Quote:
Originally Posted by old_tv_nut
This has been a practice of "older people" since the 50s. I never understood why people wouldn't either fix, give away, sell or trash an old set, but I had older relatives who did this. This was during times when there was no problem with curb pickup. Now that I qualify for the senior discount at lots of places, I still shudder at the thought of this.
Of course, collectors may have the same arrangement, but they actually intend the set to be viewed (working or not). I don't think those older folks were eager to point out their decorating choice as something desirable. More like "we spent a ton of money on this and can't bear to see it trashed - maybe some year it will get used."
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One of my neighbors' relatives has a broken mid '80's console with a new, big LCD TV sitting on top of it. My neighbor tried to get the console from him to give to me. The relative said he'd give it up when he built a cabinet for the new TV. According to my neighbor, he's not getting in any hurry. My feelings are not hurt because I don't want another mid '80's Zenith console that will probably end up going to the dump. My neighbor mentioned that his relative brought up how much he paid for the Zenith 20+ years ago. I've seen many other older people with a newer TV sitting on top of an older console and I never had any luck prying the old TV away from them. The answers were "if I give that to you, I won't have a place to sit the new TV", "It's a pretty cabinet and I'm going to gut it one day", or "I paid $900 for that TV and I'm not letting you have it for next to nothing so that you can fix it and make a bunch of $". And, those answers were not limited to consoles used as stands. In the mid '90's, I went to look at an old broken TV to buy for possible repair and resell. It turned out to be a basic RCA color console from the late '60's. It was sitting in the storage shed and, according to the owner, had been for years. I offered him $10, thinking he would jump on it. WRONG, my $10 offer didn't go over too well. I left before I got shot!