CRT sets on clearance at Wal*Mart

[bgadow]

My Dad really wanted a new Zenith TV back around 1980. The local dealer that sold them also carried GE...the owner told him the GE was the better set so that is what he bought. I always suspected profit margin.

[Bill R]

I never adjust any of the tv's. Just take them out of the box and put them on the wall. Our cuxtomers adjust them sometimes if they can reach them. So in our store if it looks good out of the box it looks good, and if it looks crappy from the factory well that is how it will look on our display. I do not have time to adjust every set.

Bill R

[leadlike]

Just was in Walmart today. The only CRT sets in that place are the ones they hang from the ceiling to play their shopping network feed. They were actually in the process of remodeling the entire store, and it looks kind of barren. They are offering maybe twenty flat panel sets, the cheapest starting at about $250. This morning they had two 42'' sets on clearance for $700, and by this evening, when I had to go back for something or other, they were sold. Quite an interesting situation, that my only tv options are to pay about $500 for a decent sized new flat panel, or just go down the street to Goodwill where all tvs are $10...

[andy]

000

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by andy

If you ask me, it's a good thing that TVs are getting more expensive. CRTs got so cheap that they were disposable, and there was no used market at all. I've lost count of the number of high end CRTs I've driven past on trash day because no one wants them. Now that non-working flat panels are starting to show up, I'm actually selling some TVs again.

Amen to that! Of course, the FP's will probably be selling at giveaway prices in a few years; but, I'm going to take advantage of it while I can. Two years ago, I had trouble getting rid of 27" CRT sets. You should have heard some of the bitching and moaning when I'd quote someone $75 or $100 for a 27" quality used TV. "WHAT, I CAN GO TO THE DOLLAR STORE AND GET A NEW ONE FOR $99." I felt like telling them to go right on down there and buy that piece of shit and don't come crying to me when it blows up in a week. Well, I actually told a few that if they could get a new TV for $99; then, that's what they needed to do. I didn't use any profanity on them.

Now, people are finding out that they can't run to whatever discount house and buy a $99 new TV anymore and not everyone can afford a flat panel TV. Those situations are making it easier to sell used TV's again. Also, my friend that runs a repair shop is getting a lot more repair estimates approved on CRT sets. I'm also noticing that the local SA is moving a lot of TV's. Even the old knob tuner sets are selling. I think they get between $25 and $35 for knob tuned sets.

Sometime this week, I'm supposed to be picking up an '85 Zenith console that the guy paid around $800 for and it's been trouble free until it recently died. He's been using it to sit his flatscreen on. The flatscreen is less than a year old and has already given him trouble. It was fixed under warranty; but, he still had to pay the labor charges. It's really sad that the old TV lasted 23-24 years without a problem and the so called "improved" TV lasted less than a year before it gave trouble.

[AUdubon5425]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

Now, people are finding out that they can't run to whatever discount house and buy a $99 new TV anymore and not everyone can afford a flat panel TV.

I was talking with my wife today about the 19" Symphonic or Durabrand (or whatever) set she had when I met her, asking if she wanted to put it in her daughter's bedroom and get it out of my shed. She said that she bought it on sale for $70 new in 2004 at Wal Mart - I still find it incredible, a new TV for $70. Incidentally, I never have bought a new TV; never paid more than $25 for a used one.

[leadlike]

A $70 dollar tv is just crazy. Don't forget how cheap VCRs have also become-about $40 new for those awful feather-lite models, where I can still remember my Dad spending $100 dollars on a case of ten VHS tapes to put into his $400 VCR.

If prices on consumer electronics are going to rise, fine. But I would like to see folks take more interest in those possessions they paid so dearly for. There are younger people in my family that are perfectly fine with tossing out that dead year-old set; while my Grandfather won't toss out his B&W Zenith $ervice Saver because he dropped an equivalent amount of cash on that forty years ago.

[andy]

000

[Arkay]

I've seen the prices of CRT sets almost collapse here in recent years. They've held up a bit in the wholesale market, where people buy them for export to poorer countries, but NO ONE else that I know of buys CRTs here any more, or will even take them for free!

