staff would tell me was that they had to be tested first and to come back later. I checked and checked but they never made it to the floor. I guess I should have demanded to see the manager. That was the last time I ever donated anything to that store. I have picked up a couple tube sets in recent years-an Airline 12" color hybrid (Taiwanese Admiral) at the Salvation Army and a late 60s 19" RCA color (forget the CTC #) at Goodwill. When I carried that one to the front the cashier said it must have been put out by mistake. Both of those sets worked fine.

The same thing has happened to me a few times... I saw something I wanted out of the donation box located by the front door of a Faith Farm, which is a South Florida program for people that seek help from alcohol and drugs. They have a few thrift stores.. Long story short, Anytime I saw something walking by the donation ben, I went to ask the manager that there is something I want from there, and I'll buy it as is.. They stuck to their rules and said nope, it has to go through the process line, come back tomorrow and it should be out.. I then say it won't even make it out, and your going to pass on money? Of course that gets no where.. Went there the next day, and the following, and of course it didn't make it, But I did come across the remote for that VCR I was wanting at some point, right in their box where they sell used remotes..

It's sad, but they probably figure it's easier to just count on the 28 cents/pound, and not worry about stocking them, showing them, and answering stupid questions. I have a good contact with a CA certified recycler, and I've made a few really good hauls! Last night I went down there, and picked up a mint-condition working Icom communications receiver IC-R76A, IIRC. I've also gotten numerous collectible Sony TVs, and a Panasonic 1.5" CT101 color set! Also got a Gen 1 iPod, and they just took in a 2010 Apple 24" iMac with the Snow Leopard disk in it, and it works fine! Evidently, businesses are at a tax advantage to junk newer stuff like that iMac, annually. There is a Salvation Army store in LA, which has their back lot visible to traffic, and I see dozens of 90s and 2000s big screen sets lined up out there in the weather. I doubt those ever make it out to the thrift stores.

Charles

Charles

Saturday is junk electronics collection day up at the county roads barn. I do have a few junkers I would like to carry in but my agenda for the day has me in a different direction. I would be a nervous wreck riding up there, worrying that I would see something like, oh, an Admiral color roundie in early American or a danish modern Philco 23v set with the tuning indicator, sitting there in the roll-off dumpster, and being told I couldn't have it! In truth, they probably won't collect anything older than the late 70s. (I'll go on thinking that!)

It's sad that the total mentality these days toward older non-Flat Panel TV's is that they are automatically junk.

Sadly MANY thrift stores are run with a moron mentality. The local Goodwill stores are mostly clothing stores and their philosophy is; quote "If we have no room for it, then it is trash". I have seen many trucks coming in with the day's haul only to back up to the trash compactor and empty it because they have no room for it at the main collection site. They used to have auctions but after the manager left, they don't any more. They don't care how valuable the goods are, they just go into the dumpster and WILL NOT let you have anything.

Up in Ohio I came across a thrift store manager who was an absolute moron. He knew the machine didn't work and he saw it smoke when he plugged it in but still wanted full price for it. Another store here in Knoxville had a $2.95 Pier 1 import Chinese abacus with the price tag still affixed. She swore it was over 100 years old and she knew because she was an "antiques expert". They are experts all right as they almost always throw out the good stuff and put the crap in the store.

Funny thing is they all think they belong to the Fortune 500 managers' guild. Just ask 'em!!

They must cater to the Haitians and illegals more, due to the fact they are the ones in there digging through the cloths and kitchenware.. There's one huge thrift shop in this area like this that is always packed full of people.. They even had a big electronics section. Out of all the years of going there, They have never had a knob tuning TV on the self, nor old left side loading VCRS. But once every blue moon I'll run across an old Receiver, and a couple of portable 8 track radios, but that's still a rare thing..

at our local thrift store they now proudly display a sign reading:FINANCING AVAILABLE!
financing at a thrift store?this is what has happened to a once fun business

at another store the sign offered 90 days same as cash.in this economy with banks tightening up on lending,who would qualify?

Sadly MANY thrift stores are run with a moron mentality. The local Goodwill stores are mostly clothing stores and their philosophy is; quote "If we have no room for it, then it is trash". I have seen many trucks coming in with the day's haul only to back up to the trash compactor and empty it because they have no room for it at the main collection site. They used to have auctions but after the manager left, they don't any more. They don't care how valuable the goods are, they just go into the dumpster and WILL NOT let you have anything.

Up in Ohio I came across a thrift store manager who was an absolute moron. He knew the machine didn't work and he saw it smoke when he plugged it in but still wanted full price for it. Another store here in Knoxville had a $2.95 Pier 1 import Chinese abacus with the price tag still affixed. She swore it was over 100 years old and she knew because she was an "antiques expert". They are experts all right as they almost always throw out the good stuff and put the crap in the store.

Funny thing is they all think they belong in the Fortune 500 managers' guild. Just ask 'em!!

Mental illness, it's a terrible thing to waste.

Most all of the thrift store around here have been converted into "boutique" type stores. Who knew that Aunt Harriet's twenty-year-old sofa you gave St. VdeP after she died was still worth $250?!?!?!?

We still have one really good Thrift Store here:
http://www.theredlandsthriftstore.com/

They started an Auction section a couple years ago, that has good points and bad.
It gives you a chance to get something cool but often at a higher price than if it had just been sold outright.

They often sell older CRT sets for less than $10.

