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Craigslist deal on a Plasma TV: Good, Bad or Ugly?
CoJoeTheLawyer
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Without getting into specifics, my brother-in-law is thinking of buying a 50' Panasonic plasma tv off of ye olde Craigslist. The advert is below:
pittsburgh.craigslist.org/ele/3386252379.html
Things I know that may help:
- The seller responded to 2 e-mails, said it was roughly 3 years old, no damage, almost out of warranty but worked perfect;
- Model is slightly older, but highly rated;
- Google didn't turn up anything shady on the seller's e-mail;
- He's texted a video of the tv working, and will have it on at his house for inspection;
- Likewise, nothing shady on a Google search of his phone # or address;
- Willing to go $450 on it. For a 50' Panasonic Plasma AND a bluray player, that's a decent bargain.
So, what does everyone think? Anything he should ask? Anything in particular he should look for when he inspects the tv? Should he avoid this like the plague?
Thanks in advance!
pittsburgh.craigslist.org/ele/3386252379.html
Things I know that may help:
- The seller responded to 2 e-mails, said it was roughly 3 years old, no damage, almost out of warranty but worked perfect;
- Model is slightly older, but highly rated;
- Google didn't turn up anything shady on the seller's e-mail;
- He's texted a video of the tv working, and will have it on at his house for inspection;
- Likewise, nothing shady on a Google search of his phone # or address;
- Willing to go $450 on it. For a 50' Panasonic Plasma AND a bluray player, that's a decent bargain.
So, what does everyone think? Anything he should ask? Anything in particular he should look for when he inspects the tv? Should he avoid this like the plague?
Thanks in advance!
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Posts
For $450 I'd go for the plunge if I had the extra cash. Worst case is you end up with a Blu-ray player.
Esh, good point, it appears the big issue for Panasonic Plasmas of that model was faulty power boards. It should be easy to tell if we turn it on/off and it gives the 2/10 red blinks of death. From what I can tell, realistic half life of a plasma is around 15,000 hours, so unless he's had it on 24/7/365 since he purchased it, it should be okay...
8bitorge, looks like it spent a good chunk of its life in a finished basement...
Honky, we checked all the major retailers to price-check...even used, that's a hell of a bargain for the 51' top-name plasma...closest comparison was $579 at Amazone warehouse.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/sectors/campaigns/include/hottestTvDeals.asp
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=br_lf_m_1000849071_grlink_2?ie=UTF8&docId=1000849071&plgroup=2
I wouldn't take the craigslist tv for free.
Not for free is a little much, but yeah, $400 for it with a lot of unknowns is risky. $400 is a good deal but it'd be better spent towards a new one with a warranty, OEM packaging, etc. If your brother just wants to take the chance, you could do worse on CL, but I'd shop for a deal this weekend.
There will be quite a large difference between a plasma from this year, and a plasma from 3 years ago, in regards to picture quality, not even counting the things new Panasonic come with, like wireless internet and apps and the 3Ds.
I absolutely mean I wouldn't take that tv for free. If it conks out in a month, its a pain in the ass to even throw away where I am. An electronics trash drop place thing refused to take a tv from my dad because apparently a 36" tv is too big to dispose of.
So it's a case of how much a out-of-warranty TV would be worth assuming it only has X months of life left in it.
My rule of thumb is 50% of New (assuming there isn't massive changes in performance/picture which shouldn't be the case for a 3 year old set). So find a Cyber Monday deal for an equivalent set, and divide by half (round up) and offer the owner that.
If he takes it, great! If not, oh well, save the money toward a brand-new set.
With regards to the cold math, currently a Panasonic 51' 1080 120htz plasma of a similar model runs $1,000 new "on-sale", which is on par with other top-tier brands. An off-name brand (if you can find one) runs around $900. He ultimately paid $420 for the tv, meaning he got it for less than half a new model. Assuming nothing catastrophic happens, he should be able to get about 3 years of use out of it before any notable loss of picture quality. It's a gamble, but he might come out on top.
Of course, it may fritz tomorrow, in which case I'll be starting a thread here titled "How To Dispose of a #$%&*!!! Plasma TV!"
Thanks everyone