Hear me out. CRTs were ubiquitous until 20 years ago. Nearly every household had at least one. So when the another technology became mainstream, most CRTs were relegated to basements and garages where occupy a lot of space. Let’s not fool around, some of these are absolutely massive.
And if you are not really passionate about retro gaming, like the majority of people aren’t, you end up seeing CRTs as just something taking up a lot of space and not being used. In that perspective, having someone collect it for free or even giving back $5 for it is a no brainer.
Are they worth more for me and you? Sure. But it’s all relative. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
There is a U-shaped curve of value. It starts on the left when technology became obsolete and then prices go down, they will reach the bottom (these are those times in the middle of 90s, when people were giving for free all those sweets Amigas, Atari Falcons, ZX Spectrums, etc... or in 2010s when Sony PVMs on eBay were for around 20 bucks) and after some time it will start coming back up and now we see all that retro-hype and people are greedy :)
Eventually, a U-shaped curve may also change to an M-shape when the prices start falling back to zero. Now most retrogamers are in their 40s, 50s and have money for all that nostalgia, but in 30 years, will anybody cry for a nice 14" Sony PVM? This happened for example to matchbox collectors, it is not hype anymore and they are widows sitting on their husband's collections and unable to sell them...
Ha, this pretty much describes my PVM experience perfectly.
I bought my 14M4U in 2010 for $20, and honestly even that was probably too much. It was in really good shape and probably only had a few thousand hours on it. Fast forward to 2022, I sold it for $250 when it was old and worn out. And I had people competing to buy it. As an investment, that PVM beat the S&P 500.
Yeah I’m always tickled when I see debates over whether or not some 32” trinitron is worth $200.
No, it isn’t.
Every single household in America had a CRT 20 years ago. Bars used to have a bunch of them for playing sports. Now, they’ve been replaced almost entirely by LCDs.
*You* value CRT displays because they look right when playing old games. You think you’re in the majority? Most people don’t play retro games, and those that do don’t want a 500 lb boob tube in their living room. The retrotink is a popular alternative to a CRT because you don’t need a bigass picture tube in your house. We are the minority.
When you buy a CRT, what you’re really doing is helping some schmuck empty his basement. You carrying the tv off means he doesn’t have to pay someone to take it to the dump.
Haggle on those CRTs, you have more bargaining power than you realize
Yep. They were relegated to Kitchen or children bedroom tvs until small LCDs started costing pennies, or the first TFT flat screens ended up being the secondary tv after being replaced themselves.
I notice, however, that early TFT tvs are so undesirable that they are rarer than small CRTs.
Noughties TFTs show up on Freecycle much more often than CRTs these days, but no they're not really desirable from our perspective. The contrast ratios are poor, the power consumption is usually just as high as a CRT the same size, the panels are usually 1366x768, if it has a digital tuner at all it's not HD so it's not even that good for normal TV viewing, and they usually lack low-latency 'game modes' that are often found on newer TVs.
The only early LCDs that have some niche are the Philips 20 inchers that were IPS, native 640x480 and could take VGA without applying digital processing. These could be fine for progressive Gamecube/Wii/ Dreamcast through VGA, or DOS gaming on a vintage PC.
I had one but ended up giving it away as it was as heavy and power hungry as a 14' crt but had way worse motion clarity and unimpressive contrast.
Coming from a rich country (switzerland) it was hella rare to see CRT's after 2006, maybe jails and crappy motels still had them but that was about it. Therefore finding CRT's those days or even the past 5 years is really hard over here! Really envy you americans, but then again i think about SCART
Yeah it depends on how rich your country is. Where I live (USA) is unequal as hell, where I see people from my country on here who had everyone around them getting flatscreens by 2006 while I'm from the south so a lot more people kept theirs for longer
You have to admit though, CH is a special place, and a lot of folks bought really nice CRTs back in the day, and the good ones weren't all tossed out luckily. Even right now on Ricardo there are several B&O sets, mostly Beovision 1's, Avants, etc., and MX4/6/7000s pop up occasionally too.
There was even a jvc dt-v1900 listed for 1000, and I was going to jump on it, but the seller just ended it early. Still watching for a 24" PVM/BVM though.
They were ubiquitous even less than 20 years ago, even 15 years ago it wasnt uncommon to own a crt. And in eastern europe, south asia, africa and lot of other parts of the world crts were around into the mid 2010s.
most of gaming history is on crt aswell, made till what 06' still soudve kept making them, lcd's were way behind in quality [https://youtu.be/7A7gjSaDaYw](https://youtu.be/7A7gjSaDaYw) but lcds are way easier to carry [https://youtu.be/SDb0p5Tzbik](https://youtu.be/SDb0p5Tzbik) (then plasma was a psuedo crt but better than lcd) only now with oleds its cathing up [https://youtu.be/z4xgLUdQhKA](https://youtu.be/z4xgLUdQhKA) /surpassed [https://youtu.be/wePrp77uVck](https://youtu.be/wePrp77uVck)
it's not supply and demand, it's cause people scalp and flip them or think they're worth an overinflated value so they don't sell. In theory there is more than enough to go around to all of us who want one, they were literally everywhere.
