Do we want to buy your old TV main or power or other boards? Find out!

The quick answer: yes, as long as they are valuable to us (rules out all tube and projection TVs) and we get them dirt cheap, preferably free.
For the long answer read below.
 
With new TV prices breaking new lows every quarter and economy in a happy bubble again (the US deficit at an 8 year low, wooo, but still a deficit!) more and more TV repair shops around the country are closing doors.

Twice this week we received calls from people asking us if we want to buy old boards from them.

The first was definitely a TV repair shop that closed doors while the one today did not say the source, only said the following:

"I HAVE SOME POWER SUPPLY BOARDS THAT I'D LIKE TO SELL. DO YOU BUY MAIN OR POWER SUPPLY BOARDS? THANK YOU. "

Well I do not know how good of a businessman I am. 

I guess I am ready to assume not the best one since I do not put profit on top and do not look at every opportunity to maximize profit.

But I've gone through enough similar questions and, without any means of offense, here's my two cents:

Solicitations like this one to buy their overstock/liquidation/about-to-be-trashed boards rarely ever end up with an actual deal.

Unless the offering party is a professional liquidator, in which case the approach looks differently, it quickly gets to a discussion about what is what what and that can drag for way too long to be worth the few or more boards one would acquire.

Then there's the uncertainty in the buyer about whether those boards really what the seller says they are; the buyer usually needs to assume worst case scenario, especially in an unsolicited offer like that, and in my limited opinion, they better do that.

Of course a honest and well technically educated person has all the right to be on the opposite opinion if they know the source and quality of their boards.

But since people are not equipped with a character and quality judging devices - at least I know I am not and none of the people around me is - we can't tell good from bad and educated from truly believing in what they say. Let alone the con artists.

So, bottom line, if you are an individual or even a TV service shop closing doors...my advice is this:

1) Make a good inventory list of what you have: part numbers and quantity at the very least, working condition if you can.

2) If you want to make the most out of your list start selling them by yourself on eBay, Amazon or wherever else you may see fit; that is the ONLY way to get anywhere close to what they'd be worth to an end customer.

3) If you want to sell to another business , then my advice is to decide how you want to sell them, i. e. as a whole lot or individual lots, e.g. main boards and power boards or Toshiba parts versus Samsung parts.
There are pros and cons to each approach and as usual your best revenue would be somewhere in between one whole lot for one limp sum (little effort, quick sale, low profit) and too many individual lots (more profit, but also more time and more effort).

The decision for that better be yours, though.

4) Make a list of the potentially interested parties; it can be as little as one, but it best be above 4-5; the more the better, only your time and will to add more should limit the number.

5) Make a listing for the lot(s) along with the inventory list on eBay or other auction site and THEN send a message to all interested parties.
Set the starting price LOW to avoid pushing buyers off; if there's a real interest and real competition they'd bid over each other and you'd get fair market price.

Note this does not put any of your buyers at an advantage or disadvantage to others; and you will end up getting a fair market value at the end.

That is, this approach saves the whole process of individual negotiation and waste of time between you and a single potential vendor.

God knows I am not the biggest fan of what eBay has grown to be; but the simple fact is that public bidding is an efficient and valuable tool when it comes to liquidation.