Raped curbside sets

[radiotvnut]

There was a TV shop in a neighboring town that would smash the neck on most sets that they tossed. Someone brought me 2 or 3 of such sets from his trash to give me. One was a 19" Sharp with a busted CRT; but, I had a tube on hand that would fit. After replacing the tube, all that was wrong with the set was a shorted diode and open fusible resistor. I said to myself, "why would a shop attempt to destroy such a set that only needed minor repair?" I think I sold that set for $100 (and, that tells you how long ago that was).

Back in the '90's, there was a local TV shop that I would pass on the way to school. Almost always, there were several TV's sitting beside his building. I always checked these sets out and never once found one with a chassis still inside the cabinet. It didn't matter if it was old, new, B&W, or color. He would always remove the chassis. I don't know if he was pulling the chassis as a source for parts or if he was doing it to prevent someone from fixing the set.

The sets that the Zenith dealer would toss were a mixed bag. Some still had the chassis and some didn't. It usually depended on how old the set was or how good of condition the chassis was in. They would usually either scratch the word "JUNK" into the cabinet (that was often hard to explain when I was trying to sell such a set) or they would spray a blob of red paint on the back of the set, which I could deal with much better. Then, someone I know took over as the main video technician there and he saved all the rejects for me. I was probably getting 20-30 sets a month from them. Then, the place went out of business due to competition from places like china-mart and Sears.

When the same guy that worked at the Zenith place had his own shop, he said his biggest problem was with scrappers wanting to smash the set and leave the mess. He said that he's ran more than a few off, telling them, "you either take the whole TV or you take none of it and you're not leaving a big mess behind my shop".

As for me, I've never tried to ruin a TV or anything else that I tossed. If someone can get some good out of what I'm tossing; then, more power to them. I did get to the point where I'd place some kind of mark on the back of the set so I'd recognize it if it came back my way.