Buying a Used Scoreboard

If you’re into basketball and have looked on craigslist a decent, one of the things you’ve probably seen are used scoreboards from old high schools for sale.  Every 20 years or so most schools replace their scoreboard with newer models, leaving their old scoreboards to be sold or thrown away.  If they’re sold, it’s an opportunity to get something for your home gym or game room that will be an eye catcher.

Scoreboard Cost

Most scoreboards are available used between $500 and $1000.  Typically you’ll want:

• the scoreboard itself
• the control unit to work the scoreboard
• the cable used to communicate between the scoreboard and the control unit

If you’re missing the control unit, I wouldn’t buy the scoreboard.  The cost of the control unit will probably exceed the cost of the entire scoreboard.

Scoreboard Weight and Dimensions

How much does the scoreboard weight?  The one I bought, from Fairplay, weighed about 200 pounds.  Not only that, but it was extremely awkward to carry.  I ended up sliding it around most of the time.  The scoreboard I have is around 6′ x 6′, so pretty large.

Mounting the Scoreboard

When mounting it, there are usually bolt mounts on either side up high and possibly some down low, depending on your model.  You’ll want to make sure those mounting bolts are secured to the wall as the scoreboard could fall and hurt someone if they’re not.  The way I did it was:

• measure out where the bolts would go
• install the bolts to the wall
• grabbed a friend to lift the scoreboard up onto the wall while a 3rd person stood on a ladder telling us how close to the bolts we were.
• hang the scoreboard on the wall
• run the appropriate cords to power and the control unit

After that it was just power it up and it was ready to go.  Installing it in a basement would probably be a lot easier other than the high shed wall I did it on except the part where you carry the scoreboard down the stairs…that would be awful, lol.  Most of them can split into pieces if needed which might help a little bit when moving.

Conclusion

Hopefully this helps you with a little more info about buying a used scoreboard.  Before I got one my father from an old gym in Nebraska, I knew nothing about how they worked, how heavy they were, how to mount them, etc.  That information just isn’t available online anywhere, nobody really posts about old scoreboards.

If you have additional questions, please contact me at info@masterbasketball.com