I just recent purchased a Sylvania SSC509D off of eBay because it matches my larger 20" Sylvania 6720FDFA. I heard people say it was sketchy to buy CRTs off of eBay, so I searched around from lots and lots of different sellers until I narrowed it down. It was a seller that also sold vintage collectibles and tech, with 100% ratings. The pictures were even a bit blurry, but they were clear enough to see the TV was very clean. I took the chance and bought it. It came about a week later and was packed really well. They put the CRT in a small box lined with foam, and then put that box in a big box that was stuffed with cushioning and paper, it was solid. The TV works great and even the DVD drive functions properly. I guess I got lucky!
@@robsmashed yes, its the perfect place to buy a CRT since buyer is completely covered. Not sure why anyone would trust the shipper though. Most people just don't know how to ship something like this. Not sure at what point in this video he says its the worst place... He literally showed a success. Gotta get them clicks I guess.
i've been offloading my CRTs over the last couple of years on ebay, but only doing local pickup. i'm getting way less money for them, but the piece of mind is worth it.
I haven't purchased a CRT of eBay recently, but I've bought several in the past. I only had one monitor show up trashed, and it was due to poor packaging. It was a 19" Sony PVM, and while I bought it before they started commanding the insane prices they do today, it still took me a long time to find one for a reasonable price. Guess it wasn't so reasonable after all, since it showed up trashed. I got a refund from the seller, who didn't ask me to ship the monitor back, so that was nice. But that meant I had to pay an electronics recycler to take the thing off my hands.
As i have been repairing crt tv's as a profession in the past days, i'd check the ptc from the internal degaussing circuit..there may also be some other type of degaussing circuit. That screen didn't look too bad so that internal circuit should have been able to 'clean' the colour mask. As a tip for the use of the degaussing tool..You don't need to take it that far but you can turn it instead 90 degrees to diminish the field.. You can start it right next to the screen..and make the circular motion..take it back like 1.5m and turn it sideways! Takes only little over 5 seconds, and not much heating! :) While You are up close the crt with a degausser, pay attention if the internal steel color mask buzzes..if it does, the crt is propably bad (the mask is loose from some of it's attaching points and You can never achieve color purity..and the purity may change from the temperature build up inside since the mask can bend if it's loose). My 2 cents! :)
*cough* pallet. you need a pallet to ship a crt. Most sellers will not do pallets even when requested. Probably because it’s much more money for a pallet, but that just pretty much means…don’t try to get crts delivered. Always try to look local.
Honestly from the title of this video I was expecting to see a CRT packed in some ratty sellotaped box with newspaper or some old shirts as packing material (which ive unfortunately received before!). I think the expanding foam is a great idea, maybe not for the environment but definitely for a rare crt I've just spent $500 or whatever. It obviously protected the tube very well, and old mate spent 2 to 3 minutes clawing at it like a kitten when I would have just ripped the sides off the box the moment I opened the top...
I have purchased 2 CRT's off of Ebay. Told both sellers the importance of good packaging, gave details on what needed to be done, and sent links to articles on how to properly pack the monitors. Both arrived completely shattered and destroyed. While I did get my money back on both, disposing of these things is not a cheap or easy task. Only buy local now lol.
I'm going to be honest with you, if I sold someone something and they sent me something like that they are getting refunded. Either that or I will deliberately destroy it (deserved if that was the case Lmfao)
After watching this video, I feel like my PVM arriving from Japan to the US was an absolute miracle. Almost no info on the seller (although they were selling many of the same model of PVM, so maybe they knew what they were doing.), had to be shipped to various intermediate places across two countries, and when it arrived it worked flawlessly with absolutely no issues whatsoever. I honestly believe that my monitor is blessed or something.
I got lucky that I found a seller on eBay that was selling a pristine Sony Wega only a few miles away from me; just took a few DMs and I saved the seller the headache of attempting to ship it and saved a perfectly functioning CRT from being potentially scraped.
Unfortunately eBay tries to penalize buyers/sellers who organize payment or shipping outside of their platform, even in reasonable scenarios like this. I've had issues with that before. They really want their cut.
I’ve had 50/50 experience on Ebay buying CRT’s. The issues typically stem from the packaging by the seller. No matter if you communicate or insist I’ve had destroyed tv’s show up in crappy flimsy boxes and others in well packed and double layered. It’s a crap shoot like anything else and more often than not Ebay will side with the buyer. Insurance and quality packing materials truly make a difference.
