I went TV hunting today

[radiotvnut]

And, the places around here still don't get it!

Went to the flea market where I saw the $75 Teknika from '76 and it's still there, along with 15-20 more BPC and SPC TV's that are priced between $25 for small 13" TV's and $100 for 32"-36" TV's. The owner of the place says he still sells them; but, I don't see much evidence of that. There was also an NSM CD jukebox there for, get this, $2500. I think $250 would be a generous price.

Then, I went to a "thrift" store, who was also proud of their TV's. They had a ton of 13" BPC TV's in the $20-$25 range, a few 25" BPC models in the $40-$60 range, and a 20" SPC Akai TV/VCR/DVD combo for $65 and one of the workers was talking about what a good deal it was. There were two woodgrain plastic 13" TV's there. One was a Sharp Linytron remote TV for $20 and the other was a Mitsubishi remote TV for $25. Had those been $5/ea, I might have grabbed them; but, not for those prices.

I went to another "thrift" store that was even more laughable on their prices. They had two Zenith single knob tuned 25" consoles from the early '80's, priced at $54.50/ea. Those TV's were there 2-3 months ago; so, I guess he thinks that someone will eventually pay those prices. They also had a beat up late '70's-early '80's RCA colortrak non-remote keypad tuned console for $54.50. Then, there was a bank of shelves with nothing but SPC and BPC 19" TV's priced between $30-$50, along with a ton of later model VCR's and a few Pioneer laserdisc players in the $10-$20 range. I also saw a cheap modern clock radio for $10 (it probably cost no more than that when new). I got a ray of hope when I saw three crates of LP's for fifty cents each or 3/$1.00. Then, I looked at the LP's and realized why they were so cheap. They were all crap that no one would want.

I'm sure all the thrift store TV's were donated by flat screen converts; so, given the number of TV's that are there, you'd think he'd mark them down in order to get them out the door. Some guy walked up to me while I was looking at the TV's at the last store and I made a smart remark about how overpriced they were and that they'd never sell for that. He didn't have much to say and he may have worked there; but, I don't care.

If these places are actually getting those kinds of prices, I'd like to know what I'm doing wrong. I have a friend who sells used stuff at a weekly yard sale type set-up. $10-$15 is the limit on 13" TV's, $20-$25 on 19", and $35 or so on anything bigger. And, these TV's must be clean later models with A/V jacks. If I were to send a woodgrain plastic TV, a console, or something with knobs with him to sell; it would sit there from now on.

A few weeks ago, I caved in and bought a '99 13" Sanyo with a broken RF connector for $5. I replaced the RF connector with one salvaged from a junk chassis and my friend got me $10 for the TV. He tried to get a little more; but, no, they wouldn't go for it.