> wanted old equipment for free
> had to pay a nominal price for it instead
> felt sad and less appreciated
Gotta say, your disappointment really isn't resonating with me. Sounds like quite a reasonable response on their part. People in management perform a constant balancing act with things like morale and expectations. Perhaps it wouldn't have been prudent to have you be seen to be getting "special treatment". Unless there were 19 similar old TVs to give to the rest of the team, then you can guarantee several people would have felt resentful about you getting yours for free.
At my workplace it'd probably have been given for free, and I'm pretty sure none of my co-workers would resent the recipient. Come on, it's an 8 year-old TV. Everyone who wants a TV has a better one already. Are we really so petty?
A company can't just write off things that are in it's inventory. They can either be lost, destroyed, trashed or sold. If you sell them, it has to be at a reasonable market value or you're in trouble with the IRS. So it's not unreasonable to ask for the ebay value. Ask for a low ebay value if you're being nice.