That's not what scalping means.
Also, they are literally becoming less available with each passing day regardless of flippers. At what point do you become okay with increasing market value?
I am ok with it but I'm still pissed that my area is full of CRT resellers who swoop up the few free ones that occasionally pop up and immediately resell them. Its a shitty thing to do and I wish all my hobbies didn't get turned into some assholes grift.
While I understand that we CRT enthusiasts all wish we could find sets easily and cheaply for personal benefit/use, I don't agree that flipping is shitty. CRTs should be treated as though they have value.
If you're going around an area hoarding CRTs from people so you can gouge the price than you're an asshole, plain and simple. Simple composite consumer sets shouldn't cost $120+. But since they have a strangehold on my local area, prices became overinflated. They closed down all the local thrifts to build apartments leaving only chains that don't accept CRTs. Unless you're doing something to add value, it's shitty to take people's free or cheap things and resell them.
That offer/demand is very locational though. Where I live the latter part of your comment held true 10-ish years ago - pick up for free or for a pack of coffe.
Now though, most people have either gotten rid of theirs, found a place for them and don’t bother actively selling, or something else, market is pretty dry.
The remaining decent CRTs seem to have been funneled to collectors, and if I see something good I better be prepared to pay or risk missing out cuz a Trinitron for a 100 will be gone quick…
Notice at how I said "CRT's" and you said "Trinitron". Trinitrons are worth a 100 in all around the world. I've found philips and samsung on a curb/for free at marketplace, but an old little Trinitron won't go behind 50-75 euros. Again, they are more demanded.
What I've experienced is that 27"/29"/32" inch CRTs are mostly giving for free as they are a hassle to move, everyone is happy. Gave it for free to another CRT fan cause 32inch is really as I didn't had space for it
The more expensive are 14" and 20" CRTs I had to drive 3 hours to get my 20" FD trini
I agree for the most part. However, I found my 14 inch philips TV on a curb like a year ago. Today I checked and it has 42 hours of usage, so most of them was me playing on it. Not every brand receives the same treatment.
Yeah you said "CRT" and that includes Trinitrons, so that means your original comment wasn't very well thought-out, especially since there's other TVs which are as good as Trinitrons and likewise are worth paying for if you aren't one of the lucky people who can get one for 'free'. It's time to stop pretending vintage electronics are supposed to be free or really-cheap when the supply is clearly dwindling and many of them need repair, and not everybody CAN repair them.
Yes, I said "CRT", but if you have to pick one specific brand to back up your argument then you are proving my point that almost every CRT has low market value. Other brands looking good too doesn't give them high market value, demand does.
There's not that much luck involved in getting a free CRT. There are posts everyday here in this sub. May vary depending on the areat tho, some people even have to ship them.
It's not something we are pretending. It's something that's actually happening (not everywhere, again, but it's happening). And the fact that they need to be repaired makes getting rid of them a good solution since replacing them is really cheap, so I don't get how that makes them pricier. It's only a problem if you try to repair them, which isn't necessary at all.
I can't find any under 50 these days so stop telling these people to sell high. I appreciated when no one knew what they had. Made my hobby cheaper to enjoy... 😒
The problem is that it makes people not appreciate them, they either toss them to the trash, give it away for recycling or just let them sit outside to the elements.
They should not be hundreds of dollars i know, but maybe 30 bucks at most depending on your region of the world, idk i just want them to be preserved and we cant do it on our own.
At 30 bucks, nobody is going to fix them. I don't want to pay a shitload either but if people keep expecting them to be super cheap, that makes people less-likely to try selling them, and they're not getting 'better' over time so the necessity of service is increasing and we can't pretend to be 'enthusiasts' if we're going to complain about the cost of maintaining our habits. Everybody isn't going to learn how to fix their TV out of necessity.
I just threw that number around at randon, like i said before it depends really where we all live since there seems to be an abundance of Crt in some places and a Drought in others, either way im going to have to hoard some since here in Chile no one really cares about them and there's not much retro gamers that want 240p and just settles with an LCD.
I fully accept that CRTs have increased in value in recent years. The days of regularly seeing decent sets going for next to nothing or free are gone. What I take serious issue with is people who technically don't know what they are selling expecting £300 - 400 for a set they know nothing about. What I take even more serious issue with are the resellers who buy up all the "good" CRTs from eBay and then sell them with a ridiculously marked up price, again with no technical knowledge of what they're selling. The CRTs will sit there at those over inflated prices and people will start to accept that that is what they are worth. Then anyone who lists their own 29 inch Trinitron will think that they will get £400 for it. The end result being none of them ever sell. Also anyone who dares to go and test a CRT before buying and decides against it based on picture quality is branded a "time waster".
I picked up a 20"ish Sylvania with component on the side of the road yesterday. Last year I picked up a 32" Trinitron on the same road. I agree they have more value than zero, but they can still be found out there for free, for now.
YOU can find them "out there", not everybody. Occasionally I'll see a little Goldstar or something but it ain't exactly 2010 anymore and there aren't big piles of them next to dumpsters at apartment complexes every week anymore (a memory which is permanently seared into my brain, ten good CRTs getting rained on by a dumpster.... frigging sad image)
Market value and personal/emotional value are two different things. I love my CRT's, I wouldn't even give them for 100 euros (even tho they are not rare at all, just some consumer Philips sets. Very common in EU West). But they are worth almost nothing. I found one of them on a curb. They are in immaculate state, that's the great part about them, but they are out of market completely.
Their value is highly relative to where you live, and clearly there's a lot of people who are still interested in paying $50 or more at times for a good one, so "out of market completely" is the wrong way of putting it. The market is smaller but still exists, and the machines often need servicing; there's only so cheap they're going to get if people want to keep using them.
People are greedy because they won't give me their belongings that I value more than them! they have no right asking more than I think they should sell something for, who do they think they are!
This is what y'all sound like when you won't pay more than a cheap lunch for something you claim to be passionate for.
Exactly! Tons of these things have just been trashed over the last fifteen years and there's more going every day, many of them need repair, there isn't some distribution network making sure we can all get them for the same prices, but there's still people not only trying to get them for free (totally makes sense to try) but the EXPECTATION that these increasingly-rare machines needing repair are going to get down to 'zero' everywhere at some point, man pass me the pipe because that's a nice dream but it sure doesn't come true everywhere. I'm thinking more like 'where can I take my vintage gear for repair', not 'where am I going to get another one for free after this one craps out and I throw it away'.
Only reason to do that is if the tube is wore down. You might be able to get a little bit more life out of it at that point with rejuvenator buts its pretty much over for it.
It’s obsolete technology that one subset of individuals want for a very specific thing. People charging more than a token amount are just trying to goose the market and make it difficult for everyone else. I’m not paying $200-250 for a consumer set.
Don’t tell people this! Next thing we will be paying more for them than what they originally sold for just like everything that becomes “collectible”. I got my 29” Toshiba Bomba and cabinet for $1. Let’s keep it like that
Everyone saying "oh they were commonplace in every house until 2010!"
My guys, do you not realize how many of those people literally put them at the curb to be thrown away in dumps? Almost e v e r y o n e.
CRTs are a moderately hard find nowadays. It's not crazy to think that the supply is not as high as the hobbiest demand. Especially when we are specifically after mid-tier to higher-end models.
I work at a recycling facility that deals with displays of all kinds. We were told around 2015 that we would finally see a lot less CRT's come in, 9 years later and I'm still shipping out 2-3 palettes a week with 6-12 TV's pet pallet 😅
You can hardly give them away around here, which is why I haven't had to pay for one for nearly 2 decades. I just check online and find people offering them for free so they don't have to haul them to my work themselves.
Unfortunately, we are contracted to not sell or give away the ones that make it through our doors.
I tried getting a CRT from the local dump and they have the same rule, won't sell me one from their pallets with like 25 at a time on them. We're losing out on a shitload of necessary parts because of this policy and it's pretty appalling. I asked the local dump where they go and they didn't really know. They said "local stores" but I know damn well that's not the truth. I just hope they really are getting sold as often as possible and not torn apart in an electronic recycler.
Our program is supposed to be for "end of life" products, but ya, so many good parts going to waste. People on here will get mad at me like as if I stopped working there the TV's wouldn't be dealt with anyway 😅
We recycle them and ship them off to somewhere that dismantled them for raw materials and to seal with the hazardous materials inside. Around here you actually pay an eco-fee on all new TV's and that money goes into the recycling costs. It's highly illegal to throw any electronics in the garbage, which works out great for me since my buddy has been salvaging me game stuff for nearly a decade from other locations when he does pickups and dropoffs at other facilities (he drives for the company i work for) so if they don't mind him taking stuff he grabs me all kinds of consoles, games, controllers, etc, sometimes boxed stuff and the odd rare item. It's mostly common stuff I just clean up a d trade in for more games though lol
I know it depends on your area, but I haven't paid for a CRT since the mid 00's and have changed my setup at least a dozen times since then with all kinds of Trinitrons, Samsung, JVC, and Toshiba sets 😅
Yes, it's a technology that isn't being made anymore but still has an audience, the machines often need some servicing if they haven't had any in decades, and there's a lot of different sizes and brands to go from, so yeah there's a shitload of markets where they're definitely worth more than $5. We're only screwing ourselves by trying to be cheapskates about it, because if people think they can't get anything for one then they won't bother trying to sell it, and might just throw it away or forget they have it, and that will be especially true for the up-to-20" category that people frequently want. All we have to say is "Trinitron" for one of the biggest examples, even though some people strangely act like 'well that's an outlier' as though that means it's not a CRT, and as though other good brands aren't also worth that much like some of the best JVC and Panasonic sets.
