Goodwill Scrap TV's

[Einar72]

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.

[radiotvnut]

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.

[AUdubon5425]

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.

[jhal]

Originally Posted by AUdubon5425

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.

[ChrisW6ATV]

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.

[Chad Hauris]

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.

[bgadow]

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.

[tvcollector]

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..

[DavGoodlin]

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.

[vintagecollect]

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.