Question about valuable part in neck of picture tube

[jimdagys]

I noticed that every time when a crt TV is put out on the curb, in a short time someone comes along and efficiently breaks the back of the tv, and breaks the neck of the picture tube, supposedly to harvest some valuable part. My question is: what part are they getting and how much money is each one worth? Is there any info on the web about this phenomenon?

[johns0]

There's no value in doing that,just vandals.

[jimdagys]

I have to disagree with you on the vandals part. Every tv has exactly the same treatment. Vandals would be more random. Vandals don't work in the cold rain. There is a highly efficient syndicate doing this.

[aedipuss]

the end of the tube houses the electron gun. it's not worth anything. big risk of electrocution though from the huge capacitors connected to it.

from wikipedia -

CRTs are considered a type of electronic waste, but are generally regarded as one of the hardest type to recycle.[53] The main problems associated with the disposal of a CRT come from their relatively high concentration of lead and phosphorus, both of which are necessary for the display. There are several companies in the United States that charge a small fee to collect CRTs, then subsidize their labor by selling the harvested copper, wire, and printed circuit boards. Leaded CRT glass is sold to get remelted into other CRTs, or even broken down and used in road construction.

[Noahtuck]

Well if you are so sure of why they do NOT do it, then tell us why they do ?

A CRT tube is vacum sealed, there is nothing of value inside of them or the "neck" of them except the "guns" and it's not like they are of great value or there is any huge market for CRT guns to be taken and sold to the manufacturers of CRT tubes.
LOL!!!

And i am not aware of any precious metal inside of them.

I have seen literally 1000's of CRT tv's, if not 100's of thousands, and the only time, very few, i have ever seen them broken, it was me and my friends (30 years ago) just being vandals because they were not worth crap and it was fun to see them implode!!
LOL!!

We also would throw a brick or rock into the front of the tube to see and hear it implode.

[guns1inger]

All TV tubes are filled with pixie dust and rainbows, and this is what they are after. Or perhaps not : http://www.ehow.com/about_5380973_parts-cathode-ray-tube.html

Honestly, vandals is the most likely reason. Perhaps breaking them in a particular way gets the best effect.

[Noahtuck]

All TV tubes are filled with pixie dust and rainbows, and this is what they are after.

HEY!!!!!!
Some of us need pixie dust to survive!!!!!!
Otherwise we wither up and die!!!!!!!

[levick]

Are they taking the copper frame and field windings?

[jimdagys]

I'll have to put out a tv and wait for someone to do it and observe what they do and (maybe) ask some questions. I'll report back here when I get some info.

[Noahtuck]

Are they taking the copper frame and field windings?

Copper frame ?

From what ?
I have never seen any copper frame inside of any CRT tv.

[jimdagys]

Here is picture. Maybe they are taking several things.

[johns0]

I've worked on tvs for years and the only thing worth anything on the crt type are the copper windings and that isn't much,no reason to break other than kicks(sorry for the pun).

[Noahtuck]

Well if they were stealing "copper", from that photo, they left the majority of it behind!!!

LOL!!!

And that's not much!!

[edDV]

My guess, the copper deflection coils.

[netmask56]

Never seen this "phenomena" recently in Sydney (well maybe 20 years ago) - when I put my ancient Nordmende CRT out on the nature strip it was gone within 30 minutes - I live in a suburb that is a mix of high rise and Federation style single story dwellings and over the last 3 years I think everyone has chucked their CRT TV's and they simply go? alien abduction? or more likely the local council rangers..? But never vandalised... some of the high quality stuff is amazing - a really good quality genuine leather lounge suite with hardly a blemish was across the road from my place a few days ago ...... for a few minutes!

[redwudz]

The degaussing coil by the tube face and the deflection coils around the CRT neck have some quantity of copper wire. Breaking the neck to remove the deflection coils is a possibility.

Copper has a fair bit of market value at the moment and they break into construction projects around here all the time to steal it. I've also seen people stripping the wiring out of abandoned cars to obtain the copper. They throw it into a burn barrel to remove the plastic. The air pollution people usually ticket them for that.