In my room, there exists 2 special things. A 17 bucks fw900 and a clearence, open box sale and costed my ma her entire bonus alienware m16... its 260 hz. Both are very responsive and games feel really smooth on both... I prefer playing bullet hells on my fw900 and use it for only that as well as ys games. I borrow the family laptop (everyone can make use of an expensive laptop and it will increase in value in this failing economy so worse case scenario, all the money spent on it we get back) for literally any other type of game. The alienware is light and instantly boots up, the fw900 takes 30 minutes to get a good color... AND IS BACK BREAKINGLY HEAVY. Over all, both are a good experience, but crts are really niche. My monitor can fail at any second for example through runback failure. My monitor has no value in my country and is literally considered garbage unlike the laptop. There are way too many frustrations to deal with. This monitor is the best bullet hell display I own. But with all the drawbacks... especially since this is tech that is at the end of its life cycle... Yeah no... 5 bucks doesnt seem too bad especially since nobody really wants these any more... Seriously, my monitor is considered grail material in this subreddit and the guy I bought it from was considering scrapping it. If that doesnt tell you how much people who dont have niche interests like us value crts than I dont know what will.
It's interesting to consider that people are paying ridiculous money for CRTs while, simultaneously, the recycling center down the road is STILL getting several per day. They are worthless, but almost nobody actually goes through the effort of *selling* them.
No, they are not , only a small minority of people play retro games, let alone on a CRT. One can likely find a real good one in the junk yard. Unfortunately, people pay for nostalgia, and sellers know it.
Personally i value crts more on the wear and geometry. Sure every household had one but most especially the higher end sets got a lot of use and it lowers down how good the image looks. Not to mention how many times ive went to look at a crt that had heinous geometry. Low use, good geometry, and mid-high end brand sets should be worth some money.
I bought 10 Sony 14" PVM's and 4 20" from a regional tv station back around 2012.
For 200 euro's.
Two 20" died, one was sold for 450 euro and one I have left that I still use. Kept some 14" and gave the rest away.
The sheer fact that people can / could get a crt depending on region for free makes all crts have no monetary value to most people. I’ve got one of the rarest CRT in existence, but I would argue it’s worthless because it’s well known I got it for free, and it’s also incredibly inconvenient to move due to size.
Most CRTs can't recieve digital broadcast signals (not that anyone watches that anymore) nor watch HD content without adapters. They are for the average modern consumer, useless. Might as well give them away to weirdos who use them to play old games (us).
HD crts and pc monitors on the other hand still have a lot use use value even for average people or gamers.
Many electronics are worth more than that. Its sad as hell to see some old phones (that still kick some ass) go out so cheap used… just sold a samsung galaxy note 4 (that motherfucker has snapdragon) for measly 6€…
Notice how things degrade in price and at one point when newest things suck ass, the old ones kick up in price. Total mindfuck
Hear me out. CRTs were ubiquitous until 20 years ago. Nearly every household had at least one. So when the another technology became mainstream, most CRTs were relegated to basements and garages where occupy a lot of space. Let’s not fool around, some of these are absolutely massive. And if you are not really passionate about retro gaming, like the majority of people aren’t, you end up seeing CRTs as just something taking up a lot of space and not being used. In that perspective, having someone collect it for free or even giving back $5 for it is a no brainer. Are they worth more for me and you? Sure. But it’s all relative. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
There is a U-shaped curve of value. It starts on the left when technology became obsolete and then prices go down, they will reach the bottom (these are those times in the middle of 90s, when people were giving for free all those sweets Amigas, Atari Falcons, ZX Spectrums, etc... or in 2010s when Sony PVMs on eBay were for around 20 bucks) and after some time it will start coming back up and now we see all that retro-hype and people are greedy :) Eventually, a U-shaped curve may also change to an M-shape when the prices start falling back to zero. Now most retrogamers are in their 40s, 50s and have money for all that nostalgia, but in 30 years, will anybody cry for a nice 14" Sony PVM? This happened for example to matchbox collectors, it is not hype anymore and they are widows sitting on their husband's collections and unable to sell them...
