Pricey household items from 1975 that have lost almost all their value
Somebody once paid to bring that slate pool table home. Today, hauling an old one away costs $400 to $550, according to junk-removal estimates.
The 1970s were a decade of big purchases. Console televisions, home organs, heavy dining suites, a recorder inside a wooden cabinet. Eight of them follow, with what they cost then, and why almost nobody wants them now.
Where we have a 1975 price, we give it. Where we don’t, we say so.
Console color TVs
In the early 1970s, a good 21-inch color console cost about $500, which Sound & Vision put at around $3,300 in today’s money. Seven out of every ten sets in Zenith’s 1975 color line were consoles.
Now, many thrift stores won’t take a tube TV, and recycling one can cost $20 to $60.
The Sony Betamax LV-1901
The first Betamax sold in the U.S. was built into a wooden console, nearly 44 inches wide, with a 19-inch Trinitron TV. It appeared in stores in early November 1975 for about $2,500.
Sony stopped making Betamax recorders in 2002. It stopped selling the cassettes in March 2016.
Home organs
In 1975, the industry sold 205,800 electronic organs. By 1980, that was down to 138,700, the Christian Science Monitor reported, citing industry figures.
Two-keyboard spinet organs ran $1,000 to $4,000 in 1977. Old ones have become, in one collector’s words, disposable throw-away instruments, because repairs cost more than the organ is worth.
Spinet and upright pianos
The decline is steady. Fewer than 18,000 acoustic pianos were sold in the U.S. in 2024, down from about 31,000 a year a decade earlier.
Old uprights show up for free online. One piano tuner on Prince Edward Island says there’s no market for them, and he won’t take them. Moving one starts around $200 to $300.
Heavy dining and bedroom suites
Dining room tables and chairs, end tables, and armoires have become furniture non-grata. Charities like the Salvation Army and Goodwill frequently refuse donations of home furnishings.
Hide-A-Bed sofas
Many thrift stores no longer accept sleeper sofas and Hide-A-Beds, even when the exterior looks fine. They’re heavy, and the folding mechanism is hard to verify.
Console stereos
These all-in-one cabinets held a turntable, a radio, and often an 8-track. Guides put mid-century consoles at $50 to $400, and several have sold for under $100, according to one sold-listings tracker.
Slate pool tables
A three-piece slate table has slabs weighing 150 to 250 pounds each, and HireAHelper says professional moving costs $300 to $800. A single-piece slate can weigh up to 800 pounds.
Those are the costs of getting rid of one. The 1975 purchase price is another number we couldn’t verify.
The bottom line
In 1975, Americans bought 205,800 electronic organs, and by 1980, that number had fallen to 138,700. Today, hauling away a slate pool table costs about $400 to $550.
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