19" Dell P990 Trinitron Monitor

I have a functioning 19" Dell P990 Trinitron CRT monitor that needs a new home.

 

I plan to post it on the SFBay craigslist. I would like to price it so that I neither I nor the purchaser is exploited. Can anyone offer me a sense of what is a fair price?

 

I'm selling because I have retinal issues and can no longer appreciate the subtlety of the monitor's quality image.

 

thanks

John

Unfortunately, unless you get someone who is TRULY a CRT enthusiast, you are not likely to get much more than a pittance for it.

 

I love good Trinitrons(especially True Flats like the P990), but the weight and size limits my use for them these days.

 

I follow CRT prices pretty closely, and the only one ones that get any significant attention are ones with oddball connectors...to the right person(I'd pay up for a bright SGI-branded 21" Trinitron with a 13W3 input and good colors) and the 24" widescreen Trinitron. The latter will bring $200+ all day, but it's the only CRT I know of that will reliably bring anything close to it.

 

As good as your 19" no doubt is, in all honesty 19" Trinitrons are a dime a dozen and I expect you'll never move it if you list it for $50. Drop it to $20 or $25 and you might get a taker. If it were a 21", you might be able to get $50.

 

Interestingly enough, don't focus just on photographers or graphics folks-some gamers go nuts over the refresh rates available from CRTs and will pay better than others for them, although there again at 19" it's going to get passed over by people holding out for a 21".

Thanks for the input.

I miss my Trinitron monitors. The clarity, color and sharpness were miles ahead of any other type of monitor that I saw. When I first looked at things on a laptop I thought, what's wrong? Things looked (and still look) fuzzy and low contrast, and their tonal range will block up pretty badly if not angled correctly. People say things have improved, but my eyes don't see it. Specification figures are meaningless if the monitors can't deliver the goods. Hopefully your monitor finds a new home. Unfortunately for you, what Ben wrote is true about prices. I paid $12 for my last one at a thrift store.

I "save" the good Trinitrons at work when I come across them(late Mitsubishi true-flat Diamontons are equally as good).

 

Since I'm also an unapologetic Apple collector, I keep my eyes open for the late Apple CRTs also. I hunted for a while for the 21" Apple Cinema display, which is a "flat" Trinitron(not a true flat-it's vertically flat but horizontally curved) and is beautiful. It and the 17" Apple Display Connector CRT remain my favorites. The latter is, IMO, even better as it uses a true flat Diamontron. It has the same 1600x1200 max as the 21" Trinitron, although obviously everything is smaller. Both of these monitors also have built-in color calibration, and I get the same results from using that as I do from using my Spider Pro 2.

 

As a side note, the Apple 21" Trinitron CRT(blueberry or graphite) is the 3rd heaviest Apple product ever made at a hair under 90lbs. It's just behind the 95lb Apple Network Server and ~110lb Xserve RAID.

 

Since I mess with SGI stuff at work, I try to grab SGI branded monitors wherever possible. AFAIK, all SGIs are Trinitrons(if your company has "graphics" in its name, it only makes sense to have the best monitors attached to them). Unfortunately, I junked a 21" SGI(with both VGA and 13W3) as it was almost uselessly dim and raising the B+ voltage-something that will sometimes milk a bit more life out-but it just gave me a moderately brighter screen with terrible color. I'm kicking myself over the 24" SGI Widescreen(there again, the only tube I know of that actually brings real money) that was gone before I could get a chance to go and grab it.

 

I do have a nice 21" Gateway Trinitron with VGA and BNC back in the corner of my office, although it's the vertical flat/horizontally curved tube.

 

A lot of folks who complain about CRTs have only ever used shadow mask CRTs, or used their screens at low refresh rates. An aperture grille CRT(Trinitron, Diamontron) running at 100hz+ is a thing of beauty.