Is repairing monitors/TV's really a viable business? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: justanothercanuck
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2012, 06:14:58 am
content: I'm sure we've all dumpster-dived a monitor or three and replaced the capacitors in them... I've been known to fix CRT TV's in the past as well, but I've been thinking about it... Is it really a viable business to repair this stuff? Sure, I could dumpster-dive a whack of monitors, fix them up and sell them on ebay or something, but it doesn't sound all that profitable... despite the fact that a capacitor costs like 10 cents, and a new monitor costs like $150+.Ideas?

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2012, 06:41:36 am
content: Not with the price of new being so low. you need a big investment in tools, parts and such to fix the more obscure ones. It can work as a sideline if you can get a good stock of tossed ones for free or cheap, and then run an eBay store with them for local sale, though you will need remotes, somewhere to store them and to run the repaired ones for a day or two to check them.

author: Harvs
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2012, 07:08:27 am
content: Problem I see is it's only the 24"+ variety that's worth that kind of money. Anything less you can pick up for around $100 at my local computer store.So what's the market? The average consumer over here will replace the 2-3yr old monitor with a new larger one when they upgrade a pc, meaning the smaller lcds are being given away now. And that's perfectly good working ones. So unless you can find the larger modern displays being tossed (24+) I don't really see how you could sell them.

author: justanothercanuck
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2012, 07:17:30 am
content: Didn't think so, was just throwing it out there... it just sucks to see all this stuff wind up in a landfill because of some cheap capacitors.

author: SgtRock
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 31, 2012, 08:22:40 am
content: Dear Canuck:--I agree that it could be a good side line, if you have a plentiful source and plenty of room for projects. I also would recommend you expand your repertoire to include anything and everything that is portable, obtainable, repairable and profitable.--I fix anything and everything from TVs and Monitors to Washers and Welders. I just repaired a Panasonic 50" Plasma (with good advice from Tom66). It originally cost about $1200, and I replaced a board for $40, and gave it to my brother for Xmas. I gave my buddy a 32" Westinghouse LCD. I am using a 36" Olevia LCD for a monitor, very easy on my old eyes. I, like Dave, have repaired LCD monitors, stacked to the ceiling. Often they are not valuable enough to sell on eBay, so I just give them to friends or donate them to charity. My repair failures have actually been much more profitable than my successes. I have done quite well, parting out TVs and Microwave Ovens, particularly the later models. I have not made a great deal of money, but I have made enough to support my hobby and to buy some very good "for repair" instruments. I have another very small side line in Fluke DMMs.--It is a good way to learn something, help people, and make a few dollars. You can find out almost anything you need to know on the Web. And, very good advice is available here or at some of the the other blogs, like Badcaps.net."We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid."Benjamin Franklin 1706 - 1790Best RegardsClear Ether

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2012, 08:23:16 am
content: It can be worth buying non working LCD/Plasma TV or monitors when they appear for under $5 on auction sites.Even if only 1 in 3 are easily fixable you can make enough money selling them to cover the dead ones while still making some profit.

author: retiredcaps
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2012, 09:13:25 am
content: Quote from: SgtRock on December 31, 2012, 08:22:40 amThere are a handful of us, including the mentioned tom66, over at badcaps.net that like to do component level repair. We hate seeing stuff thrown away if it can be fixed. None of us get paid to do so and are all volunteers.Despite the website name, we are more knowledgeable than just simply replacing badcaps. Over the last 18 months, more and more people are showing up at the website due to TV problems. We rarely get a simple cap problem nowadays.

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2012, 10:36:38 am
content: Quote from: justanothercanuck on December 31, 2012, 06:14:58 amEven worse, it is not uncommon that people give perfectly working stuff away. I currently have two 16:9 flat screen TVs and one 4:3 computer monitor in my possession which were all just given to me in the last few month. They are all gaining dust, they are all out of fashion. I have no use for them. No one in the family, friends, colleagues want them, not even a local charity.The first TV is an old analog TV only, additional VGA interface, no proper letterbox / pan-scan / stretching build in, an annoying interface and ugly colors. No one wants that. The second TV has an analog/digital tuner, but no DVB-CI. No one wants that. The computer monitor has VGA only, no one wants that.They are now earmarked for going to the landfill.QuoteI fear it isn´t. When people give away working ones for free and still find no taker you have to specialize on the very exclusive, very expensive stuff.

author: TorqueRanger
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2012, 12:27:18 pm
content: I repair T.V.'s on the side and it not really worth the aggravation because you have to deal with shipping and problems when the person buy's it and now says it has a problem.. The stuff I repair is for myself and possible family members if they need something and I can help out and it won't cost that much to fix...

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2012, 12:33:40 pm
content: Doing it as a service for customers - no - total nightmare as they will expect repairs for a small fraction of replacement cost.Picking up stuff very cheap/thrown away & fixing it up - maybe, as you can focus on easy fixes and throw away anything that's not an easy fix.A lot depends on where you are in the world, cost of items locally, availability of throw-aways and ease of getting parts, and consumer law relating to second-hand sales, liability etc.

author: TorqueRanger
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2012, 01:15:59 pm
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on December 31, 2012, 12:33:40 pmAlso how to get rid of the broken ones without costing alot ....

