So, I fell down the CRT rabbit hole earlier this year for the first time and wanted a first-rate Trinitron really badly. But, I encountered so many problems and my dream got crushed.
To begin with, I learned if you stay vigilant on Facebook Marketplace, you can find someone giving one away for free fairly regularly, but you have to be lightning quick before others see it. Twice, I was on the way to pick it up when the seller messaged me and said someone else offered them money for it, and that I couldn't have it anymore. The next problem was that the person giving it away probably has no clue about geometry, burn-in, or hours used and will not be helpful besides saying "it works fine", and asking them for detailed pictures on a free tv will probably kill your opportunity to get it, and someone else will swoop in and get the tv. So you're going to have to rent a truck or trailer, bring along a friend or family member to help you move it, drive potentially many hours away, all for just for the chance to see it in person and decide if you want it. Now, I did have access to a minivan with space enough in the back to fit a 32-inch CRT, but it very often happened that I'd have a chance to get a tv, but couldn't find anyone on the spur of the moment to come help me move it, so I lost the chance to get the tv.
Once everything came together, the first Trinitron I was able to get was in great shape, but the person didn't tell me they were on the third-floor and we broke the t.v. hauling it down the stairs. I'm just lucky no one got injured on that one, honestly. I learned my lesson though, absolutely no stairs. The tv is either a straight shot out of their door and into the back of my minivan, or it just about can't be done.
The second one I got appeared to be in fantastic shape when I arrived to get it, but then when I got it home I discovered that different games on the same console will have vastly different geometry. Like, Mario 64 will be perfect, but then when I put in Banjo-Kazooie there's about an inch of squiggly black border on the left-hand side of the screen. I don't know what could be causing that problem, but it makes it pretty nearly useless because I have to change the service menu settings endlessly and overscan most games to a ridiculous degree, and it makes me just want to give it away. I do want to try again and see if I can find a more stable CRT, because once I got everything just perfect for one game it was truly beautiful.