Five Reasons Why Used TV Prices Should Be Even Lower

I mentioned this blog post on used TVs by Priceonomics a few times over the weekend, so wanted to post it here.

1) An old TV is worth less than nothing. If you have tried to get rid of a television recently, you may have been unpleasantly surprised to find out that you often have to pay to get rid of it, because there are so many toxic materials inside it. Best Buy will take any TV that is less than 32 inches, otherwise you may want to consider.
2) New TV prices just keep falling. Priceonomics showed that the average discount for used TVs is merely 14%. Unless your TV was bought in the last 30 days, some one can probably go on Amazon and buy the same TV for 20% less than what you paid, so I would start your pricing at 40% below what you paid.
3) TV demand is collapsing. I've met a lot of people in the past two years are 'cord cutters' who don't have cable tv and/or watch most of their video content on a laptop or an iPad.
4) 3D and Smart TVs aren't worth it. Most of the apps that your 'smart' TV may come with (Netflix, Hulu, YouTube) are a worse experience than the same service on a computer or iPad. A Roku costs $50 and adds 70-80% of the smart TV features. And 3D is pretty lame, as you have to pay extra for the channels, the glasses, etc. So anyone who bought a TV in the past three years is more or less fine for now.
5) Waiting on Apple. If Apple rolls out a TV this year, you can imagine people just dumping their TVs en masse.

If you are looking to buy a tv, I suggest checking out The Wirecutter for simple recommendations.

'G.I. Joe' Movie Delayed to Add 3-D

After the box office disappointments of 'Joe Carter' and 'Battleship', and with the oncoming onslaught of summer blockbusters like 'Avengers' and 'Dark Knight Rises', etc., you can imagine movie execs scrambling to avoid another failed blockbuster this summer.

According to Deadline, a big part of the decision was to add 3-D to the mix, which is more popular internationally than domestically. I've been really surprised to see how much globe trotting Will Smith has been doing to promote 'MIB3'. So it will be interesting to see how the latest installation does without 3-D.

The only 3-D movie I've ever seen was last year's 'Conan: the Barbarian' remake. As you can see, the international box office numbers were actually better than the (terrible) domestic numbers. Imagine how much worse those numbers would look if they weren't charging you those extra dollars for 3-D. You can see that 'Avengers' is sneaking up on 'Avatar' in the 3-D gross department, passing Toy Story 3. 

This likely also means next year will mean more Titanic 3D type re-releases.

Look at the numbers for 'Journey 2' ... blah.

Update: Supposedly the main reason they are reworking the movie is because of the rising star of Channing Tatum. Not sure which is a more ominous reason.

HT: Vulture