I’ve alwasy been an advocate of selling stuff on Craigslist or Ebay. Reselling items is the oldest, and still the most effective way of recycling. I just sold my TV. I’ve been thinking about selling my TV for the last year, and replacing it with an LCD. It was 27 inch flat tube TV weighting a few thousand pounds (or so it felt). I sold it for $100. A comparable new Flat tube TV would cost between $200-$300. The TV was in great condition, and about 4 years old. I was able to get it sold  and picked up in less than a day.  I believed I priced it appropriately, and got an offer without any haggling. When selling stuff on Craigslist, I’m a big believer in unloading items quickly. It shouldn’t be about getting the best price, but getting a good price and transacting fast.

Now I have empty space in my tv cabinet. Ideally, I would like to sell my cabinet and get a wall mount LCD, but given I’m renting and don’t expect to be my in apartment another year, I’m ambivalent of about going through the hassle and expesne of doing a wall mount. I want a TV that can fit in my cabinet (32 inches, or possibly a slim 37 inch tv), and supports 720P resolution. I don’t need 1080i or 1080p. While HD-DVD and Blueray both support upto 1080p, I don’t have any immediate plans on getting either types of players (especially before one format clearly becomes the standard). Besides, I’m looking at this current TV purchase to be one that holds me over for 2-4 years rather than the TV I purchase for the rest of my life.

My plan right now is to go to Costco and pickup a 32 inch Vizio LCD TV.  Vizio is basically a no name brand company that makes cheap flat screen TVs.  Between them and Westinhouse (another no name company that co-opted the Westinghouse tag) they have nearly a quarter of the flat screen TV market.  Costco lists a 32 inch Vizio at about $600. On Craigslist, people try to sell their brand name 32 inch (and smaller) LCD TVs for any range between $500-$1000. The problem is flat screen TV prices have come down so much that people offering their “old” LCDs for half of the purchase price are being outpriced by new TVs.