Split from topic here
When I sold the Nottingham shop Granada were by far the highest bidders for the rental accounts, what I found amusing was that a high proportion of my customers had come from Granada, in fact we did have a few complain that they had ditched Granada only to be "sent back" ! I bet all my sets went for "Automatic disposal! " as most were well over five years old, some much more if they were cheap rentals or slot meter. Granada were desperate to buy customer accounts at the time as the market was shrinking fast, they wanted my Peterborough accounts as well but I wasn't ready to retire at that time, five years or so later however it was a different story....
Up to 1983 a 4 as the last digit of the model number indicated an acquired set, from what I remember Robinsons was the biggest rental company Granada bought up before the coding was revised.
I remember a thread elsewhere about disposal sales, where someone mentioned there would be some potentially bargains available after one of the bigger rental companies bought out an independent & sold off the non-standard sets. I guess was true just after the colour boom when many "exotic" sets were considered non-standard by the bigger companies once they were able to meet the demand from their usual manufacturers.
That certainly was true for Radio Rentals. The disposal places bought a lorry load of either "Thorn" which was Radio Rentals own sets. Or "Non Thorn" A lorry load of non Thorn was an absolute bargain as it was less than half the price the sets were untouched there was no looting of panels etc and the sets hadn't been written off because of age or low tube. Some of the Baird sets were in a terrible state with missing panels or filled with rough panels all just thrown in.
I had a mate who ran a disposal place in the early 80's . I remember loads of Japanese sets mixed with GEC, Philips and a few non Baird Thorn 8000 sets being disposed, the sets were in good condition and mostly worked, if you got there when the lorry came in you could buy straight off the truck. I would get tipped off when the "non Thorn" load was coming in. When Rumbelows went bust RR acquired their remaining rental accounts, some shops and stock, the sets that came in were like new but were all sent as non Thorn automatic disposals. For a few weeks pickings were very good.
I don't know what the situation was at Granada as by then I had moved away from Carter's in Ilkeston who was the main Granada disposal place. The RR sets were generally better and less battered. By the mid 80's I was only buying ex rental VCRs from RR (Baird piano key) as I had other sources of good late TVs but couldn't get enough cheap VCRs locally.
@slidertogrid I imagine Radio Rentals & the other Thorn owned rental companies would be keen to dispose of any Thorn made sets.
I remember Carter's being mentioned in the thread, I did wonder if they dealt with the Rediffusion sets after the Granada merger.
@richardfrommarple I honestly don't know. To be honest I don't know how long Carters carried on for as I don't remember seeing them advertise in Television magazine. When I stopped going the sets being disposed of were all the colour boom models. Delta gun first gen single standard. John Carter was a real character he drove a Rolls Royce, usually in carpet slippers!
Later on I remember OTV being big Thorn ex rental dealers who would sell to the trade and retail. This was when PIL sets like 9000 / 9800s were being disposed of. By the time they were selling off the 30AX TX series RR were retailing themselves. I remember RR had a 26" version of the stereo text badged as Baird but I never saw a Ferguson 26" stereo text, the biggest we could get was 22".
I was very fortunate by the mid 1980's in so much as I dealt direct with two large independents, Lakes in Slough and Snellings in Blofield. The quality of the sets were massively better than the disposal places, nothing was robbed and some sets were only a few years old. Almost all had the correct remote control and sometimes even the instruction book. Both places had a huge turnaround of sets so were always happy to sell a vanload of mostly working returns.
@slidertogrid Eventually a few rental places started selling their ex-rental sets themselves. My Uncle bought a 2-3 other the years for use as a second set & for my Grandad, who didn't mind an older set. When I wanted to buy something more up to date in 2001 I looked at what my local Granada shop to see what they had to offer, but it didn't look in good condition for the price they were asking.
@richardfrommarple Granada's ex-rentals did seem to be the oldest and sometimes the roughest of the rental companies disposals. Remember the "clever Leopard" adverts on TV? Offering a three month guarantee and casually knocking the independents that were selling ex-rentals. Something like "there's no way we can guarantee" .
We offered a three month guarantee on the £50 sets and a year on the later models £99 and over. I kept the ex rental sales well away from the counter otherwise someone could come in to pay their rental and see a set for sale and start thinking about buying a used set, we didn't want that! Rental was far more profitable. I remember a KT3 coming back that had been out for twelve years, it wouldn't have been new when we got it, it was still going strong and was probably sold on as a "cheapie". Anything up to a 20" was always popular as a second set for games etc.
I sold my place in late 2000 as I could see the writing on the wall, luckily I managed to do it as a going concern. I think the trade was viable for about another five years but I didn't fancy putting the investment in to change the rentals over from CRT to flat panel especially with the prices of early flat panel sets and the fact that the ex-rental sets would be worth next to nothing, Who is going to buy a used VCR when the supermarkets were selling new ones for £60 and more to the point who is going to pay for a repair on a VCR when new ones were so cheap?
To be honest I was pretty sick of the trade in any case and didn't have any interest for well over 10 years until my hobby extended from vintage radios to dual standard TVs, so I didn't really pay any attention to the decline, it seemed the trade was 'here today gone tomorrow!' Lakes in Slough had branches all around the area, the business was massive and had been going since the 50's, they ended up going bankrupt. Snellings seem to have survived by diversifying as have Kellyvision the firm that bought me out but only because they sell domestic appliances, the TV side is very small to what it was and there are no "big sheds" in the area.
I am glad I got out when I did. I missed the last of the CRT sets which sound a nightmare with premature CRT failure, "painter chips". Exploding switch mode power supplies that after half a days work rebuilding and then exploded again. I think I would have ended up in the funny farm! (To quote Blackadder... Wibble!)
I don't know what the situation was at Granada as by then I had moved away from Carter's in Ilkeston who was the main Granada disposal place.
many moons ago I use to buy TV sets from the tip in Ilkeston, it's a long time ago now but it was more or less opposite American adventure.
@slidertogrid I've not been able to pin down the model my family rented from Granada until late 1984, but it was a fairly old set style wise by then, typical of nearly a decade earlier. I guess my parents had taken the cheap option of renting a set until the fee went down each year, rather than pay the full amount for a new set each year or so.
The Philips 21" set I bought in 2001 never gave me a problem in the 15 years I had it, so maybe I got lucky!
Trying to send message but it won't go, test.
As we're talking ex rental here's a photo for those of you who don't watch my YouTube channel.
Taken in 1984 it's a photo of a small corner of Mantles at 419 Barlow Moor Road in Manchester where I use to buy faulty ex rental GEC 2110 sets for £25 each.
If somebody said to me what's your biggest regret in life, it would be that I didn't take enough pictures when I was younger.
@michael-dranfield Amen to that. When I think of my local industrial heritage and what has been lost, I am full of bitter regret at not having recorded much, much more of it.
