Chicago (IL) - Sharp recently announced that it will begin selling its 108" LCD TV in the U.S. in September and if you are planning on buying Sharp’s 108" TV you may want to hold off on that next Ferrari.

Big TVs always have been expensive. If you are looking beyond mainstream you are quickly in the five figures, which can be hit with 63"-65" plasma and LCD TVs. High-end premium TVs such as Sony’s 70" Bravia XBR currently sell for about $30,000, while plasma TV has held the top spot with about $70,000 for more than a year. Adding inches on top of that will cost you quite some cash, at the tune of $23,000 per inch.

Retailers have begun selling (link to German website) Sharp’s LB-1085 108" LCD TV in Europe with prices starting at about 120,000 Euro - about $185,000 at the current exchange rate. Expect this TV to be a very special order, as you cannot simply pick it up (which will be quite difficult considering the TV’s weight of 209 pounds), but will have to wait 16 weeks until the device will be delivered.

Besides its large size, the TV does not provide unexpected technical features (sorry, no quad HDTV). The resolution is 1920x1080p, the brightness 400 cd, the contrast ratio 1200:1 and the response time 6 ms.

Sharp maintains that the LB-1085 will hit these shores this September and we are quite certain that the TV won’t cost $185,000 here. But plan on spending about $150,000, our sources indicated.