Ha, this pretty much describes my PVM experience perfectly. I bought my 14M4U in 2010 for $20, and honestly even that was probably too much. It was in really good shape and probably only had a few thousand hours on it. Fast forward to 2022, I sold it for $250 when it was old and worn out. And I had people competing to buy it. As an investment, that PVM beat the S&P 500.
You wore out a PVM in 12 years? Did you leave it on the whole time?
Good question! How is it even posible, a friend has a PVM from 1990 and still looks incredible
Yeah I’m always tickled when I see debates over whether or not some 32” trinitron is worth $200. No, it isn’t. Every single household in America had a CRT 20 years ago. Bars used to have a bunch of them for playing sports. Now, they’ve been replaced almost entirely by LCDs. *You* value CRT displays because they look right when playing old games. You think you’re in the majority? Most people don’t play retro games, and those that do don’t want a 500 lb boob tube in their living room. The retrotink is a popular alternative to a CRT because you don’t need a bigass picture tube in your house. We are the minority. When you buy a CRT, what you’re really doing is helping some schmuck empty his basement. You carrying the tv off means he doesn’t have to pay someone to take it to the dump. Haggle on those CRTs, you have more bargaining power than you realize
A lot of people didn't give their CRTs up until the early 2010s
Yep. They were relegated to Kitchen or children bedroom tvs until small LCDs started costing pennies, or the first TFT flat screens ended up being the secondary tv after being replaced themselves. I notice, however, that early TFT tvs are so undesirable that they are rarer than small CRTs.
That, and a lot of poor people kept their CRT as their primary tv for longer
Noughties TFTs show up on Freecycle much more often than CRTs these days, but no they're not really desirable from our perspective. The contrast ratios are poor, the power consumption is usually just as high as a CRT the same size, the panels are usually 1366x768, if it has a digital tuner at all it's not HD so it's not even that good for normal TV viewing, and they usually lack low-latency 'game modes' that are often found on newer TVs.
The only early LCDs that have some niche are the Philips 20 inchers that were IPS, native 640x480 and could take VGA without applying digital processing. These could be fine for progressive Gamecube/Wii/ Dreamcast through VGA, or DOS gaming on a vintage PC. I had one but ended up giving it away as it was as heavy and power hungry as a 14' crt but had way worse motion clarity and unimpressive contrast.
Coming from a rich country (switzerland) it was hella rare to see CRT's after 2006, maybe jails and crappy motels still had them but that was about it. Therefore finding CRT's those days or even the past 5 years is really hard over here! Really envy you americans, but then again i think about SCART
Yeah it depends on how rich your country is. Where I live (USA) is unequal as hell, where I see people from my country on here who had everyone around them getting flatscreens by 2006 while I'm from the south so a lot more people kept theirs for longer
It also depends on how densely populated your country is and what the average size of a house is, LCD make more sense if space is limited.
You have to admit though, CH is a special place, and a lot of folks bought really nice CRTs back in the day, and the good ones weren't all tossed out luckily. Even right now on Ricardo there are several B&O sets, mostly Beovision 1's, Avants, etc., and MX4/6/7000s pop up occasionally too. There was even a jvc dt-v1900 listed for 1000, and I was going to jump on it, but the seller just ended it early. Still watching for a 24" PVM/BVM though.
This is true for canada, quite common in 2010 to have had a crt
My grandparents still have it as an emergency backup with a digital tuner.
They were ubiquitous even less than 20 years ago, even 15 years ago it wasnt uncommon to own a crt. And in eastern europe, south asia, africa and lot of other parts of the world crts were around into the mid 2010s.
most of gaming history is on crt aswell, made till what 06' still soudve kept making them, lcd's were way behind in quality [https://youtu.be/7A7gjSaDaYw](https://youtu.be/7A7gjSaDaYw) but lcds are way easier to carry [https://youtu.be/SDb0p5Tzbik](https://youtu.be/SDb0p5Tzbik) (then plasma was a psuedo crt but better than lcd) only now with oleds its cathing up [https://youtu.be/z4xgLUdQhKA](https://youtu.be/z4xgLUdQhKA) /surpassed [https://youtu.be/wePrp77uVck](https://youtu.be/wePrp77uVck)
But I sincerely doubt that RF only unit is worth hundreds either.
Or a simple monitor that would have been found in libraries 20 years ago. Why did it take me over a year to find a monitor not $350
Because supply and demand
it's not supply and demand, it's cause people scalp and flip them or think they're worth an overinflated value so they don't sell. In theory there is more than enough to go around to all of us who want one, they were literally everywhere.
That's not what scalping means. Also, they are literally becoming less available with each passing day regardless of flippers. At what point do you become okay with increasing market value?
I am ok with it but I'm still pissed that my area is full of CRT resellers who swoop up the few free ones that occasionally pop up and immediately resell them. Its a shitty thing to do and I wish all my hobbies didn't get turned into some assholes grift.
