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My first color TV, a Zenith (remember them?) was a 19-inch CRT that cost me somewhere around $350 and weighed a ton (or seemed to). Today, the only display devices you’ll find at that size are computer monitors; they’ll cost you considerably less and can be carried around under one arm.

I was reminded of that as I recently visited the TV department in my local Best Buy. Even with Black Friday firmly in the rear-view mirror, there were, quite literally, stacks of boxed TVs filling the aisles. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many crowded into one space, perhaps not even at CES. And in an area with a population of roughly 100,000, that’s a lot of TVs to sell. Most of them, even the larger models, were well under $1000, reflecting the modest incomes of a primarily middle-class region.

But new TVs are always a hot item, and this is a prime time of year for TV sales...