Inna Gotta da TV, Honey

Earlier this year, if you’ll recall, I ordered a 43 inch smart TV from Amazon and we ended up with a behemoth too big for our place. (In my husband’s opinion, anyway.) So we sold it for enough to pay off what we owed on the Amazon credit card, plus traded for a bigger TV than our then-32-inch screen in the living room. And all was roses and candy and…

Yeah, well, not exactly.

The Vizio TV we traded for was and is frankly one of the shittiest sets I’ve ever seen. The picture was dark and the color was never right. It still works, and the sound has always been good, but nothing could overcome a really bad picture. It’s not terrible for the kids’ shows, where everything is broadcast in eye-searing hues and over-brightness, but for regular viewing, it sucks.

A while back, the husband person and I agreed if we found a good TV deal at a yard sale we’d get it and get rid of the old one.

Then my computer replacement happened, and I figured that was the end of the TV scavenger hunt.

I got the new computer a couple of days ago and it’s a sweet machine. Still don’t have everything 100 percent moved over, but one thing I LOVE LOVE LOVE about this new laptop: the keyboard is 100 percent improvement over the old one. This one’s a writer’s keyboard. I slapped on a keyboard prophylactic to keep things pristine, and it still has the perfect balance of resistance and give. This thing’s gonna keep that period – and letter N, which is usually the first to go. Le sigh of contentment.

Today was among the last big days of the yard-sale “season” around here, which meant we went different directions to cover the most ground. The husband and his buddy go together in the buddy’s pickup while I head off to the second-tier communities in hopes of picking up an obscure score. I’ve had a lucky streak lately; not a lot of stuff, but things I regretted buying, things I thought were a big ol’ lose, but turned out to have been a good buy, after all.

Today was another of those days. A lot of little crap, a couple of “meh” deals, and I found a big-ish TV, a Samsung, which looked to be in excellent condition.

If you’ve been doing yard sales as long as the spousal unit and I have, you know where to trust when somebody says something works, and where to say, “Yeaaaaahhhh NO.” This was the former. Retiree, everything about him, his home, and his sale were spotless and organized. When he said the TV worked well, I believed him.

And I talked him down to $60 for a 46-inch Samsung. It’s an older TV, but one with good specs for its age. I figured for 60 bucks we could always sell one of our old TVs and make it back, so if it worked as well as he promised, we’d break even or maybe come out ahead.

The seller warned me the remote needed batteries, because he’d only used with the cable remote. He wasn’t kidding. I had to pry the battery compartment open and pry the old batteries out. One of them had exploded inside. It’s the worst I’d ever seen. I was picking out chunks of white corrosion crud with tweezers. In fact, I was so convinced the remote was toast, even after I cleaned it out with alcohol and a Q-Tip throughout the whole battery compartment (old radio trick), I went and bought a universal remote.

When we hooked up the TV to our Roku and plugged it into the power, the standby light came on.

Good sign!

When I hit the power button on the side of the unit the TV came on.

Score!!

And holy shit – the picture blew our old TV into Russia. (The Russians can keep it. Preferably somewhere in Siberia where they’re still using pre-HD televisions.)

Score again!!!

I grabbed the old remote – having put in batteries despite my doubts – and damned if the thing didn’t work like a champ.

What’s more, the husband was drooling over it. I was afraid he’d bitch it was too big. He didn’t want the 55 inch 4K beauty we got for a song, but after seeing the picture on this thing he decreed it was the find of the season. (He’s right.)

I think it must be a thing with men and numbers. Some kind of intimidation thing, or comparison thing. This is actually a good-sized TV, BUT – and this may have been the defining factor – it still fits our barrister-bookcase-cum-television-stand.

Pardon the dark pictures. It’s late here and tomorrow I go back to the grindstone again, therefore you get nuttin’ but night shots taken with my phone.

Dangerspouse, if you haven’t already discovered the joys and cash savings of cord-cutting, check it out. We’ve saved over $100 a month since cord-cutting, all-in. My husband’s only complaint now he’s gotten the hang of the Roku is that we didn’t do it sooner. I’m debating whether to stick with the Roku in the living room or spring for one of the Amazon sticks. I know they’re a whole lot faster – but also know I’d be giving up a lot of the freebie stuff I watch now on Roku. Not sure the Firestick has enough advantages to offset what its competition does.