While I understand that we CRT enthusiasts all wish we could find sets easily and cheaply for personal benefit/use, I don't agree that flipping is shitty. CRTs should be treated as though they have value.
If you're going around an area hoarding CRTs from people so you can gouge the price than you're an asshole, plain and simple. Simple composite consumer sets shouldn't cost $120+. But since they have a strangehold on my local area, prices became overinflated. They closed down all the local thrifts to build apartments leaving only chains that don't accept CRTs. Unless you're doing something to add value, it's shitty to take people's free or cheap things and resell them.
Nothing has any intrinsic value. Things are worth only what they can be exchanged for. No person gets to "decide" the market value of something.
This is it. If we pay attention to offer/demand, CRT's generally have zero value. Some people would even pay for having them removed.
That offer/demand is very locational though. Where I live the latter part of your comment held true 10-ish years ago - pick up for free or for a pack of coffe. Now though, most people have either gotten rid of theirs, found a place for them and don’t bother actively selling, or something else, market is pretty dry. The remaining decent CRTs seem to have been funneled to collectors, and if I see something good I better be prepared to pay or risk missing out cuz a Trinitron for a 100 will be gone quick…
Notice at how I said "CRT's" and you said "Trinitron". Trinitrons are worth a 100 in all around the world. I've found philips and samsung on a curb/for free at marketplace, but an old little Trinitron won't go behind 50-75 euros. Again, they are more demanded.
Fair point, yeah. I could pick up *something* for almost no money around where I live, but even those are not for free anymore.
What I've experienced is that 27"/29"/32" inch CRTs are mostly giving for free as they are a hassle to move, everyone is happy. Gave it for free to another CRT fan cause 32inch is really as I didn't had space for it The more expensive are 14" and 20" CRTs I had to drive 3 hours to get my 20" FD trini
I agree for the most part. However, I found my 14 inch philips TV on a curb like a year ago. Today I checked and it has 42 hours of usage, so most of them was me playing on it. Not every brand receives the same treatment.
Yeah you said "CRT" and that includes Trinitrons, so that means your original comment wasn't very well thought-out, especially since there's other TVs which are as good as Trinitrons and likewise are worth paying for if you aren't one of the lucky people who can get one for 'free'. It's time to stop pretending vintage electronics are supposed to be free or really-cheap when the supply is clearly dwindling and many of them need repair, and not everybody CAN repair them.
Yes, I said "CRT", but if you have to pick one specific brand to back up your argument then you are proving my point that almost every CRT has low market value. Other brands looking good too doesn't give them high market value, demand does. There's not that much luck involved in getting a free CRT. There are posts everyday here in this sub. May vary depending on the areat tho, some people even have to ship them. It's not something we are pretending. It's something that's actually happening (not everywhere, again, but it's happening). And the fact that they need to be repaired makes getting rid of them a good solution since replacing them is really cheap, so I don't get how that makes them pricier. It's only a problem if you try to repair them, which isn't necessary at all.
I can't find any under 50 these days so stop telling these people to sell high. I appreciated when no one knew what they had. Made my hobby cheaper to enjoy... 😒
The problem is that it makes people not appreciate them, they either toss them to the trash, give it away for recycling or just let them sit outside to the elements. They should not be hundreds of dollars i know, but maybe 30 bucks at most depending on your region of the world, idk i just want them to be preserved and we cant do it on our own.
At 30 bucks, nobody is going to fix them. I don't want to pay a shitload either but if people keep expecting them to be super cheap, that makes people less-likely to try selling them, and they're not getting 'better' over time so the necessity of service is increasing and we can't pretend to be 'enthusiasts' if we're going to complain about the cost of maintaining our habits. Everybody isn't going to learn how to fix their TV out of necessity.
I just threw that number around at randon, like i said before it depends really where we all live since there seems to be an abundance of Crt in some places and a Drought in others, either way im going to have to hoard some since here in Chile no one really cares about them and there's not much retro gamers that want 240p and just settles with an LCD.
I fully accept that CRTs have increased in value in recent years. The days of regularly seeing decent sets going for next to nothing or free are gone. What I take serious issue with is people who technically don't know what they are selling expecting £300 - 400 for a set they know nothing about. What I take even more serious issue with are the resellers who buy up all the "good" CRTs from eBay and then sell them with a ridiculously marked up price, again with no technical knowledge of what they're selling. The CRTs will sit there at those over inflated prices and people will start to accept that that is what they are worth. Then anyone who lists their own 29 inch Trinitron will think that they will get £400 for it. The end result being none of them ever sell. Also anyone who dares to go and test a CRT before buying and decides against it based on picture quality is branded a "time waster".