Got my A20 with a 68x inside from eBay a while back. It was shipped with this exact foam too, really came out without any damage. It's probably overkill but I was very happy.
Why "the wrong place"? This looks as if it wasn't the sellers fault at all, neither the packaging. That was just pure genius tbh, even if hard to open.
This is why I just use a cheaper model CRT I got from family that was no longer being used. It doesn't do any of the fancier things, but it works just fine for the older content I consume. It's actually more authentic to what I used as a kid. I wish CRTs were still being made as there definitely seems to be a market for them.
I've only bought 2 CRT PC monitors on Ebay. One was an HP Pavilion MX70 model which the seller said was in good condition but the display was so dim you could barely see anything, so I ended up returning it because I don't know how to repair CRTs myself and nobody near where I live could do it. The seller relisted it and it's been sitting on their store for almost a year since. The other one I bought is a Gateway EV700 which, besides a little yellowing on the plastic, looks like it's just come out of the box in 1998. Just have to be careful dealing with the seller, communicate with them before you buy to make sure the CRT works properly and they ship it correctly.
Gotta be honest - the packing method was pretty damn clever. It's only one step down from the expanding foam packets that a lot of boutique system integrators use for computers to prevent heavy PCI-express cards from snapping the epxansion slots in the system during shipping... On another side - The gaussing issue could have been caused by a metal detector or something similar during transit. The only real way to avoid a problem like this would be to go pick the unit up yourself from the seller if possible, because then you can take care not to expose it to magnnetism.
i found your channel from Bob and i've been hooked! i just picked up a sony pvm 1351Q and he threw in a free black and white 137. i couldn't say no even the the freebie was black and white! they are gorgeous! Dud that wand gets me every time, actual MAGIC!
I was lucky and bought 20L5 from Ebay seller, it had barely 100 hours usage. Sure enough I had to pay alot for custom wooden crate and shipping , received perfection 😊. Great job on fixing that PVM Steve! Steve usually sells PVMs, buy from him!
@@oraclejmt he only sold two PVM's as far as i know that were kept in storage for many years. I would recommend buying from Retro Tech Steve, you can't go wrong with a freshly serviced CRT.
Some of us have no choice. I’m in a very rural area, nearest metro is 300 miles away which is where places like Costco, Micro Center, & IKEA are located. We only have a couple thrift stores here and none accept or sell CRTs anymore. FB Marketplace is dead as is Craigslist. For some of us, eBay is our only option and we have no choice but to accept the risk.
packing job is a pain to open but actually kind of brilliant and effective. and not sure i'd blame the seller. that could easily happen during shipping. i've seen how rough they handle packages and it could've gotten near a large magnet or maybe even xrayed depending on where it shipped from
Foam in place is the way to go. Who is to say the magnetism was there when they packed it? If it sat next to speakers or something in the delivery truck or depot it can easily get magnetized.
Like you did the best way to open one of these is your slice vertically on the left and right side of a single wall the push that wall outward so you can get your arm underneath whatever is inside.
Yeah, that's kind of what I took from this too. "Don't buy from eBay -- you'll end up with a TV that needs to be degaussed and then works perfectly." Mmmkkayy.... ?
Is there a risk to using the degaussing coil near other electronics such as PCs with older mechanical hard drives? What about if other CRTs are nearby that are turned off?
This is not really an Ebay problem exclusively. This is a typical online long distance and dishonest seller problem. Which can happen to all online purchases.
OMG I WAS GLAD TO FIND THIS CHANNEL, i do want to find a crt as the one's i used to have in my home when i was young were thrown out like e waste, but now knowing what crt's can do over most morden monitors today im sad i can't just mess around with one
I remember someone got me an early 80's GE color set back in 2016 off of Ebay, and it arrived decently intact just with the number wheel loosen from the VHF knob, and needed some picture adjustment.
