I have a February 2006 build 60" Sony SXRD XBR1 that I bought in April. I have been very satisfied with it, especially having had none of the problems mentioned in the main thread. It is still in pristine condition. However due to the type of videogames I like to play (very frame specific), I now know I should have waited for the XBR2 to be released to have true 1080P. The slight lag in 1080P games is more than I can be fully happy with (1080i signal upconverted to 1080P by the XBR1).

Rather than debate about coulda woulda shoulda, can some of you with experience in this situation tell me the best way for me to upgrade to a 60" SXRD XBR2? Are there any electronic shops that accept trade ins for a good value, or is my best bet to isolate a separate sell and purchase? Any upgrade programs offered by Sony perhaps? I'd pay the difference if possible.

If anyone has some good ideas for me to look into, I'd appreciate it.

not sure that tvs are like cars and you can just trade in....I suppose you could sell on ebay and insist on a local pickup to avoid the shipping charges on such a large product..

Good luck...

Another option is to donate it. There is just not much of a market for old electronics.

Sell it to a friend, advertise and sell it locally, or EBay auction. Whichever way you'll be lucky to get 50% of your money back.

EBAY and friends are your best bet. Otherwise just keep it and buy the XBR2. That's what I'm planning on doing.

Sell it to a friend, advertise and sell it locally, or EBay auction. Whichever way you'll be lucky to get 50% of your money back.

Yeah, sell it to a friend or family member this way after somethin goes wrong they can blame you.

I sold a brand new Toshiba 42" CRT RPTV to a good friend parents in 2000. In 2005 they had to get some repairs and have the rptv clean (they have it sitting directly on carpet) and paid $250. After 5 years they complained that I sold them a lemon. They don't remember that at that time Sears was selling that same set for $1295 and I gave them the set for $850 with free set-up.

So even with the $850 + $250 they still paid less then sears.

So either sell it locally to a non-friend or seller beware.

Another option is to donate it. There is just not much of a market for old electronics.

That's the hard truth. When HD becomes more mainstream and there's more HD content available, I can see an organized market developing, but not now.

One problem is that the word has gotten out that early RPTVs have lots of expensive problems, starting with premature failure of expensive lamps. It would be easy to pay $1000 for a used RPTV and promptly have to spend as much again in repairs. More recent ones are better, so I think this will gradually change, but not yet.

This situation is common among new generations of complicated equipment, personal computers for example.

I appreciate everyone's comments. I'll try and sell it for hopefully $1750 or more then buy the new one. I'll post the final results here.

There are places that do trade-ins. Not the big retail chains but the local chains or single store electronics places. Examples would be Ken Crane's or Paul's TV in the LA area. Never done it myself but I have seen it mentioned in their newspaper ads. Don't know where you live but there's bound to be someone in the nearest metro area who can do this.

Ken Crane is five minutes from me! Thanks, I'll go ask them about it.

Just curious - any update on your experience to sell? I am trying to sell mine too, and not been having much luck at the price points I was hoping for :-) I got the 70XBR2 a couple of weeks back.

I think that big items (that are bulky & hard to ship) and especially ones like electronics (not to mention modern big TV/Displays) that wear over time, are things that are somewhat difficult to sell on ebay. I know I would be very leary of buying a used TV via ebay unless it was a local seller in my area that would allow me to come see it in person to check it out first hand.

So I might list it on ebay as a local pickup item only, BUT with an item like that I would definitely try local advertising options like your local paper's classifieds and craigslist.org. If you live in a metro area that has its own locale on craigslist (atlanta, austin, boston, chicago, dallas, denver, houston, las vegas, los angeles, miami, minneapolis, new york, orange co., philadelphia, phoenix, portland, raleigh, sacramento, san diego, seattle, sf bay area, wash dc. - plus they also do listings by state), then you'd have a fairly good base of people that could see your ad. And craigslist is free to use - where ebay gets a few dollars for each listing - even ones that don't sell. Of course you also don't have all the protections that ebay has. But if you ask for cash only at pickup, then you wouldn't have that problem as a seller. That's how I just sold some old furniture of mine using craigslist. Sold it in a few days time and with no listing fees, it was all pure profit!! :cool: