Can someone solve this question about TVs for me?

THEPOSTMAN! · Dec 23, 2010

A couple of weeks ago, I put about 5 televisions out to be picked up by bulk trash.
They were older model televisions, but they all did not work for one reason or another. My question is, before they were picked up, someone punched a hole in the back of each TV and took something out. Can you tell me what they were taking out?

texansfan · Dec 23, 2010

I'm not even sure what's inside the older tv's, maybe metals or something.

Doug · Dec 23, 2010

You got me curious ?

see post #7 here

http://videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=174042

07-15-2008, 10:30 AM
Findm-Keepm

VK Member
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 705

Funny this thread got going - my Dad retired from the TV business in May and
had all sorts of sets and chassis to get rid of. He went the scrap metal route and sold some $1400 in copper, aluminum, and circuit boards. His stash of yokes (no old ones, I saved them myself) yielded 130 pounds of #2 copper for $357.

Here's a breakdown of what one can expect from a TV in my area (Norfolk/Virginia Beach VA), based on prices at a scrapyard we dealt with (Dubin metals):

Yoke - of course, for the copper. $2.77 a pound, sold as #2 copper wire. 6-13 ounces yield. Sure wish Ferrite had a market......

Degaussing coil - copper or aluminum - you can tell it's aluminum wire if it's crimped to the wires going to the chassis. See above for the copper price, aluminum wire here will net $0.66 a pound, but that fluctuates more than the copper price. 6-23 ounces yield, high end is Sony big screens.

Common Mode Choke - #2 copper - usually an ounce, but some upper end Sonys and Philips sets have two, yielding 2-3 ounces.

Power cord - $1.15 a pound, sold as "scrap extension cord" Yield about 4 ounces.

Deflection/Pincushion Coils - # 2 Copper - 3-6 ounces total (2 to 6 coils on most color sets)

Switchmode Transformer - #2 Copper - 3-5 ounces yield.

Bare Circuit Board - $1.00 a pound, sold as scrap computer board. The Flyback, coils and all magnetic items (shields, heat sinks, etc) must be removed. Resistors, caps, chips and the like can remain. We found another yard paid 15 cents a pound for any TV chassis - we used them for the chassis that had lots of shields and other metals.

Heat Sinks - Aluminum - 5-11 ounces, more for stereo and projection sets with massive finned heat sinks.

Flyback - Sold as motor/transformers for $0.26 a pound

I'd estimate a CTC185 set yielding about 7 dollars in scrap metal prices, and a Sony Wega or similar Sony KVBR set yielding about 13-14 dollars.

So yeah, there is money in those junk sets.

Cheers,
__________________
Brian
"Capacitor Cosmetologist since 1979"
Last edited by Findm-Keepm; 07-15-2008 at 10:34 AM. Reason: Corrected spelling

buddyboy · Dec 23, 2010

if they were the older tube type, they were going for the big copper coils

texansfan · Dec 23, 2010

I guess it is the metals inside, hardly surprising though. Copper and other metal thefts are big right now, at least here in Houston. Recently a few people were arrested after stealing around 300 metal urns from a cemetery. The value of those urns was around $125k. We see people having their AC's stolen and just about anything and everything that contains metal being stolen.

THEPOSTMAN! · Dec 23, 2010

Interesting, they were pretty old tvs, a couple over 20 years old, that were just sitting in the garage. I wish I would have known about the metal inside..

Betallsports · Dec 23, 2010

wouldn't even think about looking for stuff like that.

barman · Dec 23, 2010

Ayuh....the copper at least is worth a bit of coin (five TVs...maybe $20-30)....so hey....if you've got nothing else going on, it's worth the few minutes needed to grab it.

We have more than a few guys in our community who make a full time living just driving around the streets and scalping all the metal off of the piles that homeowners put out for city sanitation removal.

KingofNicotine · Dec 23, 2010

Didn't know it was worth that much. You can go to the local dumpers and there's an area for old tvs. Guess I should head up there and make a quick $200.

barman · Dec 23, 2010

Carry your video phone and roll tape so you can upload your journey to us here

KingofNicotine · Dec 23, 2010

Hahaha! I was just kidding about that. The people at the dump probably take all that stuff for themselves.