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2012, 01:44:35 pm
content: Quote from: TorqueRanger on December 31, 2012, 01:15:59 pmAgain that is very dependent on where you are - if you have a local dump (sorry, recycling centre) that takes it then that solves that problem. Smaller stuff can be ebayed as faulty.

author: JonnyBoats
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2012, 02:44:42 pm
content: In addition to where you are and availability of free and or low cost items to repair; also consider who you are.For a EE professional with a good job in the USA it is most certainly not worth quitting your day job to pursue. For someone in High School looking for a learning experience and a change to make some money for college it is probably and excellent opportunity. Similarly for a retired person looking for supplemental income.Couple this with a desire to help your neighbors and keep items out of landfills and it can be quite rewarding.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2012, 02:49:32 pm
content: your target customers are mostly in 3rd world country (poorer ppl like us who cant afford to buy the 2nd unit at full price), we have few repair shops here the products are piling up infront their shop. imho the most important thing in this business is money per hour you can squeeze, meaning how good, competent, experienced and how quick you are at repairing stuffs, capable of spotting very quickly if the device is unfeasibly unrepairable and reject it back to customers quickly etc. otherwise you'll waste time hence lose money. on the good side, this is minimal investment all you need are already there in your lab normally like most of us have, you also can expand the repair service to other products type, player, radio washing machine etc with almost zero additional cost. and you can do it from home if you got the space, no extra farting furnitures that you normally see in brick and mortar shop. but as other people said, its not suitable in your developed country. another niche for this repair stuff market is if you can find brand companies that provide warranty service, they usually will be looking for competent and probably "cheap" repairer for their returned products. my 2cnts.

author: jancumps
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 31, 2012, 03:15:12 pm
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on December 31, 2012, 01:44:35 pmOver here (Belgium) recycling centres don't accept your consumer electronics if you run a business. Businesses have to dispose them via certified private recycling companies.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2012, 04:52:00 pm
content: Quote from: jancumps on December 31, 2012, 03:15:12 pmThat's probably true in many places, however the difference is in how well they try to tell if a user is a private individual or a businessI find rainy days and lunchtimes are good times to go to the dump with things like casings off x-ray machines...

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 31, 2012, 05:45:34 pm
content: Perhaps your business model should be that you offer to collect bad monitors and TVs from people who'd rather not have them in a land-fill. Then you fix them and resell them. Or even offer some kind of consignment deal where when it does sell, they get a small part of the profit.If you can get monitors for free and sell them for 1/2 of a retail replacement cost, you might do ok.I recently paid about $95 to get my main TV, a 5 or 6 year old Sharp 30" digital CRT recapped because it died to a single dot on the screen. I felt it was worth it because it fit my entertainment center perfectly and all the LCD tvs I looked at had a stand that they sat on which limited the size of TV I could buy and were going to be about 100 to 200 more than fixing my TV. I don't have a bluray player and don't have cable TV so having an HDTV wouldn't benefit me much. TV reception is bad here so I can barely get any stations over the air anyway. Pretty much everything that I watch is over Netflix on my Wii which is also not HD so it ended up being the best solution for me and my small apartment.

author: twbranch
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2013, 01:51:28 am
content: I did it for awhile as a side biz. Bought them for pennies and repaired them and made a decent profit. I think it is dried up here now. I haven't bought one since summer.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2013, 02:49:10 am
content: I have done, so far, 40 LCD/plasma/monitor repairs, over a 2 year period.I buy LCD and plasma TVs for around £1/inch, find the fault, fix them, and sell them on, for around £150~£200 each.It's a nice healthy profit each time, helps to pay the rent, but doesn't by any means replace a real job -- no way it provides enough income. It's more of a hobby, and quite a thrill, to take something otherwise broken to someone, and fix it.Started when I saw a nice looking 42" LG at the local tip. Paid the manager £20 for it, took it home, replaced four caps... that was our TV for about a year. Was only 720p, so found a 40" Samsung (1080p with 100Hz), which had three bad caps, that one cost £40, plus about 20 miles' fuel. Fixed a 50" NEC Plasma for my dad, turned out to be a shorted audio amplifier, so I just unplugged that and gave him a Yamaha 6.1 system (which I also fixed, same fault as Dave's amplifier, cost £30 including three speakers and a working separate subwoofer.) Student dorm is now blessed with a 32" Hyundai LCD, which had a shorted schottky on the output of the PSU, easily fixed, also replaced the crappy Samyoung caps to give it a longer life.So yeah, I'd say it's still a viable hobby, but not a business by any means. I'd never get into the profession of repairing other's equipment though. It appears to be a rip-off industry, but one by necessity, because hardly anyone bothers repairing stuff nowadays.

author: MikeK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 01, 2013, 03:58:01 pm
content: Quote from: justanothercanuck on December 31, 2012, 07:17:30 amOne of the big problems is that manufacturers don't pay an environmental cost for the pollution they create. If they had to do this, and pay decent wages everywhere, the cost of the product would go up and people would have more incentive to repair versus replace.