The Big Blue Radio is the 57” widescreen projection TV that was in our living room. My Mom bought it in late spring 2003. She only got to enjoy her huge TV for a few months before she passed in September, but she loved that TV!
I inherited the TV and it came to Toledo with me in March 2007. David and I enjoyed the picture that was really too big for the room it was in, but we watched many baseball and football games on it, including the Red Sox winning the World Series in 07 and the Giants and Patriots in the Super Bowl in 2008. Then the blue lines started to appear, a prelude to the picture tube dying. After the tube died, the audio was great, but it was just a blank blue screen, thus the Big Blue Radio.
The Big Blue Radio took a huge truck to get it to Ohio and three men to get it into the house. David and me getting it out of our home on our own wasn’t going to happen. Even with help moving it, it wasn’t going to get anywhere strapped to the roof of a Camaro! Even David’s sport utility didn’t have the room to transport it.
So, it sat there. We had a small TV on my cedar chest hooked up to the cable and the Big Blue Radio stood next to it collecting dust. We had no idea how to get rid of it. It was over the weight limit for garbage pick-up for a TV and it would have been very expensive to rent a truck to take it somewhere. It was a huge, non-functioning, piece of furniture taking up space in our living room.
Last night, after a last call to the city to try to get it removed if we could wheel it out, David suggested putting it on Craig’s List. “Free to a good home.” Well, free to ANY home!
I posted it in the Toledo free section this morning and had an email box with about 8 offers to come and get the TV. The first email was from someone hoping there was some kind of working picture on the TV but the second email was from someone who works with TVs, broken ones that need work. He came over this evening, around 8:30. David helped him get the Big Blue Radio out of the house and into his waiting van. The he helped David bring the TV that we brought from Grandma’s out of his SUV and into the house. Very cool reciprocal aid!
Gotta love the Internet for this. Yes, this type of transaction must be done with care! I used my “extra” email address in my ad and didn’t offer a phone number until a few emails were exchanged and I was sure the move was going to happen. It turned out that the man and his wife who claimed the TV were very kind and also grateful for the free TV. We were equally grateful for free removal of it!
In the end, our east side of town neighbor got a TV to fix up and sell, and the Big Blue Radio is still worth some money as a working TV if he has any luck with fixing it. We finally get the broken TV that was too big for the room out of our living room without having to pay movers or disposal fees. And we got the new TV moved into the house for free!
The Internet rocks!
1 comment:
Back a while, we used to call that sort of thing "bartering." Well, at least a form of bartering. We all enjoyed this system very much, even though Uncle Sam wasn't too thrilled with the idea of not getting his share of taxes from it all. (That was a plus, no money spent and no extra taxes paid for products and services.) Bartering is definitely a fun way to do things. You have a great day now. Hugs, Edna B.
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