Our Salivation Army Store just closed it's doors, they had everything priced at twice what it was worth but also had a near perpetual half off sale.
Still, I found a few gems there like a 3" Sharp Pedestal TV set for $10.

The switch to digital caused every TV ever made up to the early 1990's and most of the ones made until recently obsolete. All this while our dollars pour into Red China by the hundreds of millions. The resulting avalanche of discarded TV's, along with VCR's, cassette ghetto blasters, CD players and fried DVD players have poured in to those stores, wanted or not.

Almost all the thrift stores in my area don't often have old televisions or radios very often, the one in Seattle where I got my first TV in 1966 doesn't take any electronics at all. The Goodwill / StVinnies / SalArmy stores are rife with Black/Silver plastic crap that bottom-rungers from around the globe cluelessly stack like cordwood. Don't forget those useless (imported) word-processors, fried printers piled on 386 PC's and all manner of imported junk telephones that vintage electronics has to compete with for space.

I went in one of our local thrift stores today and there was only one TV for sale in the whole store. A 1984 Philco 12" B&W for $10. I have the white plastic cased version and this one was a woodgrain version. Had it not been similar to one I already own, I would have probably bought it.

Went in a "boutique style" St. VdeP yesterday - they had a 25" System 3 with the tilt-out control panel under the CRT, no price. The 3 or 4 modern 13" color sets were priced at $15 each.

I miss the old "dig for your treasure" style thrift stores.

I miss the old "dig for your treasure" style thrift stores.

Me too. I also miss those type of flea markets. The yard sale type. Now most of them are nothing more than overgrown "dollar stores" with their crap so cheap it breaks on the way home while still in the bag.

It seems that already 25+ years ago, "flea" markets were polluted with plenty of sellers of new items. San Jose, California has had a huge flea market for decades, but when I have gone there, it has been 90% or more professional dealers as opposed to individuals selling their own old stuff.

I remember going to flea markets when I was a kid and there were pretty much 3 kinds of dealers: 1, like you're talking about selling lots of very cheap imported toys, tools etc.

2. were professionals which had reserved spaces and would come every week but would sell usually pretty decent secondhand items.

and 3. was people who were just private individuals selling whatever they wanted to. You could set up in any space that was not reserved, first come first served, and the flea market manager would come along and collect the booth rent (I think it was like around $7.00 back in the 80's).
Flea markets would be just huge in Ohio in the 1980's and particularly on Memorial day, 4th of July, they'd often have 3-day long markets.

Today I think too many flea markets have strict regulations like requiring vendors licenses and insurance that it pretty much forbids just an ordinary person with some stuff to sell from participating.

The local market still has a good number of non-professionals. They get the less desirable outside spots, while those undercover are mostly regulars. I don't mind those because I have picked up some nice deals from some of 'em. There are a lot more "cheap chinese junk" sellers than there used to be, but a market can only have so many of them before the competition kills any profit. There were 2 or 3 guys who specialized in electronics; one in particular would get some neat stuff, and it was cheap: 9" bw portables from the 60s, transistor Trans-Oceanics and older clones, Superadios, etc, all of them priced in the $5-10 range. The bread and butter for those sellers was TV sets and digital/LCD has really put a hurting on them.

We have two flea markets, on has a drive in and has been around, gee's even before I was born, at least the 70's.. Than the second one opened up in 1990, just around 3 miles from the other one, and it is under a interstate bridge between a high school and train station.. When It opened back in 1990, it killed the drive in flea market.. During the late 1990's up too the mid 2000's I stopped going.. Somewhere around 10 years of not going, I decided to check them out again.. The one under the bridge turned into venders who cater to the illegal Mexicans, and became mostly cloths, shoes and new garbage.. The older one at the drive in revived again, and it's mixed with people who sells to get rid of stuff out of there garage, attic etc. and people who sell every week with stuff they find to sell, and also you got some of the new stuff venders.. I find neat stuff there in a blue moon..

Shopping thrift stores was necessary when I realized I have nothing in my barn smaller than a 19 inch.
I needed a small and simple set for a 89 year-old lady with a DT-box and antenna . I was thinking "mid-80's GE 10" sorta-color with knob tuner" and shopped a few places with used items around here. The urban stores had some interesting sets from the 80's like a Zenith system 3, RCA Colortrak but they want $30-50, even for small plastic box sets. They seem to have a captive clientele that has no idea what stuff is worth.
Then I went to the Salvation Army store in a more suburban location. There sat a 32" panasonic for $25, s few boxes for $5-20, and I settled on a 1992 GE 17" (missing its remote) for $13.

You cannot expect these folks to know much about consumer electronics, but
I would be making a midnight return visit with ladder and truck if I saw anything with knobs or a wood cabinet being trashed.

The TV hobby here in CA is dead. The goodwill I got a nice Macy's TV was barely saved from the scrap heap. The manager complains about someone picking a TV out of the heap, they put out a few B/W sets out for me even though asked for color. No longer allowed to look at heap.

The older sets I'm interested in just aren't anywhere. I recently picked up a 50" first gen. HD at a deal and very pleased. The picture is awesome and lightweight since DLP projector design.

I have six older 1970's color SS high quality sets if anyone's interested. I'm in N. CA All sets display an excellent picture. Have limited space only for sets w/ strong interest.These sets simply aren't increasing in value as in general these are considered obsolete by most.