Doug · Dec 24, 2010

barman said:
Ayuh....the copper at least is worth a bit of coin (five TVs...maybe $20-30)....so hey....if you've got nothing else going on, it's worth the few minutes needed to grab it.

We have more than a few guys in our community who make a full time living just driving around the streets and scalping all the metal off of the piles that homeowners put out for city sanitation removal.

Fishhead ?

Doug · Dec 24, 2010

Betallsports said:
wouldn't even think about looking for stuff like that.

Me either ! I knew it had to be copper based, though ! I trashed a TV recently and even Doug didn't think about the copper that was potentially inside of it !

I guess you could hammer a hole in the back of the TV set and snatch the main copper bundle of wires ( Yoke, I guess ?)....I'm not there....yet. I figure it costs me 20 cents a mile in gas alone to drive around a full-size pickup truck. The picking has to be pretty sweet to overcome just gas costs let alone wear and tear and then make $20/ hour ( ?) doing it.

I don't think garbagemen can really pull copper while working ?

Doug · Dec 24, 2010

barman said:
Ayuh....the copper at least is worth a bit of coin (five TVs...maybe $20-30)....so hey....if you've got nothing else going on, it's worth the few minutes needed to grab it.

We have more than a few guys in our community who make a full time living just driving around the streets and scalping all the metal off of the piles that homeowners put out for city sanitation removal.

Is it legal to do this, Steve ? I'd imagine cops aren't looking hard to bust people for taking curbside garbage....hopefully they have better things to do ?

Maybe if it is once a month that the city picks up stuff like old TV's...one might be able to score some significant copper the night before ?

I think the only way to score real amounts of Copper is by actually stealing it ?

Doug · Dec 24, 2010

texansfan said:
I guess it is the metals inside, hardly surprising though. Copper and other metal thefts are big right now, at least here in Houston. Recently a few people were arrested after stealing around 300 metal urns from a cemetery. The value of those urns was around $125k. We see people having their AC's stolen and just about anything and everything that contains metal being stolen.

This sounds off to me. 125k for 300 urns is like $400 each or the current price of about 100 lbs of #1 copper each.

Doug · Dec 24, 2010

texansfan said:
I guess it is the metals inside, hardly surprising though. Copper and other metal thefts are big right now, at least here in Houston. Recently a few people were arrested after stealing around 300 metal urns from a cemetery. The value of those urns was around $125k. We see people having their AC's stolen and just about anything and everything that contains metal being stolen.

Isn't an urn a container used to hold the cremated ashes of a relative, often on a mantle on your fireplace ?

That would be nowhere to close to weighing 100 lbs, and not outdoors at a cemetary.

I think you might mean a grave marker ( but that would be stone) or something else ?

Maybe like a container for flowers or something, but that would be nowhere near 100 lbs in weight Something is off here.

texansfan · Dec 26, 2010

Doug said:
This sounds off to me. 125k for 300 urns is like $400 each or the current price of about 100 lbs of #1 copper each.

The cost of each urn I believe they said was either 3 or 4 hundred a piece. I'm talking about the cost to buy it, not what they would make by selling it.

texansfan · Dec 26, 2010

Doug said:
Isn't an urn a container used to hold the cremated ashes of a relative, often on a mantle on your fireplace ?

That would be nowhere to close to weighing 100 lbs, and not outdoors at a cemetary.

I think you might mean a grave marker ( but that would be stone) or something else ?

Maybe like a container for flowers or something, but that would be nowhere near 100 lbs in weight Something is off here.

No, the copper urns that are used to place flowers inside Doug. Those things cost 3 to 4 hundred each, trust me.

I called them urns, but I mean those vases that you put the flowers in.

texansfan · Dec 26, 2010

Here you go Doug...

http://www.click2houston.com/news/26122808/detail.html

Doug · Dec 26, 2010

Seems like they got 4k as scrap not 120k ?

Values get inflated. A kilo of coke might be 20k as a kilo, but would be reported as some inflated gram price of like a 200k bust or some BS like that.

The scrap copper/ bronze whatever theft is really not a 120 k theft, more like a 4k theft. Do we count retail or wholesale/ scrap values here ?

I don't support thievery either way, but be realistic about it.

Can someone solve this question about TVs for me?

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