Is this possible?

[JimOttley]

More of a business idea really. I got the idea when I stayed in different hotels and saw that the TV's were prehistoric. I asked Maria's dad how much small sized second hand telly's were in the Phils and I think he said about 5,000 peso's. I might have got that wrong though.

With people in the UK upgrading to the new TV's, the old types which nobody longer wants are now going for peanuts over here. Just thought there may be an opportunity if the shipping costs weren't too high.

New CRT's can be got for 3000 peso, but yes second hand goods are often irrationally priced in the Phils, at least by our idea of a second hand market, so you might get people willing to pay 70 quid for a second hand TV.

You would be looking at filling a whole container though in order to make the shipping economic but even then I doubt you could pack enough in to offset the cost of the container, the Uk costs and customs fee's at the other end.

Certainly old TV's can be extremely cheap these days, I rented mine for years and then bought it for 50 quid a few years ago, big 32inch monster of a thing must weigh over 40 kilo, so it's big heavy and not worth much.

Just a guess but I think the margins would be pretty lean by the time you factor in all the costs.

And just a personal opinion but hotel tele's tend to be prehistoric everywhere, I virtually lived in hotels for 8 years (well 100 days a year or more) and I've never seen anything fancy even in the good hotels In the Phils the hotel owners have limited margins and the main reason they don't update stuff is that it is good enough, they really don't want to spend any more than they absolutely need to.

[Ako Si Jamie]

You would be looking at filling a whole container though in order to make the shipping economic but even then I doubt you could pack enough in to offset the cost of the container, the Uk costs and customs fee's at the other end.

I was thinking that.

In the Phils the hotel owners have limited margins and the main reason they don't update stuff is that it is good enough, they really don't want to spend any more than they absolutely need to.

......and it's not just TV's
Go to the bar/restaurant in the Bakasyunan Resort in Iba to get all the proof you need

[JimOttley]

I was thinking that.

Thinking about it again (mind experiment) if you were going for small 15 inch CRT models a 20 foot container could fit about 17 by 6 by 6 at a very rough guess that's 612 units. If you could pick them up at 5 to 10 quid each say 7.50 each then that's £4,590 quid base investment.

A lot of running around later you would have a container full ready to ship, lets guestimate a selling price of 2500 peso each in the second hand market assuming they are A class condition and that 90% survive the journey then the return could be £19,600.

Then you have contacts and distributors and security over there to organise plus import duty etc. but there is quite a lot of margin to play with potentially, I might change my mind on this one it might not be crazy after all

PS again the issue would be that older CRT's might not be NTSC compatible.

[Ako Si Jamie]

Thinking about it again (mind experiment) if you were going for small 15 inch CRT models a 20 foot container could fit about 17 by 6 by 6 at a very rough guess that's 612 units. If you could pick them up at 5 to 10 quid each say 7.50 each then that's £4,590 quid base investment.

A lot of running around later you would have a container full ready to ship, lets guestimate a selling price of 2500 peso each in the second hand market assuming they are A class condition and that 90% survive the journey then the return could be £19,600.

Then you have contacts and distributors and security over there to organise plus import duty etc. but there is quite a lot of margin to play with potentially, I might change my mind on this one it might not be crazy after all

PS again the issue would be that older CRT's might not be NTSC compatible.

So you're looking at least a 300% return on investment?

Is there anyway of making these CRT's compatible?