Open Forum → scavenging is interesting?...

Being to big and heavy to easily take to the weekly hazardous waste disposal... took a 40" LCD TV to the curb... and was gone by sunset garbage collection not til 4am.

Maybe salvageable but you don't replace components anymore just entire mother board... and no remote.

Possibly separate things but absolutely power separate died but likely one board.

Some no loger do but had local control butons.

Was dead to me hope they have actually managed to recycle it....
but certainly diddn't carry it off on a bike.

Dead AC for the copper used to seeing disappear but this was a real surprise... someone hauled of a DEAD 40lbs TV with no cord or remote, there is some salvage value??

Oh and a very off brand generic Living something suspect made by VISIO as remote codes and menus similar.

What makes you think you can't replace discrete components anymore?

Most of the 'dead' TVs, LCDs, etc I've seen in the past several years have been fixed by simply recapping the power supply board. I've gotten quite a few off craigslist for free or absurdly cheap because people thought the exact same way you do, and repaired them for less than a few dollars in parts.

They probably thought it might be salvageable, or maybe some geek wanted it to experiment on. When I was a kid we would take old TV's and bust them up, burn them, shoot at them. All that crazy shit boys do.

When I was a teen, me & some buddies set an old TV on fire in the yard, then left the burned out carcass in the bay of a self-serve car wash in the middle of the night. I know: Stupid & immature & pointless, but at the time it was funny as hell. My brother and I still laugh when that incident comes up in conversation.

An electronic device does not have much scrap value by itself, but if you collect them in bulk there is real money to be made. They have trace amounts of gold and silver, and of course copper. Entire industries are built around recycling electronics.

Assuming there is a separate PS board and still much IC's not discrete components ...often not the case and one piece motherboard especially in flat screens...and OK have the talent and time to DIY (VS cost to have shop repaired MIN $100 for a 3 yr old $300 TV), but most street pickers are not those kind of people at least not here And most to end buyer resell to would want the remote, most universals don't really fully cover (but on off and channel change) especially the off brands.

But as I said amazed it was picked off and hopefully is recycled and something as simple as a Cap that didn't take out associated IC's great. Not worth my time or money... that might just work a little longer and old technology for someone works...great vs the landfi ll not seen. And again why I did put it out the in daylight 12 hours before actually trash pick up where it would just go in land fill.

Just amazes me it happened.

And honestly first TV EVER I have dumped... all others either given away still working or good good enough condition semi current tech enough resold.

I took two large LCD TVs as salvage one time (about 6 years ago and they were probably 40" or so). One had a cracked screen. Neither worked. I left them out to be picked up by the garbage. I saw a couple of kids looking at them and then my doorbell rang. I did not answer. I looked about 10 minutes later and the TVs were gone. I'm guessing some people just want to see if they can get something off of them. I'm betting they just end up throwing them away themselves.

Know what you are saying but different bent as original replier say time was I would lnowing electronics try and fix.

Don't really need to do that anymore...vs MIN $100 COST someone to even look at.

And still surprises me for here again dead window AC's for the copper sure... but a TV not the usual scavengers AMAZED it so quickly disappeared.

One man's junk is another man's riches.

Parts from old TVs, VCRs, stereos, etc... are worth scavenging.

Anytime I put anything on the curb that isn't in a trash bag, someone comes along and takes it before the trash men arrive. Old furniture, busted gaming systems, mirror frames, doesn't matter. Someone always takes it.

oh please no one (most desperate maybe) salvages VCR's any more... amazes me Radio Shack even has ONE combo unit they sell anymore.

Betamax maybe but not VHSh*

I would bet there are a bunch of people with a lot of VHS tapes (I still have some) that do not have DVD players or the money to replace them with DVDs.

But doesn't mean they don't have a working player...

But again the RS one is a combo... and not sure its a DVD recorder (from VHS) but I would think it would be...Then again RS can be incredibly stupid. and over priced.

OH how did this get so OT suddenly lets keep it to the curb (Where most RS shit belongs any ways)

Ummm - that really does not matter if the VCR is working. It is an explanation of why it can be lucrative to scavenge the players...

Sometimes the only way to get parts is by scavenging.

Cars are much better example of this, but this also applies to many other things.

These things are still salvageable. I know if I put that out on the corner here it would be gone within minutes.

Around here, we have people who drive around the neighborhood on trash day or maybe the day before, towing small trailers and hauling off anything that they think might have value; for some of them, at least, this is a full-time job. They may end up selling things for scrap if nothing else, but as far as I'm concerned this is honest and eco-friendly work. AFAIK, legally, just as long as it is sitting at the curb and not physically inside the city-provided trash bin or recycling bin, then they are free to take whatever they want.

