# Selling/Donating old-tech TV's - what worked for you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 12, 2013, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-donating-old-tech-tvs-what-worked-for-you/652699 "2013-03-12T12:50:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-donating-old-tech-tvs-what-worked-for-you/652699/21 "2013-03-22T03:16:16Z")
“Give it to a third world country”? How do you plan to _get_ it to a third world country? By the way, the New York Times ran an [article](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/us/disposal-of-older-monitors-leaves-a-hazardous-trail.html) a couple of days ago about how difficult it is to properly dispose of CRT televisions. Among other things, it said, “In 2004, recyclers were paid more than $200 a ton to provide glass from these monitors for use in new cathode ray tubes. The same companies now have to pay more than $200 a ton to get anyone to take the glass off their hands.” It also mentions the lead contamination that can result when they are allowed to pile up (especially when they break and release dust contaminated with lead). ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-donating-old-tech-tvs-what-worked-for-you/652699/22 "2013-03-27T22:02:32Z")
“Ye olde Coloniale” console televisions of the 1970s have some ironic hipster cachet. Portable color televisions from the 1960s, and sets from the 1970s that are considered examples of good industrial design, are valued by some collectors. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-donating-old-tech-tvs-what-worked-for-you/652699/23 "2013-03-27T22:05:10Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > Just give it to third wold country they need it way more than people in the US. > > And most of these third wold country are still analog. But very few use the NTSC broadcast standard, except for Mexico (hardly third world now) and some Central American countries. Even then, they’re going digital. ---
**Author:** ![PurpleClogs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f04885/32.png) [@PurpleClogs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleClogs)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-donating-old-tech-tvs-what-worked-for-you/652699/24 "2013-03-27T23:04:42Z")
I have an old Panasonic portable in my garage. Still works! Well, analog anyway. It was in our kitchen when I was a kid, my bedroom as a teen, college dorm, then my first apartment. Kept it for nostalgia and out of sheer shock that it was still working! Now I can’t toss it. Don’t they need things like that for props in TV and movies? I don’t want it to end up in a dump somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-donating-old-tech-tvs-what-worked-for-you/652699/25 "2013-03-28T01:00:03Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > 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? If the trash truck doesn’t take it, even if you have to pay them\*, just take the TV apart; what I do is put the CRT in a trash bag and use a hammer to break it up (warning - make sure the vacuum seal is broken first [or this will happen](http://youtu.be/YdEq6O-xtuU?t=1m), although that looks fun) and cut the case apart; I just did this recently to a 19 inch TV and put the pieces in a few paper shopping bags (used two inside each other for the glass, which was left inside the bag I put it in to break it, and another for the plastic; the electronics were saved since that is why I picked it up in the first place, I even keep small CRTs to use as displays). \*Where I live, you do have to pay for large items (CRT TVs/monitors are accepted); my neighbors must be happy that I take their TVs and stuff (although I often put them back after gutting them, not for the aforementioned TV since I found it on the morning of pickup, with no time to gut it before pickup). ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-donating-old-tech-tvs-what-worked-for-you/652699/26 "2013-03-28T05:35:25Z")
Freecycle is your friend. Someone will come and pick them up. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-donating-old-tech-tvs-what-worked-for-you/652699/27 "2013-03-28T14:54:52Z")
> [@PurpleClogs](#): > > I have an old Panasonic portable in my garage. Still works! Well, analog anyway. Some of the Panasonic portable sets from the 1970s are considered excellent examples of design from the era. [Here’s one example](http://www.etsy.com/listing/99232908/panasonic-television-space-age-1970s). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-donating-old-tech-tvs-what-worked-for-you/652699.md?page=1)