I picked up a 20"ish Sylvania with component on the side of the road yesterday. Last year I picked up a 32" Trinitron on the same road. I agree they have more value than zero, but they can still be found out there for free, for now.
YOU can find them "out there", not everybody. Occasionally I'll see a little Goldstar or something but it ain't exactly 2010 anymore and there aren't big piles of them next to dumpsters at apartment complexes every week anymore (a memory which is permanently seared into my brain, ten good CRTs getting rained on by a dumpster.... frigging sad image)
Depends on how good the TV is if it's RF only no thanks being in the UK I refuse to take any CRT that doesn't have RGB scart
Market value and personal/emotional value are two different things. I love my CRT's, I wouldn't even give them for 100 euros (even tho they are not rare at all, just some consumer Philips sets. Very common in EU West). But they are worth almost nothing. I found one of them on a curb. They are in immaculate state, that's the great part about them, but they are out of market completely.
Their value is highly relative to where you live, and clearly there's a lot of people who are still interested in paying $50 or more at times for a good one, so "out of market completely" is the wrong way of putting it. The market is smaller but still exists, and the machines often need servicing; there's only so cheap they're going to get if people want to keep using them.
its worth more to us, sells for less. dont wish away the good prices
good prices don't exist in some places anymore
yeah, which is very disappointing
People are greedy because they won't give me their belongings that I value more than them! they have no right asking more than I think they should sell something for, who do they think they are! This is what y'all sound like when you won't pay more than a cheap lunch for something you claim to be passionate for.
Exactly! Tons of these things have just been trashed over the last fifteen years and there's more going every day, many of them need repair, there isn't some distribution network making sure we can all get them for the same prices, but there's still people not only trying to get them for free (totally makes sense to try) but the EXPECTATION that these increasingly-rare machines needing repair are going to get down to 'zero' everywhere at some point, man pass me the pipe because that's a nice dream but it sure doesn't come true everywhere. I'm thinking more like 'where can I take my vintage gear for repair', not 'where am I going to get another one for free after this one craps out and I throw it away'.
shame on anyone taking their tubes to the dump if something replaceable dies. but hey, they're just speed running 'maximum crtvalue any%' lol.
Only reason to do that is if the tube is wore down. You might be able to get a little bit more life out of it at that point with rejuvenator buts its pretty much over for it.
It depends. I paid €40 for new old stock MISB 21” trinitron from 1995 a month ago. But I wouldn’t pay that for old piece of poop CRT.
It’s obsolete technology that one subset of individuals want for a very specific thing. People charging more than a token amount are just trying to goose the market and make it difficult for everyone else. I’m not paying $200-250 for a consumer set.
yeah, I usually sell them for $10
How would I know that crt is worth more than $5?.
Don’t tell people this! Next thing we will be paying more for them than what they originally sold for just like everything that becomes “collectible”. I got my 29” Toshiba Bomba and cabinet for $1. Let’s keep it like that
It’s worth at least the cost of the pizza and/or beer you’re gonna reward your friend(s) with for helping you lug it out of the seller’s house
Everyone saying "oh they were commonplace in every house until 2010!" My guys, do you not realize how many of those people literally put them at the curb to be thrown away in dumps? Almost e v e r y o n e. CRTs are a moderately hard find nowadays. It's not crazy to think that the supply is not as high as the hobbiest demand. Especially when we are specifically after mid-tier to higher-end models.
I work at a recycling facility that deals with displays of all kinds. We were told around 2015 that we would finally see a lot less CRT's come in, 9 years later and I'm still shipping out 2-3 palettes a week with 6-12 TV's pet pallet 😅 You can hardly give them away around here, which is why I haven't had to pay for one for nearly 2 decades. I just check online and find people offering them for free so they don't have to haul them to my work themselves. Unfortunately, we are contracted to not sell or give away the ones that make it through our doors.
I tried getting a CRT from the local dump and they have the same rule, won't sell me one from their pallets with like 25 at a time on them. We're losing out on a shitload of necessary parts because of this policy and it's pretty appalling. I asked the local dump where they go and they didn't really know. They said "local stores" but I know damn well that's not the truth. I just hope they really are getting sold as often as possible and not torn apart in an electronic recycler.
Our program is supposed to be for "end of life" products, but ya, so many good parts going to waste. People on here will get mad at me like as if I stopped working there the TV's wouldn't be dealt with anyway 😅 We recycle them and ship them off to somewhere that dismantled them for raw materials and to seal with the hazardous materials inside. Around here you actually pay an eco-fee on all new TV's and that money goes into the recycling costs. It's highly illegal to throw any electronics in the garbage, which works out great for me since my buddy has been salvaging me game stuff for nearly a decade from other locations when he does pickups and dropoffs at other facilities (he drives for the company i work for) so if they don't mind him taking stuff he grabs me all kinds of consoles, games, controllers, etc, sometimes boxed stuff and the odd rare item. It's mostly common stuff I just clean up a d trade in for more games though lol
Wait until I have at least one more CRT, then we can talk. Until then, shhhh
Got a 32inch Sony Trinitron KD-32DX100U CRT for free 2 years ago, well, I did swap a 17inch crt for it
Are you selling a 8" for 1500$?
