A Chinese electronics brand is reportedly selling “new” cathode ray tube televisions online, and it’s generating quite a bit of excitement for fans of the technology, which is popular with retro gaming fans.
Most retro gamers rely on the second-hand market to get ahold of CRT TVs, which are desirable because the pixel graphics of older games are rendered more realistically on such hardware. They also tend to last a hell of a lot longer than modern flatpanel TVs do, and they hold plenty of nostalgic appeal, too.
So TechRadar’s report that a Chinese firm called Goodwill is selling them as “new” TVs is intriguing. As the report explains, the listing was first posted on Reddit by a user called Parking_Constant_960, who revealed it’s selling “5.7-inch CRT mono units” and also appears to be producing them too.
The TVs cost 239 yuan, which equates to about £25.70, making them pretty damn cheap, although that price doesn’t include shipping costs, which we’d expect to add a fair bit to the overall cost.
After interacting with other Redditors, Parking_Constant_960 decided to reach out to Goodwill to ask about the CRT TVs, and he was told by an AI chatbot that they’re genuinely new products, and are currently in production. But others say the chances of them having newly manufactured CRTs inside is extremely remote.
As another Redditor called Silver_Towers pointed out, they’re most likely older CRT tubes housed in new TV casings. “No one on earth still manufactures tubes,” he wrote. “The infrastructure and equipment are gone, these are ALL old tubes and at best are in new housing."
Intrigued, Parking_Constant dug deeper and discovered that the company is also selling larger CRT TVs. He found and posted images showing dozens of them stacked on warehouse shelves. However, these are likely to be using older tubes too, Redditors say.
As TechRadar notes, the TVs are almost certainly made using “new old stock,” or NOS, which refers to original but unsold products that have been sitting in storage for years – if not decades. NOS is often used to manufacture electric guitars, which are somewhat coveted because they produce a different acoustic compared to newer models. It’s also common on the car parts market.
It seems that Goodwill is now using NOS in the TV market too, and it may be a smart move by the little-known Chinese firm. We can assume that the company somehow came across a large batch of old tubes sitting in a warehouse somewhere and was able to pick them up at an extremely low price, and it’s now targeting the still somewhat niche, but also growing, audience for retro-style televisions.
Parking_Constant_960 ultimately decided to order one of the “new” CRT TVs and promised to break it open and see what’s inside and clear the matter up once and for all. We’ll update this story if and when he updates the Reddit post in question.
If you’re a gamer and you’re desperately seeking a vintage CRT TV for your hobby, Goodwill’s TVs could be an interesting option. However, bear in mind that they won’t be nearly as cheap if you’re shipping them to Europe or the U.S., given that CRTs tend to be on the heavy side. Second-hand shops and car boot sales are probably a much better bet.
A more costly alternative could be the RetroBox, which uses a software emulator housed inside a stylish CRT TV/VHS hybrid machine to replicate the look and feel of legacy televisions.