Bought a early 1980's or so NEC TV off of eBay a year ago. And it was just fine, nothing wrong with it & is still going strong for me. So while you'll get a few bad ones, that doesn't really mean it'd be eBay's fault. No matter where you would buy them from, there is always a risk of getting one that could be damaged/defective in some way
Never bought a CRT on eBay for 2 reasons. 1: I like my stuff to arrive intact (unless it's a parts machine or something.) 2: eBay sellers tend to sell for a lot more than local. (if you're lucky enough to find one locally) This channel has been awesome though and you have encouraged me to take on RGB modding my 32" JVC.
I almost never buy from EBay. I find that I can't/don't trust most sellers on there. They often seem to be rip-off artists. Also, I'm not sure how good EBay supports customers buying products. I mostly buy off of Amazon, of course, checking reviews and time on Amazon of sellers. At least with Amazon, I know that they put the customer/buyer first. I have had a few run-ins with bad sellers, but Amazon took charge and made things right, without any issue.
eBay is ridiculously overpriced, they sell for example some old GPU for like 200 eur there, but I can buy the same thing in some local bazar for 1/3 of that price. It looks like sellers target mainly to US or other rich countries where people don't care and they just want it. I buy only very small things from other countries, like CPUs, I once bought an old Pentium III Tualatin from Austria and everything was ok, but buying something big and heavy looks pretty risky to me. I bought another old CPU from some French e-shop (not eBay) and it arriwed only in slightly stronger post envelope with some bubble foil inside, but fortunately, it was ok, no damage.
People often buy neodymium super magnets online and these are shipped with NO attempt at shielding the tremendous field they radiate for several feet in all directions. If one of these was near your CRT during shipping, that may be the source of your issues. These magnets can magnetize the chassis of the monitor as well as the CRT's shadow mask.
Amazing video. I have two 20M4Us with some discolored spots and a similar degassing coil. I've been wondering - should I move my CRT to another room to do the degauss? I saw that you used the cool in proximity to other electronics, and I was just wondering if it would affect them.
I got lucky the first (and possibly only time) I ordered a CRT off eBay. It was just a very standard, run of the mill 14” set, cost about £50. It was thankfully packaged very well and arrived in one piece and was fully working as it should be
I bought my 20 inch Toshiba CRT from Goodwill in 2018 and it's given me over 4 years of reliable service. It's such a shame that most Goodwills don't sell CRTs anymore...
I bought a batman crt tv off ebay a couple weeks ago. TV arrived with a smashed case and the screen won't work. It was lightly bubble wrapped and I heard the sound of plastic pieces rattling as I opened it. Heartbreaking. I'm in Australia and getting AU plugs for collectables is really difficult so I can't replace it. I also bought a jvc off ebay a month earlier and it arrived perfect so it's hard to gauge. I try contact sellers but they always make out they are great packers. The batman tv was actually packed by a professional company who just put it in a second box with no packing. It's a Heartbreaking experience getting a smashed crt. Really like the channel BTW!
Picked up my PVM locally so I could have the chance to look at it up close, got lucky and found a seller within 2 hours of me. Still shocked they've gotten as expensive as they have!
Just bought my first pvm off ebay. It was packed with crumpled up paper bags, pool noodles around he corners of the pvm, and packing peanuts. Everything looked ok from the outside, but when I turned it on the rgb imputs wasn't reading and I think something is wrong with the internal sync. All I was seeing was fast moving diagnal lines. I took it to an independent cpu/electronic shop just today so I guess we will see if it's salvagable
When I was a 13 my neighbor was going to toss his 25-inch CRT tv due to the same issues. Half of the screen was green. My father was upset since (according to him) the TV was broken. I replaced my 13 inch TV with that one. A few days later I took out the landline Phone and used "Paint strokes" to "paint" the green away. I started about 12 inches away and got closer like you did. Got rid of the problem no issue. Loved playing my NES on it till a week later my dad saw I fixed it and stole it for our main TV in the living room.
I resell old CRTs online and I just take them to FedEx or UPS stores and pay them to pack and ship CRTs for me. I always get insurance as well. I've sold probably 60 of them over the years and maybe had 2 damaged in transit. Looks like the seller here did a great job packaging it, so I'm not sure how this example qualifies as a horror story worthy of telling people to avoid ebay for CRTs. Yeah, it needed degaussed, but that was like a 1 minute repair. The more important factor is to make sure you are buying from an experienced seller with good feedback. Avoid people selling CRTs with free shipping. This is one item where you want to pay extra in shipping so the item is packed with the utmost care and not with cost savings in mind.
