You have two ways of getting a fully functioning CRT TV of a decent size. You can either pay a laughable amount on Craigslist, or garbage pick. We've actually given away a few working crt TV's over the last few years as we got HD's. I just put them on Craigslist and say come get it.

I've kept an old RCA 27" ColorTrak we got in 1993 for "SD" gaming. Compared to an HDTV, you aren't going to notice picture quality differences between old sets. Just as long as it is not damaged in any way. Though you do wonder now if the rush on HDTV's could lead to a mass trash out of most of the remaining CRT's?