No more Tvs at Goodwill

[zenithfan1]

Guess what? They finally wised up and let tvs be donated again. I was pleasantly surprised to find an '80 Magnavox console with some 80's and 90's bpc. Looks like I'll be looking for sets there again, never know what will turn up!

[Glenn Waters]

I was wondering why I did not see any more beautiful consoles in the stores. Horrible monsters, the gods of electronics are not pleased with this at all. It is another dirty blow to the safe keeping of our past for future generations. Why I would bet the communist are behind this or some other thought controlling group.

[Electrohome]

The TV pictured in the above post by Glenn Waters looks almost identical to my 1978 Sears/Sanyo console I got a couple of years ago. I wonder if this TV is a Sears or a Sanyo-just curious. They sure don't make TVs like they used to. I wonder how many of today's TVs will still be working in 30 years-LOL:-)

[colorfixer]

There's more sources than Goodwill: Also try "The Society of St. Vincent's de Paul". They run a thrift store that gets better stuff, and the smaller the town, the better the stuff, and the prices are more reasonable.

[rca2000]

The word seems to be "getting out" around here, at least, about Flat--panel sets.

People seem to be figuring out just HOW POORLY flat--panel tv sets are made. How they fail in a year or two, how they can be broken about as easily as a egg, and for plasma tv's--how much power they draw, in addition to being even MORE unreliable than LCD flat--panel sets.

So...some smart people are now realizing that those "old fashioned" CRT sets WERE the best after all, and also hard to break physically. Sure--many want the "latest", but many are also not happy with knowing that a typical decent--CRT type set will outlast FIVE flat--panel sets, or if it is LIGHTLY bumped on the front-- a flat--panel is junk!!

And also--I think the "myths" about analog sets being USELESS is being overcome now--too. People are now learning with a $30 converter--their old CRT set will work just FINE on digital OTA signals. So....people are again getting a normal crt set, for a "quick cheap, reliable set" for the bedroom, kitchen, and even main set.

I guess the Goodwill has learned that too.

[kx250rider]

Cash talks, and I'd hope that one of two things will happen: The thrift stores will discover that they can get more $ for collectible TVs than the recycler will pay, or the recycler will discover the same, and will start putting vintage TVs aside and selling them. I've seen several on eBay which were offered by e-waste contractors. (political content regarding California self-edited)

Charles

[andy]

---

[Glenn Waters]

Hi Electrohome
The TV in the photo in my above post with Karah and pictured below with Grantley is a 1986 Curtis Mathes console made in Athens Texas. I once worked for Curtis Mathes in the 1980's!
I think two things just cannot be improved upon in this world the classic console TV with a well built CRT and the V-8 engine. This idea of plan obsolescent is stupid. From RCA Select-a-vision disks to Beta, to VHS, to Laser Disks, to DVD to what is it now Blue Ray. This is just a way to make folks throw away what they have and buy more. I still play my LP records and my 8 track tapes. I have a room full of VHS movies and enough really good players to last my life. I even have a huge collection of RCA Select-a-vision disks and three player! They all work, the public is stupid and gullible.

They can keep the cheap made in Asia junk, I will keep my nice made in the USA good stuff.
Like my made in Glenview Illinois, Zenith console below. Lets see speakers like that on a made in China flat LCD.

[Electrohome]

I have over 1500 Betamax tapes 1976-1990's and about 14 early 1976-78 Betamax VCRs along with 4 RCA VBT 200 VHS VCRS from 1977-78 with over 2000 VHS tapes as well:-) Yep, also got an RCA CED video disc player I trash picked in about 2001 with about 4 or 5 CED video discs. There's always something good on Selectavision:-)
I found several B&W 12-inch portable TVs in the trash from 1973-about 81-82 and they all pretty well work:-) These were mainly used as kitchen ,bedroom and camper or cottage TVs back in the 1970's and 1980's.
That picture with the 1986 Curtis Mathes w/Grantley looks like it was taken in about 1987ish just by the way the sunlight is and the older circa early 1950's red brick bungalow in the background-reminds me of my childhood when I was a kid in the 1980's:-) They sure don't make TVs like they used to-I just wonder how many TVs made today will still be around in 25-30 years still working. All this Made In China junk will just be in the landfill in 10 years anyway. I also have a 1986 Made In Japan Betamax that still works no problem that I watch my good qaulity Betamax tapes on. Beta always had a better picture than VHS. I'll bet this very computer I'm typing this on won't be around in another 10 years either. I really wish TVs and electronics in general wound be made in the USA and Canada again.

Cheers from Electrohome:-)

[colorfixer]

I've given up on chinese junk electronics. Every time I run across something reasonably new, and dead, its always made in China. There isn't a mandate for quality, just pump it out and do it as cheaply as possible.

Case in point: How many chinese 19" tv's will still be working 20+ years from now? Lets give them the advantage: how many "New in box" chinese electronics will be working 20+ years from now? I doubt many. I pulled a 19" sanyo monitor out of the box after 28 years of hibernation in a warehouse (google "time travel warehouse"). The thing worked 100% the first time, and its still A-ok. I even out of paranoia checked a few caps on the board, and they all test out perfect. KX250rider's KV-1201 is another perfect example.

People are getting tired of crap. It's only a matter of time before they vote with their $$$, which will be the prime mover for the manufacturers.

[mbates14]

The only good thing that came out of this, at least for me, maybe a few others, the service industry is booming again selectively.

people dont want to go out and go get another TV because they had just bought this one, even though it may have been cheap at the time. so people get it repaired.

the death cycle about all this, only the select few are even repairable, reasonably.

[holmesuser01]

I have a friend that works at Goodwill in their thrift store. He told me that most of the TV's they get dont work at all. They plug them in and see if there is sound and something on the screen before they put it out in the store.

They have just started stacking a bunch of sets on a pallet and charging $35 for the load. I havent seen one of the pallet piles sold, yet. Its always late '80's thru the end of CRT sets that are there.

The other thrift in town routinely destroys sets that use tubes. I saw a destroyed Philco roundie there, once, and asked them to contact me if they ever got another. They've never called, and I mention it to them when I go there.

[Reece]

Some of the thrift stores here have lots of TV's but they are all solid state color CRT's and in good running condition, priced from about $15 up to $75 depending on tube size and apparent quality of the set.

[MRX37]

A new thrift store opened up near my house. No really old TV's though. Oldest I saw was a System 3. Lots of 90's BPC and one big Mitsubishi console TV.

[Glenn Waters]

Most of my house was furnished from thrift stores. My children can prêtty-much tell the year, make and model of most televisions, VCR’s, and even how to load and unload a select-a-vision RCA disk machine. It is not rocket science to install a converter box. But the powers in charge want to make you think you must run down to your local Super Wal-Mart and buy the latest crap slapped together by children and slaves in Asia. That is why so many folks are brain dead these days.
Cora knew this was a 1972 Zenith because she has magazines from the 1970’s, and likes to read about the way it once was in the USA. I even have encyclopedias for them. I think none of the children today have those.


It is easy to appreciate your heritage when you understand that they just are not making this stuff anymore and it is better-put-together than what is new in the super-slave-stores today from China. I cannot tell you how many vintage televisions we have saved from the dump. If I had a warehouse I could fill it up to the top with working made in America console televisions and stereos from the 1960's 70's and 80's that have been left at the dump to be crushed in the compactors. People are so stuck on stupid in this nation, they just do what they are told to do by the news and the powers in charge. I think if the news told people in America to throw away their children they would be lined up at trash compactors the next day with their offspring. Just blindly obeying what they were told was the right, proper, and the modern thing to do.