CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Curt Palme]

I had to cut and paste, the original link is below:

Cutting Edge Electronics or Setting Money on Fire
Posted on July 27, 2010 at 5:35 PM

There was a blurb on the Internet today about a guy who bought a box full of old, black-and-white photographs at a yard sale. He talked the seller down from $75 to like $50. Turns out the pictures are a bunch of rare, never-before-seen Ansel Adams originals that are worth like $200 million. (You know that he saw a box of old, B&W photos and we was just hoping to stumble across some prohibition-age nudies or something Bordello-ey, and that when he saw all the high-contrasty pictures of mountains and trees his first reaction was, “Damn! This is it? Really?")


This would never happen with electronics. Never. Not in a million years. There is no piece of stereo gear that you are going to put anywhere that will one day be worth anything. The first Nintendo with boxes of perfectly preserved cartridges and owner’s manuals? What? It doesn’t play the newest Mario? Junk. The first iPod? It actually *was* junk, and even Apple doesn’t want to acknowledge anymore. A Zune? Ha! Oh, God, really? You bought a Zune? Oh, that’s rich! It actually wasn’t worth anything when you bought it, and it has only gone down in value from there. The very first CD player? Are you selling it to Sony for their private collection and is it serial number 00001? It isn’t? Then nothing. In fact, at best you’d have to pay someone to haul the junk away. At worst your family is probably getting some awesome lead/mercury/radiation poisoning from the pre- “we finally figured out what we’re doing with this stuff” manufacturing age.



In the history of everything, there is probably nothing that loses value faster than used electronics. Well, maybe food. I don’t care how much you paid for that 7 course meal at The French Laundry; I’m not going to give you anything for it once you’ve, uh, “finished” with it. (And I’m not talking about your leftovers...)



Sure, when they’re all shiny and new, we must have them. But – now this pains me to have to say it, but I’m gonna shoot straight – even that new iPad is going to one day be something that you just carry around waiting to slide down a shuffle board table in a bar to get some laughs. (Actually, at that point, the iPad will be so outdated that the laughs will really be out of nervous pity and people will be silently asking themselves, “Why is he still carrying that thing around? Do you think he means to do us harm? Just give him what he wants and maybe he’ll leave.")



Two recent events prompted these thoughts. First, we recently replaced a Runco CRT projector for a customer.

This projector was the Mac-Daddy Shizzit years ago. The bomb diggity. Back when you were thinking about line-doubling and maybe “experimenting” with 480p, this thing was already banging out 768p. Just saying Runco meant you were a big-baller. When other projectors left for work, this Runco snuck in and banged their wives and left its drawers in their hamper. I originally sold this projector for $17,995. And that was a CHEAP Runco. So the customer finally decided to upgrade and he asked us to haul it away for him. Honestly, I didn’t have the heart to just pitch this thing in the dumpster. Sure our relationship was what I would describe as “tumultuous” (calibrating a CRT is just slightly less fun than setting your arm on fire to watch how long it will burn). But still, this was my first CRT sale, and, you know what they say about your first... So I found a guy in Canada (Curt Palme, and since we’ve only traded e-mails I don’t know if it’s “Palm” or “Pal-may”; you can never trust a Canadian.) who still services and sells CRT projectors. So I reached out to Curt and asked if he would be interested in buying it. I sent him pictures of the unit (with original box, manuals and GI Joe Kung-Fu grip), took the lens apart and showed him the surprisingly minimal CRT wear (signs of my kick-ass calibration job!) and asked what he thought. Then I waited, wondering just how much I was going to cash this baby in for. His offer? $50. FIFTY! Five to the OH! That is two-tenths of 1 percent of the original value. It’s probably the most disappointed I have ever been in President Grant.



Then I was in Wal-Mart the other day and saw this:




Now, I know. Shame on me. You go into Wal-Mart you pretty much deserve what you find. But here, big as day, just sitting randomly in an aisle was a pallet of DVD players. For $39.86. (Perhaps I'm not pricing things cleverly enough; I mean, I probably would have just punked out and gone with $39.99 or the slightly more edgy $39.95. But clearly modern shoppers want something even more risky...) And these weren’t Magna-Phonic, Techno-Vision, Visomagik no-name players. These were Tier 1 Sony DVD players. With HDMI output. With 1080p upconversion. For $39. My first DVD player was a Pioneer. It didn’t have HDMI. It also didn’t have component. It kicked it S-video style. And instead of burdening me with all the 1080 pixels, it did 480. I. Interlaced. The worse one. And it kept my audio humble by not doing DTS. And it cost me $949. On sale. Through mail order. So, go on. Pick up a 6 pack of players. And grab me some beers while your at it. They're about two aisles over to the left...

http://johnsciacca.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/4374195-cutting-edge-electronics-or-setting-money-on-fire

[Curt Palme]

I had to cut and paste, the original link is below:

Cutting Edge Electronics or Setting Money on Fire
Posted on July 27, 2010 at 5:35 PM

There was a blurb on the Internet today about a guy who bought a box full of old, black-and-white photographs at a yard sale. He talked the seller down from $75 to like $50. Turns out the pictures are a bunch of rare, never-before-seen Ansel Adams originals that are worth like $200 million. (You know that he saw a box of old, B&W photos and we was just hoping to stumble across some prohibition-age nudies or something Bordello-ey, and that when he saw all the high-contrasty pictures of mountains and trees his first reaction was, “Damn! This is it? Really?")


