Frugality

Save Money By Giving Unwanted Electronics For FREE

After buying a new TV a couple of weeks ago, we did the television shuffle. Even though the bulb that lit our old LCD TV blew about every 9-12 months, we thought maybe it would last longer if it wasn’t used as often. It’s high definition capable, and much larger than the old picture tube TV we had in our basement. So, the new TV went in our great room, the TV that had been in the great room went in the basement, and the one in the basement was marked to be scrapped. There was one very important question we needed to answer, however.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How does one get rid of a behemoth 36” picture tube TV?

This thing is huge, and really heavy. I lift weights four days a week and I could barely get my arms around it and lift it up off the entertainment center and set it on the floor. Being a curious kind of guy, I looked up the specifications online and found that the unit weight 152 pounds.

We started looking at disposal options:

• Best Buy: I had been told that Best Buy will dispose of old computers, printers, monitors and TVs for free. I called up a nearby store, and confirmed my information was correct. They will take any picture tube TV up to 32 inches in size. My TV was too big to qualify.
• County Recycling Center: My local recycling/disposal center would take my TV for a fee of 30 cents a pound. Weighing in at 152 pounds, it would cost me just over $45 to get rid of my TV.
• Craigs List: I’m almost positive that nobody would actually buy my old TV, even if it was a big screen size, and worked perfectly.   But maybe if we listed it for free, maybe someone would take it off our hands.

We decided to list it on Craigs List for a couple of weeks to see if it generated any interest. It took a couple of days, but I finally received a response. The responder had a friend that was moving to the area and starting from scratch. A free entertainment center and TV would be very much appreciated by them.

I can’t think of a better outcome.   If nobody responded to the ad, we would have destroyed the entertainment center, thrown it away, AND paid $45 to dispose of the TV.   Instead, both items are going to someone that can really use them.

Have you ever given away an item that you would have had to pay to dispose of? How much would it have cost you to dispose of it?

Brought to you courtesy of Brock

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Brock Kernin

Brock is a software engineer by day and personal finance blogger at night. He is a fitness junkie and enjoys grilling and smoking meat. Married with two children,  Brock strives to improve his skills as a husband and father, and is always on the lookout to stretch his family’s budget as far as he can.