We have a couple of old cathode-ray TVs in the house. One has not been used for a while; the other is being replaced by a flat-screen as we expand the finished space in our basement and move the “den” space from the 1st floor down there.
We are calling the Salvation Army to have a few things picked up - an old sofa, some kids’ toys that our kids have grown out of, etc. Is the best way to get rid of the TV’s to donate them, too? One is a big Sony Wega - maybe a 40" screen.
Do these things have enough resale value that we should consider selling them on Craig’s List? A quick check suggests that old-tech TV’s don’t go for big $$
They’re heavy suckers - part me of thinks the tech is old, and we should just be happy that they can be hauled off.
Just post them as free giveaways on Craigslist and they’ll be gone in a flash. That’s likely worth the savings in hassle of trying to get a few bucks, dealing with shoppers making ultra-low offers that irritate you, and your counter-offers that result in their leaving, only to have you do it all again with the next shopper.
I got rid of a huge, 10-year old Sony HDTV CRT beast that way. I might have been able to get $100-$150 for it, but here near San Jose CA it was gone within 1-hr of posting the ad. Worth it to me.
I work for an e-waste recycling company. Those big old CRT TVs have a few pounds of lead in them, and need to be disposed of properly. Unfortunately, the amount of old CRTs out there is greater than the amount of CRT recycling capacity. We have to charge people to recycle those big monsters like the Sony Wega.
When people pick them up for free, I always wonder what’s happening to all of that lead.
Some of the people who showed up when I was giving mine away, I wondered if they were just going to clean it up and sell it at some garage sale. Hopefully the TV is still being used, somewhere.
CRTs that are HDTV and/or widescreen still have a small devoted following in some home theater circles, and will probably be used by whomever picks it up. I’d almost suggest that charging a nominal amount for it would further suggest that it’s going to be used and not scrapped. I know more than a few people who would have offered the $100-150 echo7tango suggested.
4:3 SDTVs and monitors on the other hand… eh. Some retro gamers may still need one (and Samsung GX TVs and Sharp Nintendo/TV hybrids are still sought after by gamers). A sharp, crisp TV that plays games well and is advertised as such, or a properly working Atari, Commodore, Amiga, etc., monitor could probably find a taker for a few bucks. 99% of what’s out there, though… free to pick up might almost be too much.
I’ve had about 6 CRTs come through my garage in the past few years (I offer to dispose of them when family members replace them with LCDs, and I’m the only one who can lift them).
Four of them have ended up being taken by people I know who are setting up a new rec room or playroom, or recently moved and needed a new TV. Two of them I took to Best Buy to recycle.
I put all of them up for sale on a local site similar to Craigslist, for $10. No one wanted them.
Probably ends up in the landfill; at least that’s what I see around here, with all of the TVs put out by the curb, and while I pick up any that I see so I can strip out the electronic components (lots of good parts for a serious electronics hobbyist, I have even used smaller CRTs as displays), I throw away the case/chassis and CRT* (hey, that’s what was going to happen to them anyway, and I am not going to pay to dispose of something that wasn’t mine, even if it is the “right” thing to do).
*I usually put them back where I found them (anything too large to easily put in a trash bag), sans electronic guts and vacuum in CRT (kind of fun to break the seal, plus it does make it safer for the trash pickup); so far this year alone, about 5 monitors and a few TVs.
We just gave ours away on kijiji. We posted the ad and 45 min later had someone come to pick it up. Of course he couldn’t fit it in his car but the next morning we had a sensible person take it away for us.
I sold mine with a nearly new fridge “thrown in as part of the deal”. I was hoping to get 200 for the fridge, I got 175 for the pair, I think of it as costing me 25 dollars to get my old style CRT big screen (50 inch IIRC) taken away.
(just an idea, don’t know if it’s a good one…)
A large screen could be useful for an institution, to put in a public area, like a lobby or a waiting room. Maybe donate to a hospital, old-age home, doctor’s offices,etc ?
This reminds me; I had some trees removed last year, and when they were running the big wood chipper at the curb out front, I offered the tree guys $50 if they’d shove my old CRT TV through it. It would have been awesome, but they refused.
The Salvation Army here won’t take them. Even the trash truck won’t, even with a large-items sticker. The town dump does have an electronics day once a month, for residents with dump stickers. That at least gets rid of the things for free. I assume they get picked up by a recycler eventually.
On some reality show I saw recently about storage lockers, the guys used TV’s they found for target practice. They do appear to shatter quite satisfyingly. So maybe your local gun range will take yours?
I paid a junker to take my ancient console TV (along with lots of broken furniture). Took my faithful 13" to the city electronics recycling event, along with three printers, two towers, and a vacuum cleaner.