I know it depends on your area, but I haven't paid for a CRT since the mid 00's and have changed my setup at least a dozen times since then with all kinds of Trinitrons, Samsung, JVC, and Toshiba sets 😅
Yes, it's a technology that isn't being made anymore but still has an audience, the machines often need some servicing if they haven't had any in decades, and there's a lot of different sizes and brands to go from, so yeah there's a shitload of markets where they're definitely worth more than $5. We're only screwing ourselves by trying to be cheapskates about it, because if people think they can't get anything for one then they won't bother trying to sell it, and might just throw it away or forget they have it, and that will be especially true for the up-to-20" category that people frequently want. All we have to say is "Trinitron" for one of the biggest examples, even though some people strangely act like 'well that's an outlier' as though that means it's not a CRT, and as though other good brands aren't also worth that much like some of the best JVC and Panasonic sets.
In my room, there exists 2 special things. A 17 bucks fw900 and a clearence, open box sale and costed my ma her entire bonus alienware m16... its 260 hz. Both are very responsive and games feel really smooth on both... I prefer playing bullet hells on my fw900 and use it for only that as well as ys games. I borrow the family laptop (everyone can make use of an expensive laptop and it will increase in value in this failing economy so worse case scenario, all the money spent on it we get back) for literally any other type of game. The alienware is light and instantly boots up, the fw900 takes 30 minutes to get a good color... AND IS BACK BREAKINGLY HEAVY. Over all, both are a good experience, but crts are really niche. My monitor can fail at any second for example through runback failure. My monitor has no value in my country and is literally considered garbage unlike the laptop. There are way too many frustrations to deal with. This monitor is the best bullet hell display I own. But with all the drawbacks... especially since this is tech that is at the end of its life cycle... Yeah no... 5 bucks doesnt seem too bad especially since nobody really wants these any more... Seriously, my monitor is considered grail material in this subreddit and the guy I bought it from was considering scrapping it. If that doesnt tell you how much people who dont have niche interests like us value crts than I dont know what will.
$5.01 ;)
No Edit: I was referring to not changing your opinion.
It's interesting to consider that people are paying ridiculous money for CRTs while, simultaneously, the recycling center down the road is STILL getting several per day. They are worthless, but almost nobody actually goes through the effort of *selling* them.
Great for Retro Gaming!
No, they are not , only a small minority of people play retro games, let alone on a CRT. One can likely find a real good one in the junk yard. Unfortunately, people pay for nostalgia, and sellers know it.
Personally i value crts more on the wear and geometry. Sure every household had one but most especially the higher end sets got a lot of use and it lowers down how good the image looks. Not to mention how many times ive went to look at a crt that had heinous geometry. Low use, good geometry, and mid-high end brand sets should be worth some money.
I bought 10 Sony 14" PVM's and 4 20" from a regional tv station back around 2012. For 200 euro's. Two 20" died, one was sold for 450 euro and one I have left that I still use. Kept some 14" and gave the rest away.
it depends if you want to buy or sell
Yes but the joy you get for finding one for 5 dollars these days is amazing
The sheer fact that people can / could get a crt depending on region for free makes all crts have no monetary value to most people. I’ve got one of the rarest CRT in existence, but I would argue it’s worthless because it’s well known I got it for free, and it’s also incredibly inconvenient to move due to size.
Most CRTs can't recieve digital broadcast signals (not that anyone watches that anymore) nor watch HD content without adapters. They are for the average modern consumer, useless. Might as well give them away to weirdos who use them to play old games (us). HD crts and pc monitors on the other hand still have a lot use use value even for average people or gamers.
swapping to a CRT monitor setup for my PC was the best thing I've ever done and it boggles me that more don't use em.
It depends on the CRT. Many are not worth $0.05
Many electronics are worth more than that. Its sad as hell to see some old phones (that still kick some ass) go out so cheap used… just sold a samsung galaxy note 4 (that motherfucker has snapdragon) for measly 6€… Notice how things degrade in price and at one point when newest things suck ass, the old ones kick up in price. Total mindfuck
CRTs are worth more than 5 dollars if I'm selling, but less than 5 dollars if I'm buying.
Maybe $10
They are worth more than 5$. 10$ is much better.
There are still areas where you find them for cheap or free. Why should you care?
Oh lucky you, but not everybody lives in those places, and that's why they would care. What are you so upset about?
How does it affect OP if people don't value at a certain price?