This would never happen with electronics. Never. Not in a million years. There is no piece of stereo gear that you are going to put anywhere that will one day be worth anything. The first Nintendo with boxes of perfectly preserved cartridges and owner’s manuals? What? It doesn’t play the newest Mario? Junk. The first iPod? It actually *was* junk, and even Apple doesn’t want to acknowledge anymore. A Zune? Ha! Oh, God, really? You bought a Zune? Oh, that’s rich! It actually wasn’t worth anything when you bought it, and it has only gone down in value from there. The very first CD player? Are you selling it to Sony for their private collection and is it serial number 00001? It isn’t? Then nothing. In fact, at best you’d have to pay someone to haul the junk away. At worst your family is probably getting some awesome lead/mercury/radiation poisoning from the pre- “we finally figured out what we’re doing with this stuff” manufacturing age.



In the history of everything, there is probably nothing that loses value faster than used electronics. Well, maybe food. I don’t care how much you paid for that 7 course meal at The French Laundry; I’m not going to give you anything for it once you’ve, uh, “finished” with it. (And I’m not talking about your leftovers...)



Sure, when they’re all shiny and new, we must have them. But – now this pains me to have to say it, but I’m gonna shoot straight – even that new iPad is going to one day be something that you just carry around waiting to slide down a shuffle board table in a bar to get some laughs. (Actually, at that point, the iPad will be so outdated that the laughs will really be out of nervous pity and people will be silently asking themselves, “Why is he still carrying that thing around? Do you think he means to do us harm? Just give him what he wants and maybe he’ll leave.")



Two recent events prompted these thoughts. First, we recently replaced a Runco CRT projector for a customer.

This projector was the Mac-Daddy Shizzit years ago. The bomb diggity. Back when you were thinking about line-doubling and maybe “experimenting” with 480p, this thing was already banging out 768p. Just saying Runco meant you were a big-baller. When other projectors left for work, this Runco snuck in and banged their wives and left its drawers in their hamper. I originally sold this projector for $17,995. And that was a CHEAP Runco. So the customer finally decided to upgrade and he asked us to haul it away for him. Honestly, I didn’t have the heart to just pitch this thing in the dumpster. Sure our relationship was what I would describe as “tumultuous” (calibrating a CRT is just slightly less fun than setting your arm on fire to watch how long it will burn). But still, this was my first CRT sale, and, you know what they say about your first... So I found a guy in Canada (Curt Palme, and since we’ve only traded e-mails I don’t know if it’s “Palm” or “Pal-may”; you can never trust a Canadian.) who still services and sells CRT projectors. So I reached out to Curt and asked if he would be interested in buying it. I sent him pictures of the unit (with original box, manuals and GI Joe Kung-Fu grip), took the lens apart and showed him the surprisingly minimal CRT wear (signs of my kick-ass calibration job!) and asked what he thought. Then I waited, wondering just how much I was going to cash this baby in for. His offer? $50. FIFTY! Five to the OH! That is two-tenths of 1 percent of the original value. It’s probably the most disappointed I have ever been in President Grant.



Then I was in Wal-Mart the other day and saw this:




Now, I know. Shame on me. You go into Wal-Mart you pretty much deserve what you find. But here, big as day, just sitting randomly in an aisle was a pallet of DVD players. For $39.86. (Perhaps I'm not pricing things cleverly enough; I mean, I probably would have just punked out and gone with $39.99 or the slightly more edgy $39.95. But clearly modern shoppers want something even more risky...) And these weren’t Magna-Phonic, Techno-Vision, Visomagik no-name players. These were Tier 1 Sony DVD players. With HDMI output. With 1080p upconversion. For $39. My first DVD player was a Pioneer. It didn’t have HDMI. It also didn’t have component. It kicked it S-video style. And instead of burdening me with all the 1080 pixels, it did 480. I. Interlaced. The worse one. And it kept my audio humble by not doing DTS. And it cost me $949. On sale. Through mail order. So, go on. Pick up a 6 pack of players. And grab me some beers while your at it. They're about two aisles over to the left...

http://johnsciacca.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/4374195-cutting-edge-electronics-or-setting-money-on-fire

[emdawgz1]

Two things...

1. Did you buy the guy's CRT???

and



2. 5000.00 E-dawg Dollars to the person who explains the "drawers in the Hamper" reference w/o googling.

[Curt Palme]

Yup. It does have some wear on the tubes, not bad, say an 8, but the raster was set up pretty small, so I will most likely part the unit out, or sell it dirt cheap.

[Curt Palme]

Yup. It does have some wear on the tubes, not bad, say an 8, but the raster was set up pretty small, so I will most likely part the unit out, or sell it dirt cheap.