I live in the United Kingdom. How do you advise I buy a CRT if ebay is a bad idea? I only really need a 14 inch one, as long as it gives a full picture*, supports 60hz and also supports light guns! * = in the mid 90s, my parents had a 14 inch Sony for their bedroom. It was the only TV we could play Sega Saturn on in the house due to that console including a scart lead but not an RF one. When playing Victory Goal, the names of the players on team 1 could not be seen in full.
Hey! Those things are decades years old. So you always have to be prepared for such things. And of course newer do something if you don't exactly know what you are doing)
If you have a collection of CRT TV's and monitors, get a degaussing coil like the one used here. I have a nice one I found in a thrift shop for not much money. The built in automatic degaussing never works as well as manual one.
What make and model is your degaussing coil? I want a decent one and a quick search on Ebay is between $75 and$125, at the moment. I think the spray foam was an ingenious idea, although it's a bummer to ruin a good box.
Curious question here since I don't really know more than basics on a CRT. Is it possible the image could be thrown off like that in shipping? Say if the package has to go through some sort of x-ray machine before it gets loaded on an aircraft.
Fb marketplace is probably the best place to buy crts since before you actually get the item you can test is at wherever the seller is selling it at and see if it’s working
Just wanted to say that the thumbnail for this video is awesome! Super well composed and balanced. The visual is super interesting and bright, and the text is perfectly readable and bold. Didn't want it to go unappreciated 👍
I got a few CRTs at my house and apparently my dad said he got them on ebay (back when CRTs were alot more common and LCD was slowly taking over so about 2002-2005 era) Ones a GDM-500PS (dell version) and the other is an IBM P260 which i think is a GDM-F500. Only downside the P260 i have to adjust and stretch the image for 1600x1200 unless i need to change something with a driver or windas. The other i need to test as it has VGA and BNC connections. The IBM actually has DVI-A and vga.
I've bought 3 over the past two years, all were well packed and received undamaged. However, every single one of them has flyback arc, one has went out since, the other two are worn out. It's near the end of the road for getting working CRTs.
if you smack the back of the trinitron (break the neck off the tube) there should be a loud sharp whistle, glass separators glow bright blue white, burnt metal smell of evacuator and the silver dot slowly shrinks.
I've seen a few posts on Reddit and other forums saying the internal degaussing coil on some pvm's are causing issues and it needed to be disconnected and manually degaussed, I wonder if there's any way to fix those. Seems like it's just a bundle of wire.
I bought a 13in color Magnavox CRT T.V. from 1992 for my Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo and the walnut frame was warped from poor handling. The frame was nearly twisted off the tube so I had to remove the back of the frame off and reset it to back on to the T.V. so that it wouldn't be all warped. The inside edges got chipped off but the damage was so light it's almost non-existent. Luckily, the electronics were all intact and clean. I have used the T.V. for about two months and so far no explosion yet. 🤣
Encased in expandable foam like that is a new one for me too. I received one with a bunch of random dirty foam cushions before - it was gross but effective!
All three of my PVMs have come from eBay. Two were shipped, one I travelled to pick up. First one was a PVM 1910. It wasn't packed well but made it to me intact. It badly needed a focus and geometry adjustment. While me and a buddy had it open adjusting the geometry, it vertically collapsed before our eyes. I wasn't able to fix it so I gave it to him. Not sure where it ended up after that. The next one was a PVM 20M4U. The seller disclosed that it had a color purity issue and had it listed for a low price. I bought it thinking I could fix the color purity with my degauss coil but that wasn't the case. The geometry and focus on it was off so I adjusted it. The screen would also periodically flash green. Later I got lucky and found a PVM 2950Q on eBay that was close to me so I made the seller an offer and he accepted. I picked it up with the help of a buddy and this one was a winner. The picture looked fantastic and needed little adjusting. I still use it to this day as my main retro gaming monitor. As for the PVM 20M4U, I recently got it back out to service it. I used the cap kit from Pat and managed to fix the color purity issue but the screen flashing ended up being a short in the tube that is pretty much unfixable. So, out of the three PVMs I got from eBay only one ended up being without major issues.
Local Pickup or no bueno. But Fsck e-bay anyway, and doubly so pay(not your)pal. Faceburg and Crraigslust are still the best, and often cheaper if you aren't seeking a particular model.