Less than two years ago, I paid about a hundred bucks for a TOTL Bang & Olufsen, figuring I'd be happy with it for several years until the flat-screen ones got cheap enough. [I'll pay reasonably for audio, but somehow don't want to pay that much for video.]

Well, recently I got a pair of Yamaha NS-1000Ms, and the magnets on those unshielded things were so strong that I couldn't get them within four feet of the television.

So, somewhat reluctantly, I decided to sell the B&O and get a Plasma screen. I then found out that the wholesale bird-doggers wouldn't even take the CRT FOR FREE. [This model cost several thousand dollars, just over ten years ago!] They'll still take some models, for rock-bottom prices of a few bucks apiece, but almost no one wants the B&Os. Extremely solid build (solid cast-aluminum frame, weighs over 100 lbs in total, great color, etc... the thing even automatically turns itself to face the direction of the remote control, when you turn it on with the remote!) ... and no one wants them. Even the decorator shops that sell retro-cool stuff weren't very interested.

Very sad, in a way.
Tempus fugit.
To everything, there is a season.
All things must pass.
Let go, grasshopper...
but it still feels a bit sad...

[vintagecollect]

....

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by vintagecollect

Flat screen TVs are the new status symbol

That's about it! The same people who buy them, are the ones who also need a BMW and need to have their kids in the most expensive private school, even if the kids are special-ed. Same people as those who need a 6,000 sq. ft. house in the best zipcode in order to make their Christmas card recipients think they've "made it big". Same people, sadly, who now have a 250% loan-to-to-value mortgage in default. On the other hand, most of my successful and wealthy, well-invested friends are watching CRTs and driving used cars, and are living in a rural zipcode so that the local public schools are good enough.

Charles

[andy]

000

[Eric H]

Boy am I getting tired of the attitude around here towards people who like Big Screen, HD, Plasma, 16:9, Blu Ray and all the rest.

Some of us like out Plasmas because they have a great picture and we like to watch movies in a format that's as close to the Theater as possible.

HD 16:9 blows NTSC clean out of the water, no contest, those sets at Wal Mart look like crap by comparison because they are crap.
C'mon folks the tech was 70 years old, time for something new.

I don't have a 6000 sq ft house or a BMW or any nice car, just a 20 year old Toyota truck and a Honda Civic.

BTW Panasonic's new Plasmas have a screen that's rated to last 100,000 hours, or 42 years under average use, I expect if they put that much effort into the panels they probably put some effort into the electronics as well.

My Sony Projector is already 5 years old without a single problem, not even a bulb yet.

[Trance88]

Originally Posted by wilkes85

Has anyone noticed that when you go to an electronics store, they purposely have a bad connection on the CRT sets, and they mis-adjust the colour so they look worse than the flat screens in comparrison?

I was in future shop a while ago, and I noticed all the TVs had a gross fuzzy snowy picture, with the colour adjusted waaay too high, and the tint was way off.
They do this on purpose so people would see them, think CRTs are crap, and fork out the fortune for a plasma that will last about 5 years.

I was just at my local Target store a few weeks ago and saw their last remaining tube models. They were adjusted properly and were getting just as good of a video signal as the flat screens. One thing I noticed with the tube TV's is their ability to produce better color contrast than the flat panels if you get what I mean.

For example, I would look on the flat panel sets and see a woman wearing a red dress. I then immediately looked at the tube sets and I could see, of course, a woman with a red dress but...slightly different shades of red stripes just barely visible on the dress. The flat panel TV's couldn't produce those stripes on the dress and just showed the dress as a wash of red!!!!

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by Trance88

I was just at my local Target store a few weeks ago and saw their last remaining tube models. They were adjusted properly and were getting just as good of a video signal as the flat screens. One thing I noticed with the tube TV's is their ability to produce better color contrast than the flat panels if you get what I mean.

For example, I would look on the flat panel sets and see a woman wearing a red dress. I then immediately looked at the tube sets and I could see, of course, a woman with a red dress but...slightly different shades of red stripes just barely visible on the dress. The flat panel TV's couldn't produce those stripes on the dress and just showed the dress as a wash of red!!!!

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "Flat Panel" is it the $299 LCD SD set or the $5000 Kuros Plasma?

Just want to know if we're comparing Apples to Apples or?