Nostalgic dialog: buying & selling used TVs

[radiotvnut]

I was talking to a friend that owns a shop and he seems to think that the sale and repair of used "regular" TV's may get better. He says that if you look at the sale papers; they are not pushing those cheap CRT sets. They are pushing the high $$ flat panel stuff. He says that there's a lot of people that can't afford the new stuff and might pay a little for a used CRT set. $100 for a used CRT set would be better than $600+ for a flat TV. He says his "regular TV" repair business has picked up over the past few months. When I was there the other day, someone brought in for repair a mid '80's 19" Emerson with rotary tuner. I did remind him that there will still be a lot of people that will do without food to get the newest TV and would not look twice at an old set. I also reminded him that in a few years flat TV's will be pretty cheap. I guess time will tell.

[compucat]

I used to have a 2002 JVD D series set. I had the one with all the features including two tuner picture in picture. That was a great set and it never gave any trouble when we had it. I sold it in 2006 for $150 and last I heard it is still working. I almost wish I'd kept it.

[Big Dave]

I gave up on classifieds and thrift stores long ago. As I understand, most thrifts won't even take a tube set. Garage sales are something else I don't do anymore. My best case senario would be to be on a service call in one of our older neighborhoods. Let's say there is a Zenith porthole or a CT-100 in the basement. After I get the furnace running, I probably would ask if that old (insert brand here) still works (knowing it needs restored). I probably will get the answer that it hasn't worked in 30 years. "Would you be interested in selling it to me?" Best answer I can get would be "You can have it if you'll haul it out." It may happen.

[bgadow]

There is a really nice elderly lady in the neighborhood. Several years back her kids cleaned out her basement. (her deceased husband really had it packed) They filled a roll-off dumpster with stuff. Fast forward a couple years-she calls me one afternoon saying she had no hot water and could I check in the basement for her. I figured it would be empty down there but there on the workbench sat a 1936 RCA tombstone radio. I asked her about it and she said her mother gave it to them when they got married, and would I please take it? It now has an honored place in my collection. Oh, and the no-heat problem was a tripped switch caused by a lightning storm.

[Thyratron]

For me, TV selection is easy. If its screen is flat, if it was made after about 1984, or if the channels cannot be selected from the set itself, it stays on the shelf!!!

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by Thyratron

For me, TV selection is easy. If its screen is flat, if it was made after about 1984, or if the channels cannot be selected from the set itself, it stays on the shelf!!!

And one thing I HATE are these newer TV's with no menu button on them. I can't remember the times I've brought home one of these from the TV shop just to get it working and find out a universal remote won't bring up the menu and an original remote is either too expensive or NLA. It's pretty bad when they are too cheap to even put a menu button on the set. It used to be the other way around. The remotes only had basic functions and the clock / channel set-up controls were on the set behing a door. That's the way our circa '83 Magnavox 19" was. BTW, that set lasted through the mid '90's seeing heavy use. The CRT finally got too dim to make a decent picture.

[andy]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

And one thing I HATE are these newer TV's with no menu button on them. I can't remember the times I've brought home one of these from the TV shop just to get it working and find out a universal remote won't bring up the menu and an original remote is either too expensive or NLA. It's pretty bad when they are too cheap to even put a menu button on the set. It used to be the other way around. The remotes only had basic functions and the clock / channel set-up controls were on the set behing a door. That's the way our circa '83 Magnavox 19" was. BTW, that set lasted through the mid '90's seeing heavy use. The CRT finally got too dim to make a decent picture.

Thankfully most new TVs have menu buttons on the TV. The worst TVs for not having menu buttons were ones from the early 90's.

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by andy

Thankfully most new TVs have menu buttons on the TV. The worst TVs for not having menu buttons were ones from the early 90's.

I'll beat that one... How about the RCA CTC-81 with the black vinyl upholstered remote from about '78... That one had NO POWER BUTTON on the TV, and no way to turn it on nor change channels without the remote

Charles

[andy]

I've never seen one of those TVs, but I have a remote.

[dr.ido]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

And one thing I HATE are these newer TV's with no menu button on them. I can't remember the times I've brought home one of these from the TV shop just to get it working and find out a universal remote won't bring up the menu and an original remote is either too expensive or NLA. It's pretty bad when they are too cheap to even put a menu button on the set. It used to be the other way around. The remotes only had basic functions and the clock / channel set-up controls were on the set behing a door. That's the way our circa '83 Magnavox 19" was. BTW, that set lasted through the mid '90's seeing heavy use. The CRT finally got too dim to make a decent picture.

The ones that don't have an AV or MENU button on the front panel are worse. I've scrapped a few sets that were working fine, but without the remote it was impossible to tune them in or select the AV input (which is all a lot of people use now anyway). It's a real pain going through 10 different universal remotes and then sorting through several boxes of assorted orphan remotes and finding nothing that even sort of works.

Sometimes you can get lucky and there will be pads on the PCB for the missing AV/MENU buttons, so you can install the missing buttons.

On a couple of sets I've hardwired the relevant pin on the jungle IC to force it to AV, but that only works when you can find a datasheet and it isn't something that uses i2c for everything.

I've got one recent set sitting here right now that is close to being scrap because there is a corrupt byte in it's EEPROM. The V-size setting is wrong, but I can't get into the service menu to change it as I don't have a remote and I don't know who actually made it to even try and search for the service manual (it's one of those off brands). I swapped out the EEPROM for one on a similar chassis and the vertical size is fine, but as it's from a set with a different revision MCU the menus are corrupt.

So now I know there's no fault in the vertical section, but I can't do anything about it. I miss trimpots. Sure, they cost a few cents more, but they are a lot easier to deal with.

Maybe I'll install a v-size pot instead of scrapping this one.

[radiotvnut]

I had one of the early '90's 13" Funai made TV/VCR units that lightning got and the color was running wide open and adjusting the on screen color control did nothing. I just added a big resistor to lower the voltage going to the color adjust pin of the jungle IC and got the color back watchable.

[Bill R]

I used some 13inch Funai made sets in the studio for non critical monitors. I had to modify one of the remotes by either adding or removing some jumpers, I don't remember which. Once it was modified the remote only worked for the service menues.

Bill R

[radiotvnut]

I found this broken 27" newer RCA on epay ( 220191436553) and the seller seems to think it's worth $75! Heck, it would be hard to get that for a WORKING example of that set. They'll be lucky to get someone to haul it off.

[radiotvnut]

I found this on YouTube. WARNING: gruesome material! Don't look if blood freaks you out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqJom8XPf1k

[zenith2134]

THAT WAS GREAT!!! Cool find