[ronholm]

I am out on the drawers in the hamper.. Can't place that one... Although it seems like a should be able to.. But I love the way this guy writes with all of the sentences loaded with references like that... Fun to read..

[jmdls]

[draganm]

[emdawgz1]

[virusc]

actually, original nintendo games with boxes can be worth a lot of money as not many of the boxes were saved and the rarity of some of the games but otherwise I agree.

So he actually thinks he set up the projector great but had small raster?

[Curt Palme]

I know the reference now, the clue gave it away..

[Curt Palme]

I know the reference now, the clue gave it away..

[ecrabb]

[paw]

John should know better. He works for or is a part owner in a custom installer company in SC. He also writes for Sound and Vision magazine. 10 year old, BROKEN electronics are worth pennys or fractions of pennys on the original dollar. I think he just needed something to blog about. His blog writting is entertaining.

[gonyr]

[stefuel]

[perisoft]

Gah, I couldn't even read it after a couple of lines. It's reads like it was written by a kid who just had six cans of mountain dew and a vivarin.

I'm also not sure what his point is to begin with, now that I think about it. New electronics is better than old electronics? And? Is he complaining, or informing the Amish, or what? Would he rather still be paying a grand for a DVD player so he can feel like it didn't "lose its value"?

I totally don't get it. So, you don't buy electronics as an investment. Awesome. Here's a news flash - you don't buy mutual funds for entertainment, either. I could write a rant about how stocks and bonds are totally no good at playing games on or showing movies, but it would be bizarre and pointless - kinda like this.

[virusc]

OK maybe I should of qualified what a lot of money is. I have 600+ nintendo carts and I have sold some of mine that are doubles for $100-300. some sealed or very rare can sell for $500+. Another good example are some laserdisc players. Some of the best players are actually gaining value. I barco 909,cin9 or 9500ultra will never sell for retail or above in the future but their are some electonics that are worth money. Another example are classic marantz preamps and some Mac gear. Yet another example, how is a 1950's ferrari better than a new one and worth 3,000,000? Its not faster, better handling and had total inferior technology. 98% are what you were speaking of is true but I think the nintendo analogy was a poor example.

Another thing. Curt said the raster was small. That means it was very small and lead to premature tube wear. That's what I took from that statement in relation to the guy bragging how good of installer he is.

[jmdls]

Perisoft: I'm guessing that I should NOT expect to see you as a Website member or Follower of my Blog....? Also, even though I'm sure you meant it as a slam, I'm taking "written by a kid who just had six cans of mountain dew and a vivarin" as a round-about-sorta compliment. So, thanks for the kind words!

Virusc: I can't quantify the "very small"ness of the Raster but I can tell you that it absolutely didn't lead to any "premature tube wear." This thing was in use for nearly 10 years and offered nary a bit of trouble. For it to have a wear rating of "say an 8" (Curt's words) seems like a pretty decent install after 10 years, though maybe I'm way off base. (It happens quite frequently....) Ultimately, I believe it was some board (convergence? I don't know) that went out that made it unusable without a major shipping bill and labor/parts charge. Plus, the customer had been looking to upgrade to something brighter for some time and he was growing tired of our yearly calibration dates and wanted something more set-and-forget.

Here's a post I did on the original replacement. I think there's like two of you here that enjoyed my writing style; this is in the same vein, but far more projector-ey. Perisoft, this is probably only about 3 cans of Mountain Dew, which might be more to your liking. (And, it is actually more like multiple double-lattes if you must know...)
http://johnsciacca.webs.com/apps/blog/show/4275049-out-with-the-runcold-in-with-the-runcawesome

Cheers,
John Sciacca

[AnalogRocks]

I just read your bog.

Wow you hate CRT's that much? I love being alone in the dark with Red Green and Blue. Guess you just never liked it to begin with.

[AnalogRocks]

I just read your bog.

Wow you hate CRT's that much? I love being alone in the dark with Red Green and Blue. Guess you just never liked it to begin with.

[VideoGrabber]

I read the 4275049 blog too. Kind of amusing, and written with a bit of tongue-in-cheek.

But it sounds like you had a hate-hate relationship with CRT PJs that few here share. And that everything was bad about the RuncOld, and everything good about the RuncAwesome [sic]. That's a POV that I doubt anyone here would agree with, even those who have happily replaced their CRTs with digital PJs.

[jmdls]

Certainly a lot of tongue-in-cheeks (and probably, most accurately, over-the-top hyperbole...I didn't *really* think about eating my own leg...), but my feelings about CRT projectors were this....they made an awesome image in the right environment, but -- much like an Italian sports car -- they needed a good bit of tinkering and under-the-hood love to perform their best. I'm sure I would feel a lot differently about calibrating MY OWN CRT, but when you are doing it for others, it can be tedious. Especially when you aren't one of Joel Silver's "Top Guns" commanding $1000 a go. Oh....here's a great way to sum up my feelings! I hate the process of painting my house; but I love they way it looks when it's finished.
Regards,
John