Concerning electronics repairs, you'd be amazed at how many problems I've fixed simply by searching for and correcting a bad solder joint here or maybe a loose connector there; finding these is usually the hard part. And I've also fixed a fair number of issues over the years just by blowing the dust off of the circuit board or some other component. Enough dust buildup can cause overheating of critical components, and these days shorts caused by tin whiskers can also be an problem, so these get blown away, too.

Well theoretically a VCR in the garbage would likely be mechanically broken... eating tapes... would not see much salvage potential there. Also likely in the trash can not out on display like a big TV or an old window AC.

Oh I was never disputing that... glad it may get recycled... just amazed at some stuff that disappears....

Hey found some nice chairs for a porch on the curb at a business that had just gone out of business and brought them home...put the rusty old ones with worn cushions out on the curb, and again before dark and night garbage collection GONE.

If you've got the kind of junkers in your town that lived up the street from me then they re taking it for the metals. Over the last few years it's become allot harder to find junked computers and electronics since they where taking them for the metals on the chis and mobo. It used to be I'd find stuff with the cables cut off, now I occasionally find piles of CRT tubes and plastic housings from random electronics piled up in alleys around town, they seem to find enough of them every week to have piles so large that the garbage trucks consider it commercial disposal and just leave a pink slip on the pile. Too bad the pile isn't at the junker's house...

Bits and pieces can be used - like the head. Besides - eating tapes can generally be fixed by a good cleaning. It does not have top be working to have value - kinda like cars and junkyards...

Well again VHS usually mechanically not electronically fails... not an easy fix but for replacing physical long gone parts. Yeah cleaning might do it but not in my both VHS and BETA experience... a part need to be replaced...even heads might be working... but aged and musrt be installed right.... time was might be new... but that was over a decade ago.

If I were a picker would choose near anything else.

Like my 40" TV that MIGHT have had a fixable separate PS vs entire MB the usual fix taken to a shop for hundreds on a $300 4 year old TV that started this thread.

Again not being able to take it to the hazardous waste disposal collection hope it is recycled... and not just dumped somewhere inappropriate not even picked up for landfill.

And no VS the large easily recoverable amount of copper in AC's the amounts of silver and gold in a TV is miniscule and very hard to recover as salvage.

The TV repair shop that I used to work at years ago, would pay 5 to 10 bucks for "junk" TVs. Majority of time, people would just drop them off, and not take any money.

I would fix a few up and put them up for sale for 50 bucks. Typically it was a bad cap, broken trace, or burnt out resistor that needed replacing. Cheap fixes. A few rare occasions, it was a blow fuse. We'd replace the fuse, and burn [Leave it running] the TV for 30 hours, to see if we could get the fuse to blow again. If it didn't we'd put it up for sale.
But then we would see TVs that were actually beyond repair do to lightening damage. They would be stripped for parts.

I had an old lawn mower [the deck was rusted out, the engine was broke]. I sat it on the curb around 11am on a Sunday morning, and by 12 noon, that same sunday, it was gone.
The pickers seem to cruise the streets at all hours and any day, around here.

And again GREAT hope it sees that resurrection....

But again your shop likely would have charged me $200 for that simple fix on a $300 TV.

Replacing it for 4 year newer technology just made more sense. And not having to haul it somewhere besides the curb when my primary vehicle is a bicycle, and secondary a 3 wheel gas low cargo (BUT 60 MPH 40 mpg) vehicle when I need to get off the ROCK or shoop it would not easily load into.

Depends on what was needed. We typically charged 30 bucks to inspect the device. If you went ahead with the repair, that 30 dollar charge went away.

Then if you allowed use to use recycled parts, with a 90 day warranty, you typically just had to pay for labor, if the part was a cap, transistor, or resistor.
Or a small part charge for things like flyback transformers.

If you wanted brand new parts, then you paid full price for the part, plus you had to wait for us to get the part in, if it wasn't in stock.

I think my most expensive repair was replacing the entire board on a TV. That repair was around 125 bucks, because it took a bit of work. Having to find a "junk" TV with the right board [at the time there were only like 3 or 4 board makers, despite the number of brands of TVs]. Then testing the board and repairing it, if it didn't work, then exchanging boards.
These were CRT TVs, as this was back in the early 1990's.
The fun part was making sure the picture tube and the caps on the board were discharged. And they could hold a charge.

But again, I felt our repair rates were pretty fair, back then.

That's great but not typical...NOW... when was back then... oh just re read early 90's 20+ years ago VERY different era... no one does that any more.

Again most shops these days just easy out replace entire boards... not components.

Though for its not worth that its yours trash...may do the really needed do simple thing and then resell

And again who knows there is a TV shop 3 blocks down the street maybe they scarped it.... charge me a fortune to fix... but easy money for them to resell.