Mountain of TVs in the making

So, today my boyfriend picked up the first bit of the load of TVs that he is removing from a few storage units in a storage facility owned by a friend of his. The guy who was renting the units used to own a TV repair business until his wife died and he had a heart attack. Since then, he has fallen behind on the rent on the units and has been paying back what he can on the back rent from his limited income. He asked the storage unit owner to get rid of all the back stock he had in there so that he can actually make progress on paying off the amount owed. I guess this is a job that is equal parts scrapping and charity.

We were told that there were 4 units full of TVs, turns out there are only 3. The fourth unit only had 6 TVs inside of it, so it doesn't count. One full unit was emptied out today and toted into the side yard. You never really get the feel for how big a pile of things will be until you see it in person. I was anxious all afternoon at work after I got a text telling me that it took 3 trailer loads just to empty one unit. Yeah, he is kind of working with a smallish trailer, but still! I didn't manage to get over here until the sun was going down so I couldn't really get any good pics of the mountain. I will try to upload what pics I did get. Sorry for the poor quality. My phone has a decent camera when it has enough light to work with. I tried to keep the edge of the shed in the pics for size reference.

We got initial contact with a local scrapper who apparently has a way to part these out and make some bucks off them so we are waiting to hear back from him regarding further details. Things are moving slower than I'd like but I understand he is working on some big project so I am just trying to breathe lol. I know he will come through, he is pretty well established on here, I'm just crossing my fingers that no one from code enforcement comes peeking into the yard in the interim. My boyfriend is anxious about getting them from Point A to Point B as quick as possible. We don't have anywhere near the facilities required to store, break down, part out, mail and monetize this many TVs.





Just figured I'd share my first (of many, I'm sure) "OMG THAT IS A FRICKING HUGE PILE OF STUFF!!!" moments. Whee!

Yes, don't get caught storing those tv's on the ground, they can be outside but not on the ground. A friend of mine got 10,000.00$ fine for storing electronics on the ground. I don't know why anyone would not sell the brown (low grade) boards. Take the aluminum and the IC chips off and sell the rest of the board.You should get at least .20 cents per lbs.

Sent you a PM you never left me you phone number. Ill be clearing my garage out today to get these in there. Look forward to working with you.

I stopped by to look at the TVs before I stopped in at my mom's house and then headed back to my boyfriend's house and the pile has grown. On my way out, I met him coming back to his house with another trailer load of TVs. He said that there are still a few more loads to go and he only has until 7pm to load up before he has to call it a night and finish up tomorrow. I'm gonna do a few things over here before I walk back over to get dinner ready and probably assist in unloading the final trailer full for the night. I wrote off tomorrow from work in case I could be useful. Work is flexible, so if he decides I'd be more in the way than helpful, I can just go in to work like usual. We will see.

Here are the pics I got this afternoon, the pile is already bigger than this. He said we might wind up filling up the side yard and begin piling them in the backyard. There are SO many TVs! Current count is 156 TVs. Pics of the end of the day pile later.

My sentiments scrapperben. Did you guys make sure the TVs were complete? It may only take 5 minutes to disassemble a tv; but everyone seems to forget a few important facts. You have to handle each tv several times. You don't make your five bucks once.the guts are removed. You have to drive to get them, pick each one up, unload it, pick it up again for dismantling, pick it back up after dismantling and set it for holding or transport for disposal, which requires lifting every unit...again. after all that is said and done, no one ever seems to discuss the time it takes to break the yokes and cables down.

So five minutes per tv my left foot... Try tripling or quadruple that time per tv, when its all said and done, - your gas and transport costs. If an average tv is 50 lbs and you make 5 bucks you've only made shred price on something you've handled multiple times and had to spend time breaking down.

You are not being compensated for the tube weight and handling.
This is why I haul steel, not TVs.

Hey, $5.00 for 30 mins of a work is $10.00/hr...hehe.

What do you do with the waste afterwords? That would be great if I could find a place to get rid of the glass. Everywhere I looked they want to charge to take the lead infused glass.

Originally Posted by 47service

What do you do with the waste afterwords? That would be great if I could find a place to get rid of the glass. Everywhere I looked they want to charge to take the lead infused glass.

I think the very first thing you should do before you pick up the first TV would be to have your avenue for safely getting rid of the left-overs (plastic-tube) in place. Do your homework first that way if you don't find somewhere to take the leftovers then your not stuck paying to dispose of them. Why make $5. to pay $10. to get rid of?? Some counties have a recycling service available, Goodwill, Best Buy. I'm sure there's others available that we have talked about numerous times, it's all in the past posts. Couple of links that might help.

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...-monitors.html

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...scrapping.html

Originally Posted by greytruck

The Projection tv's are great but are a pain to handle and break down. But the reward is that they got that gold mirror chip in them

Whats the 'gold mirror chip'? edit. A EPROM with a gold window in it? Some mirrors are plated with a layer of gold over the silver layer.

The projection mirrors will be a 'Front silvered mirror'.
If the pic projection went onto a normal mirror, some of the light would be reflected off the top of the glass sheet, while most of the light will pass thru the glass, then get reflected off the silver mirror layer.
That would give the actual screen pic a interference pattern around the outlines. (hard to describe, sorry)