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Ah, finally a topic I know something about. In general, monitors and TVs were NOT shipped by common carrier. In the consumer realm, you went to the store to bu

Ah, finally a topic I know something about. In general, monitors and TVs were NOT shipped by common carrier. In the consumer realm, you went to the store to buy your TV or computer and brought it home in your station wagon, possibly bribing your neighbor with beer if you needed help with the big heavy boxes or just wanted some company for the ordeal. In the business realm, companies like IBM and Dell had (and still do) their own carriers that they contract with because it gives them more control over every part of the delivery process. That said, CRTs are not particularly fragile, they are just heavy and bulky. With enough Styrofoam, they ship just fine. I did it multiple times. It costs a lot more than you'd like, of course, but generally cheaper than a plane ticket. I was actually surprised when I learned for the first time that Amazon sold big LCD televisions. They are MUCH more fragile than a CRT on account of being a big pane of thin glass that's not allowed to bend or twist at all. I have to imagine the shipping loss rate of these is somewhere in the single digits at least.

CTOSian 2y ago
What I hated that time was exposure of the CRTs to magnetic fields while shipment. I remember I got some of them with a display like total crap then I had to travel back for replacement.. newer CRTs had degaussing built-in BTW
brudgers 2y ago
To add, + CRT's were usually shipped in bulk on pallets and that's how they would arrive in a big box store. So "This side up" and "Handle with Care" had meaning and until reaching store shelves forked jacks and lifts were used. Unlike today when a CRT will mostly be moved by hand alongside unfragile goods by someone who isn't paid to care. + Crating a used CRT is time consuming and requires more effort and experience than most sellers are likely to commit or have. The margins just aren't there when selling to price sensitive customers. It's probably $100 worth of work on top of the cost of shipping and whose going to pay that? For reference, manufacturers have engineers designing their shipping packages.

CTOSian 2y ago

What I hated that time was exposure of the CRTs to magnetic fields while shipment. I remember I got some of them with a display like total crap then I had to travel back for replacement.. newer CRTs had degaussing built-in BTW

brudgers 2y ago

To add, + CRT's were usually shipped in bulk on pallets and that's how they would arrive in a big box store. So "This side up" and "Handle with Care" had meaning and until reaching store shelves forked jacks and lifts were used. Unlike today when a CRT will mostly be moved by hand alongside unfragile goods by someone who isn't paid to care. + Crating a used CRT is time consuming and requires more effort and experience than most sellers are likely to commit or have. The margins just aren't there when selling to price sensitive customers. It's probably $100 worth of work on top of the cost of shipping and whose going to pay that? For reference, manufacturers have engineers designing their shipping packages.