Does anybody know of a used TV price guide?

[Dangermoose007]

Re: Does anybody know of a used TV price guide?

Thanks for the update! I can't imagine trying to ship a display without fear of it cracking during shipment. Right now I'm only parting out unrepairable TVs (with cracked screens), and not getting much bite.

Each part I sell covers more than the cost of what I paid for the TV, but my money really does get tied up for a long time between when I buy it, and when I manage to sell it. It's helping me feel better about making lower and lower offers on the broken TVs when I know how much work it will be to recoup my investment.

Love the tamper evident label idea! I haven't had anyone return any parts as of yet, but I will definitely look into doing that as a way of confidently increasing my return policy date range.

[lookimback]

Re: Does anybody know of a used TV price guide?

Here's another tip. When I put an ad on Craigslist I tell people to send me the model number and a brief description of what the TV is doing. Then I take the model number and go to usedprice.com and look the TV up. I don't subscribe to usedprice so I don't get their bluebook value but I get lots of useful information such as year(s) of manufacture, resolution, etc. The next thing I do is go to eBay and search for that model number and refine the search to show completed listings. Not just sold items but all completed listings. Then I can get an idea of not just what the parts are being listed for but also what buyers are actually willing to pay for them. If I see the parts selling real low or not at all then I'm going to pass on that one. I just learned today about the importance of configuring "don't ship to" locations in eBay. I already had it set to United States only but that includes APO/FPO and US protectorates. Its kind of dumb how they have that set up. I sold a main board from a Sony KDL-32L4000 for $22.50 (cheap yes but there's so many on eBay right now and sometimes if you wait it out the value drops when more.) Anyway, the postage to Puerto Rico was $9.88. Box was about a buck. So I made about $11. Oh, forgot the eBay and PayPal fees. Maybe $8.

Edit: oh, almost forgot. The tamper evident labels, they also have my website URL so eventually, when I actually get the site set up, it may be another source of revenue. I'm moving tomorrow and once I get to my new apt, I'm going to start making some how-to videos. Nothing overly technical, just your basic YouTube "how to replace the main board, inverter board, power board, etc" in a particular model of TV. And then its "oh, look, I have that part listed on eBay for less than anyone else so you can click this link and buy it from me. Just an idea but sounds promising.

[capkid]

Re: Does anybody know of a used TV price guide?

It sounds like you have a good plan. When I started selling parts on eBay, I got a separate eBay account so I could track everything accurately (selling price, PayPal fees, shipping fees, etc) and so that people could see that I dealt strictly in TV parts. People were more apt to buy if it appeared that I was an expert in TV repair. Also, since my account had almost no feedback when I started, I bought most of my parts to repair TVs on eBay so I could increase my number of feedbacks - didn't take long. Lastly, I sold all my parts with "Buy-It-Now", "or best offer" and free shipping via USPS priority to make the transactions clean and simple.

[lookimback]

Re: Does anybody know of a used TV price guide?

I ship strictly priority mail as well. Its more a matter of convenience though because it comes with free tracking, delivery confirmation and $50 insurance. More so, being that I'm a new seller and my funds don't clear immediately, it gets my funds cleared quicker. I buy a lot off eBay but most of my repairs consist of rework.

Edit: I wish I would have made a new thread for this because we're getting a lot of great information together but the title is a real throw off.

[kevinm34232]

Re: Does anybody know of a used TV price guide?

I have 2 cents to add about my experience with this in doing 200+ TVs.

I started buying/fixing TVs about 1 1/2 years ago now I think. For ahwile I had very good luck selling fixed TVs for a good price and selling parts from broken screen TVs on ebay for a good prices and fairly quick. I was doing a lot more broken screen TVs (75%+)and it was A LOT of work and my backyard quickly got consumed with bad panels. In between all the time of breaking down TVs and taking pictures and listing on ebay I was trying to fix other ones, and work my full time job, etc. I made good money and learned a lot but was working 7 days a week.

But I noticed things started slowing down in the last 3-6 months and prices have dropped dramatically for used TVs, and especially for used parts. It came to the point if I could not get something like a 50" Samsung plasma with broken screen for $10 I wasn't interested.

Then I had to move, and deal with getting rid of ALL those broken panels. Locally they want to charge $0.25 per pound for this chemical/hazardous waste.

Needless to say I have not bought any broken panel tvs since because if anything, I'll only pay $10-$20 now, and people are getting more elsewhere I guess. Good for them!

Im just focusing on finding larger TVs newer models that can be repaired, so the volume has gone way down. I used to get tons of calls and emails and that has dropped too in the last few months. I went from selling several parts a day on ebay to just 1 or 2 a week. Prices for Z-SUS boards could be like $12 with free shipping, its ridiculous.

Needless to say, not seeing a future in this business.

[capkid]

Re: Does anybody know of a used TV price guide?

Disposing of the parts LEGALLY was an issue for me, also; I was being charged 75 cents/spec pound (TV's manufacturer specified weight) for TVs that had missing boards. I'm not one to give up easily, and I'd even purchased a rare and hard-to-obtain 800# and set up a website to do some marketing and capture seller info, but it quickly became obvious that it wasn't going to be worth the effort as prices started to fall drastically. So, I cut my losses and moved on.

I've noticed some new buyers have popped up locally, and they've been paying much more than I was willing to offer based on my profit requirements and experience with repairs. They'll quickly get blown out if they're not careful.