wrote:
Yes, for many electronic appliances it ultimately comes down to a
cost-to-repair vs cost-to-replace comparison. And since the relative

price of most new electronic goods continues to drop many older
electronic appliances become disposable.


This is true. The only exception to this that I can think of would be
limited market electronics like tabletop SW radios. I've had my Yaesu
FRG-8800 fixed twice since I bought it. It arrived with a broken
freq/clock switch, since it was packed in wadded up newspaper. It also
had a certain resistor die (apparently a common problem) a couple years

after that. The cost to fix both these problems, and the cost to buy it

used of course (about $200, what I paid for the 2010 that I traded for
it) is still far less than the cost of a new Drake R8B. But tabletops
are the exception to the rule. Most mass market consumer electronics
are
disposable, a trend that started in the 50s with the first transistor
radios. Computers, on the other hand, are still worth fixing, at least
until they get truly obsolete. And computers are different in that they

have software problems even if they don't have any hardware problems.

JS Computers are usually worth fixing, but the fix these days is
replacement of a module, not replacing electronic or mechanical
components..

I remember my parents taking household appliances like a tube-powered

clock radio or a mixer in for repair. Today if the appliance dies it

is just replaced. I'm trying to think of where a TV, Radio or small
appliance repair shop might be in my area, but I'm drawing a complete

blank. Times have changed.



In an era when consumer electronics are so cheap, when you can get a
clock radio for $7.99, it doesn't make any sense to have stuff fixed. I

was looking through newspaper microfilm of papers printed when I was
born (1974), and I came across an ad for an IC run Panasonic clock
radio-for $39.95! That was a lot of money 30 years ago. Today, the
maximum you'll spend for an all digital, two alarm Sony clock radio is
$25, even though the dollar has lost much of its value, and if you want

to go to Kmart you can get a clock radio for much less, as I noted.
Even
TVs are cheap-a 20" color TV costs about $150, compared to twice that
in
1974.
JS That's a perfect example of why the few TV repair guys left in the
business are pretty lonely these days. Another factor contributing to
their loneliness is that the TV's (and other consumer products) are
much more reliable these days.

That prices have come down in absolute and relative terms can be seen
in the 27 inch TV. It was once an expensive top-end size 20 years ago,
but is an entry level size these days and is priced accordingly.