Bad example since it was well packaged and the seller said in the description which issues you may experience. If it showed up totally smashed up because the seller just threw it in a box without any padding, then I'd say that totally proves your point. I've heard some horror stories and they were far worse than a simple degaussing. That PVM is totally overrated too. I bought one for $10 and it's hardly better than a standard consumer level monitor in my opinion.
A crt almost always needs to be degaussed whenever it is moved, it the earth's natural magnetism that will affect purity....even moving a TV/monitor across the room can affect purity.
I wouldn’t say the worst because I brought my 13” toshiba vhs vcr combo on eBay they work great with no issue on screen or damage whatsoever on package which I am very happy what I got because seller did a great job with package by shipping & delivered it to my house. I watched a lot of brand new vhs movies it’s pop up so nicely in color tv & especially retro gaming too, to me I took a risk but it’s definitely worth it by paying $203 everything.
I got lucky 2 times on ebay with a 20" BVM 2010p for only 300 and 27" XGA monitor for 300. I also ended up with a free BVM 1910 after the faceplate was crushed by the freight company. Still is a functional BVM.
I've shipped a CRT some years ago. The buyer wanted me to put sheets of metal into the cardbord box. He also sent me 30€ extra so i can purchase some. When i asked him whats the matter with it he answered "I don't want to risk that the monitor gets near some other packages in the deliverytruck with magnetic things in it". Weird but now I see how useful this could be.
honestly, i'd say this video wasn't the best demonstration, it came well-packed, not broken, and was fine with some degaussing done to it, i've bought tvs and monitors from ebay and they've been DESTROYED, utterly shattered, degaussing isn't hard, but getting a rare expensive crt for a good price and having it arrive completely broken is a heart-wrenching experience, i've gotten refunded on all of them after i explain what happened to the seller, but still..
I've bought quite a few crts on ebay over the years i buy them to pinch the tubes from to build arcade monitors, only ever had 2 20" crts that were poorly packed as in just cardboard wrapped around it and that's it how the tubes survived is beyond me both had cracked cases and one tube had been hit so hard that the picture was blue in one corner no amount of degaus would shift it i managed to get most of it out by adjusting the yoke and Convergence rings so use that one on the bench to test arcade boards on, ebay can be a gamble, these days i will drive and collect them especially if their 25" and above, they are safer in my van than the courier van 😁
I got an Arcade tabletop cocktail machine from my father that he had since i was young. The CRT has this issue and even one side of the screen is so distorted the image is a different size. He was a guitarist and used to store his big speakers on it. I was looking into those wands but can't find them in Australia. I would like to keep the CRT over replacing it for an LCD but this stuff is a little out of my expertise. They say to just make a wand but im a little worried about playing around with 240v
Someone just recycled a 21" Trinitron CRT where I work. I was really excited but the tube is just hammered - so dark, and already set to 100% contrast & brightness. I let it go.
That's one of the main reasons I am concerned about magnetic tapes going other than media mail. I even think media mail may have some external magnetic fields. Some tapes are ok, and some come with half the reel wiped out and it's hard to say that was caused in shipping.
Random question, but you seem to be a CRT expert. I picked up a local CRT, but it turned out to be pretty green. Is there any way to fix that? Some sort of like black magic fix like you did with that trinitron? Or will it just have to be adjusted in the menu from time to time until it can't be adjusted further? Additionally I'd like to mod it for component input (it's RF only for the time being) any quirks I should know about before I do that? I know about discharging at least
I really depends on CRT but you can look for a service manual to see if you can the green bias. Component is not a mod that is likely unless component is used internally for the OSD.
@@justz00t48 xd I trashed that CRT I was talking about- It had a horrible picture quality issue. Some weird interference pattern, thought it was the RF but nah the new TV hasn't got that issue on RF
As a broadcast engineer since 1982, I hardly see much to complain about with this purchase. Ok, so a user menu setting was wrong. Easily fixed as you demonstrated. Next the purity was compromised by magnetism beyond the ability of the internal degausser. The seller has no control over that. It could have been sitting next to a large transformer in a shipping center. It recovered beautifully after you degaussed it. It was packed very well, far above typical Ebay standards. For $400 you got a great deal and so would anyone else buying it.
