Originally posted by: Marauder-
Eh - I personally would say that it's no longer worth it to purchase CRTs new at this price point. If you're aiming for CRTs, the used market for these things is ridiculous now since everyone is flocking towards the newer LCDs. I've had my Sony 21" FD Trinitron screen for ... I would say a little over two years and back then I paid $225 each (new) for the 3 I got. Earlier this year, I picked up another 21" Sun Monitor (business storage) that had the same FD Trinitron tube for $175. I really can't over emphasize that it would pay off to do some hunting in the used market. Heck , you'll probably end up w/ new or relatively new monitors!
What kind of Sony's were they? Because there's a huge difference between an E series and say, the GDM-F520. If you could get a GDM-F520 anywhere close to $225 that would be flaming hot. But if you picked up a crappy E series then it's not really a high-end 21" monitor.
And those Sun monitors are cheap because they're not very compatible I thought? Don't they need fixed frequency or something? I think the newer Radeons can handle those though luckily =)
FWIW the last new ebay auction on a new F520 was $950 plus $70 shipping for $1020 total...
And the last USED one with missing cables and who knows what condition went for $510 plus actual shipping(probably around $600?)
So there's still a pretty good market for real HIGH end stuff, and not envision garbage. Having owned both an Envision 17" and the 900NF I know exactly what the difference is. Let's just say that if the 900NF was 20/20 vision the Envision was being legally blind.
I can't find any completed auctions for the 900NF and the only current one is in Canada(and going for 20 canadian bucks right now lol) but on froogle the cheapest new price I can find is $330. I've had a bad experience but I think it was probably the idiot maintainence guy in my building's fault because he came in and worked on the wiring for the plug my surge protector went into and did something weird with the ground wire and I think that spazzed out my 900NF...my other monitor dealt with it OK but the Samsung blew up the moment I plugged it in after getting it repaired...