Does price matter anymore?

[Franc Zabkar]

You'd have to have some pretty unique vinyl to need to transcribe it
these days. Even most of the really obscure music I had on LP appears
on CD these days.

http://www.mikefs.co.uk/HBGB.html

- Franc Zabkar

 

[b]

http://www.mikefs.co.uk/HBGB.html

- Franc Zabkar

somewhere I still have the 7" of 'meaningless songs'. A classic!
If I recall, it had some kind of send up of 'you should be dancin' on
the b side which was also good.

-b.

 

[mc]

You'd have to have some pretty unique vinyl to need to transcribe it
Not all! Not by any means!

 

[Michael Kennedy]

I guess I haven't seen too many APC units. Those units you mentioned must

be the exception rather than the rule....

Nope
All of the APC SmartUpses can be used without line power and the older non
smart ones that have a test button can be started without AC line power. You
just have to hit the test button and turn the power on. I used one for this
during all of the hurricanes here in Florida. I had it hooked up to 2 car
batteries and it lasted a long time..

- Mike

 

[Franc Zabkar]

Not all! Not by any means!

Indeed. My father could die before any of his beloved 100+ polka LPs
are re-released on CD.

- Franc Zabkar

 

[Travis Jordan]

All of the APC SmartUpses can be used without line power and the
older non smart ones that have a test button can be started without
AC line power. You just have to hit the test button and turn the
power on. I used one for this during all of the hurricanes here in
Florida. I had it hooked up to 2 car batteries and it lasted a long
time..

Thanks, Mike - I'll go whip up that 12VDC power cord after all.

 

[Mike Berger]

Ok, that's pretty unique. And I'll bet Rhino releases it sometime!

 

[[email protected]]

Thanks, Mike - I'll go whip up that 12VDC power cord after all.

And btw, if it is the type that can't be started without line power,
take some kind of a small alternator, which generates something near
120V, hook it up to the UPS - then just crank it running! Reported to
be working

 

[David Nebenzahl]

Mike Berger spake thus:

* The Salvation Army used to train people in TV and appliance repair.
Those programs disappeared a few years ago. So now they require that
donations be in good working condition.

When did they ever do that? My guess is never.

Maybe in some larger cities, yes. But certainly not out in the boonies.

I worked at the S.A. store in Flagstaff, Arizona in the 1980s. We
repaired NOTHING. If it wasn't saleable coming in, it got shitcanned.

 

[Chris F.]

Mike Berger spake thus:


When did they ever do that? My guess is never.

Maybe in some larger cities, yes. But certainly not out in the boonies.

Depends on the disposable fees. In some cities, like a previous poster said,
they'd be charged commercial disposal fees. In the nearby city of Moncton,
NB, the commercial rates are about $75 / ton. So that averages about $3 - $5
a set, which adds up if they get several dozen duds dropped off every year
(or month).
Maybe if they started charging all consumers high disposal fees for TV's,
more people would start getting their old sets fixed. Well, that or they'd
just start dumping them in the woods..........

 

[Mike Berger]

Then your guess is wrong.
I don't know when they STOPPED doing it, but they were still doing
it in the 70's.

 

[Mark D. Zacharias]

Then your guess is wrong.
I don't know when they STOPPED doing it, but they were still doing
it in the 70's.

Our local Salvation Army and DAV stores now only accept TV's in working
order. Not so sure about junk audio stuff.

Mark Z.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

The cost of replacement parts exceeds the value of the equipment in many
cases.

I'm throwing away a perfectly usable 300w APC UPS because the cost of a
new battery (yes, even on eBay) is greater than what it costs me to buy
a new UPS at Staples.

"Interstate Battery" has a halfway decent price, and I can have the
distributor drop them off at a local tire shop that sells their car
batteries if I prepay. They make a delivery once a week, so its almost
as fast as mail order. I have seven here that need batteries but I only
buy them as I need them. Also if you do a search for the battery number
you might be surprised by the price of new batteries. Just make sure
they have the right sized terminals. The APC units I've got all use the
..250" Faston terminals, but some batteries come with the smaller 0.1875"
Faston terminals and won't handle the higher current.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

And what about AM Broadcast Band radio? Any future for that? FM also?

Goes against the grain to have to 'pay' a monthly subscription to listen to
satellite radio etc.

If some broadcaster 'wants' me to listen they can attract by making it free
for whenever, or if, I wish to turn it on!

I'll even tolerate 'some' commercials; although on TV the existing 20
minutes per half hour of programming versus 9 minutes of
announcements/commercials (not including the channels that are ALL
selling/advertising!) for which I pay either the cable or satellite company
are becoming a bore. i.e. very little on worth watching and it is constantly
interrupted by said advertising; often the same advert several times each
hour. Bah, humbug.

Less on shortwave now too!

However: One of the more interesting is that CBC (Canadian Broadcasting
Corp.) Radio One, (basically CBCs 'Home Service' for each of the regions of
this huge country, after about midnight Eastern Time, carries half hour
items from various networks around the world (in English). These typically
include Holland, Germany, Australia, BBC, Sweden, Poland and many others.
Often leave it on bedside radio at very low volume until 6.00 AM (local
time) next morning, when it reverts to local broadcasting. CBC is available
on the internet at < www.cbc.ca/ > which itself is a sign of the times.

Cheers.

You pay the CATV or Sat company to deliver the programming, and they
have to pay for most of what they carry.

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

I'm throwing away a perfectly usable 300w APC UPS because the cost of a
new battery (yes, even on eBay) is greater than what it costs me to buy
a new UPS at Staples.

I'm not sure which APC 300w UPS model you have, but batteries are
cheap enough if you know where to look:
| http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-b...SEALED_LEAD-ACID_BATTERY,_W__WIRE_LEADS_.html

However, I know what you mean. My favorite source of UPS's is the
battery recycling pile at the local dump. People throw away the
entire UPS rather than extract the batteries and seperate them between
batteries and scrap steel. Also, the local Batteries Plus store had a
fairly large pile of assorted UPS's with either dead or missing
batteries. They offered me a deal, where if I would purchase the
replacement batteries, they would give me the UPS. Unfortunately,
their battery prices were only a little better than a new UPS (with a
warranty), so I declined. I eventually ended up with three BackUPS
1400 UPS's without batteries. The remainder of the pile ended up in
the recyclers steel scrap as nobody else wanted took the deal.

 

[Travis Jordan]

I'm not sure which APC 300w UPS model you have, but batteries are
cheap enough if you know where to look:

http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-b...SEALED_LEAD-ACID_BATTERY,_W__WIRE_LEADS_.html

The 12V 7AH battery for the APC BK300C is $22 delivered.

The replacement CYBERPOWER 485 VA UPS was $19.98 on sale at Staples,
including Florida's 7% sales tax the total price was $21.38. Still a
few cents cheaper, and a new, larger UPS to boot

However, I know what you mean. My favorite source of UPS's is the
battery recycling pile at the local dump. People throw away the
entire UPS rather than extract the batteries and seperate them between
batteries and scrap steel. Also, the local Batteries Plus store had a
fairly large pile of assorted UPS's with either dead or missing
batteries. They offered me a deal, where if I would purchase the
replacement batteries, they would give me the UPS. Unfortunately,
their battery prices were only a little better than a new UPS (with a
warranty), so I declined. I eventually ended up with three BackUPS
1400 UPS's without batteries. The remainder of the pile ended up in
the recyclers steel scrap as nobody else wanted took the deal.

Yep. If the battery distributiors (and their retailers) weren't so
greedy they'd have a much bigger market and there would be less waste in
this country. You'd think that someone would have figured that out by
now.

 

[Lee]

Yep. If the battery distributiors (and their retailers) weren't so
greedy they'd have a much bigger market and there would be less waste in
this country. You'd think that someone would have figured that out by
now.

Travis..... but batteries are heavy, so cost of shipping is a much
larger factor than in other products.
Regards
Lee in Toronto


Inviato da X-Privat.Org - Registrazione gratuita http://www.x-privat.org/join.php

 

[Travis Jordan]

Travis..... but batteries are heavy, so cost of shipping is a much
larger factor than in other products.

Um, the UPC that I just bought for $20 included one of those
batteries.....and Staples shipped it for free (on my business account).
If I wanted to buy just the battery at a local store I'd be paying $35
or more.

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

The 12V 7AH battery for the APC BK300C is $22 delivered.

The replacement CYBERPOWER 485 VA UPS was $19.98 on sale at Staples,
including Florida's 7% sales tax the total price was $21.38. Still a
few cents cheaper, and a new, larger UPS to boot

That's not fair. You're comparing a UPS on sale with a replacement
battery that never goes on sale. The regular price for the CyberPower
485 VA is $49.95 plus tax:
| http://www.staples.com/webapp/wcs/s...=621398&storeId=10001&ddkey=StaplesZipCodeAdd
If a customer dragged in a dead UPS, and I had to make the same
decision, the probability of finding a replacement UPS on sale or with
a $30 rebate is rather low. Faced with the same decision, and a
bargain replacement UPS, I probably would have bought the larger UPS.

I'm guilty of the same indiscretion. The 12V 7A replacement gel cell
I mentioned:
| http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/GC-1271
is "surplus". $10.50 plus about $8 shipping or $18.50. Not exactly a
valid comparison.

The same battery from:
| http://www.batterywholesale.com/battery-store/proddetail.html?prodID=547
is $15 plus shipping for a total of $22.

Yep. If the battery distributiors (and their retailers) weren't so
greedy they'd have a much bigger market and there would be less waste in
this country. You'd think that someone would have figured that out by
now.

Incidentally, 95% of all the 100 million lead-acid batteries (about 1
million tons of lead) in the US and Canada are recycled each year. The
percentage appears to be growing.

As for waste, I would like to know why a UPS that has never run off
the batteries for more than a few seconds, will kill those batteries
in 3-5 years. There's only one thing that can do that, and it's
overcharging. If the manufacturers would allow programmable recharge
rates and times, I suspect the battery consumption rate would be much
less.

 

[Travis Jordan]

That's not fair. You're comparing a UPS on sale with a replacement
battery that never goes on sale. The regular price for the CyberPower
485 VA is $49.95 plus tax:

Price is price. Batteries go on sale, too, but for whatever reason they
don't seem to be discounted as much as the devices that use them.

As for waste, I would like to know why a UPS that has never run off
the batteries for more than a few seconds, will kill those batteries
in 3-5 years. There's only one thing that can do that, and it's
overcharging.

Gel cells expire in a few years because the electrolyte degrades over
time... charged or not.