Finally a McIntosh Craigslist score!

There was a time when deals like this could be had. Then greed stepped in. Not by the owners of said gear, but by the flippers of it. Once upon a time, I bought, sold, and traded in used McIntosh. I was very honest with sellers of my intentions to refurbish their units and send them off to a new owner. I did all the cosmetic stuff and worked with a local McIntosh technician and sold units that met spec. McIntosh meant a lot to them and they liked the idea of their gear going to someone that would find a home for a piece they so cherished. When I explained my business model, they understood the costs involved in doing this and often shot me a very fair price that allowed me to do just that.

Then flippers got involved, provided no real service or value, and provided sellers some serious remorse when they learned that the guy they gave a fair deal to sold the gear for 4x as much the following day. This is why so much of what is advertised on eBay today is to be avoided. Once upon a time I had the highest average selling price of McIntosh and eBay. That was earned.

OP - your patience served you well. It sounds like the owners were realistic and realized that there would be costs involved on your end to get the gear up to snuff and enjoy it as they have.
 
Hmmm...I'd say it cuts both ways.

Internet has definitely eliminated a lot of market inefficiency (a/k/a increased market knowledge) - which is either good or bad depending on viewpoint. Audio equipment is only one area affected. Antique dealers were the first to feel the pinch when the internet brought far more supposed "rare" items to light than previously thought in existence and many took some serious valuation hits to their inventories as a result.

The desire to buy for as little as possible and sell for as much as possible is simple human nature and there has always been unscrupulous behavior.
 
When I buy a set of speakers off Craigs List, I always tell the seller I am going to refinish the cabinets and sell them for 4x his asking price. Or when the seller says "I'll take $50," I reply by saying Ill give you $100 because you look like a nice guy. ;)

As the marketplace becomes more educated, the probability of finding a quality brand audio product for $10 at GW or the Salvation Army is asymptotically approaching zero.
 
As the marketplace becomes more educated, the probability of finding a quality brand audio product for $10 at GW or the Salvation Army is asymptotically approaching zero.
The same holds true for estate sales. The internet certainly has leveled the playing field in terms of relative value. More often than not these days, a valuable piece of audio gear will be priced at street price or above, at least in my region. This is what is so puzzling about the sale the OP experienced. Clearly no one thought to take a cursory look online to see what the items may be worth. Great for the buyer though, but safe to say those type of sales will happen less & less.
I always joke with my wife, when I’m gone, do not have a garage sale featuring old audio gear. This stuff is worth some money, LOL.
 
I have used Audio Classics, and I am a fan of their work. It has always been thorough, and their name adds a legitimacy to any work that is done.

That being said, I am not a huge fan of having work done that isn't needed.

I know some watch fans that have their watches serviced every couple of years, and I know some that only have their watches serviced when something wrong is noticeable. I would not fault either party -- the preventative folks do spend more though it is on an interval that they control.

Do you know when the units were last powered up/ used? If these have been stored for a long period without use, I would want a knowledgable tech to power them up slowly.
 
I have used Audio Classics, and I am a fan of their work. It has always been thorough, and their name adds a legitimacy to any work that is done.

That being said, I am not a huge fan of having work done that isn't needed.

I know some watch fans that have their watches serviced every couple of years, and I know some that only have their watches serviced when something wrong is noticeable. I would not fault either party -- the preventative folks do spend more though it is on an interval that they control.

Do you know when the units were last powered up/ used? If these have been stored for a long period without use, I would want a knowledgable tech to power them up slowly.


The owner had them powered on when I showed up to pick them up. So they were on within last few days. He did say that the power amp has intermittent right channel output but it was working when I showed up. He also stated that he didn't think they were serviced in a very long time.
 
I always joke with my wife, when I’m gone, do not have a garage sale featuring old audio gear. This stuff is worth some money, LOL.

I tell my wife the same thing but since she has virtually no interest in my home audio system the value really doesn't register with her and she's not an ebay person either. It's just part of my personal black hole collection of expensive male toys. I will probably just have her give it to one of my nephews who would appreciate the stuff. Value is a strange concept. My wife gave me a Rolex watch as her wedding gift to me 40+ years ago. She paid $500 which was a lot of money for her at the time. I wear it all the time but it's current value really doesn't register in my brain since I have no interest in selling it. Now, if she bought it last week for a 40th anniversary present, different story. I would bet a lot of widows have a similar thought in their heads. They just want the stuff gone.
 
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The owner had them powered on when I showed up to pick them up. So they were on within last few days. He did say that the power amp has intermittent right channel output but it was working when I showed up. He also stated that he didn't think they were serviced in a very long time.

I had a very similar issue with a McIntosh MC754. Audio Classics cleaned it up for me.

If you are going to ship, the boxes are very important. Buying them form AC will require that you ship a lot of air, and the postal service cares more about dimensions than weight.

I have heard that there is a lot of eye candy if you are able to make the road trip to hand carry it.

I would buy boxes while you are there.
 
The owner had them powered on when I showed up to pick them up. So they were on within last few days. He did say that the power amp has intermittent right channel output but it was working when I showed up.

Chances are it's the speaker relay - common issue on this model. I'd run the units up and have them ship back. Remove the units from the cabinets and leave them home if you deliver the equipment to A/C yourself.
 
Chances are it's the speaker relay - common issue on this model. I'd run the units up and have them ship back. Remove the units from the cabinets and leave them home if you deliver the equipment to A/C yourself.

Remove the units from the cabinets and leave them home as well if you ship the units. Shipping McIntosh units in their cabinets is a roll of the dice in my experience.
 
Remove the units from the cabinets and leave them home as well if you ship the units. Shipping McIntosh units in their cabinets is a roll of the dice in my experience.

Shipping a Panloc unit in a cabinet should never be done under any circumstances.

The Panloc system is not designed to secure the unit inside the cabinet against the forces encountered in transit and proper McIntosh packaging is designed to accept the unit only without the cabinet.
 
Ok, this is a complete feeler, I am not sure I want to do this but...I have a shot at a 1957 Oval Window VW Beetle, so does anyone local wanna make an offer and pick these beauties up?

Not really sure but I think I wanna buy this car so could use a refill in the "money the wife doesn't know about" account LOL
 
Going back to my childhood, learning how to rebuild wheel cylinders and repacking wheel bearings at my Dad's shop, standing behind your work is so much more than a warranty and certainly is NOT a insurnce policy to hope nothing goes wrong.

No it means repairing or replacing those parts that are known from experience that go out of spec and/or fail......and because you did it correctly the end user knows that you will there to back up your work.

To properly prepare a C32 for resale will take 6-7 hours.....lamps, faceplate edge bubbling, recap reflowing solder joints that are known issues. A MC2125 3-4 hours but most likely more because the meter lamp housings will often fall apart in your hands as you attempt to replace the lamps and the discolored gels.

So in reality a reliable restorer or reseller will have 10-15 hours of time at local labor costs plus parts to prepare these units for resale. What does it cost to have a professional employee on a payroll in Jersey.....or in your local area? With the costs in NJ or NY I would quess the bottom line cost would be close to $50.00 per hour.

Do most resellers bother to restore the units they resell.....or do they offer a insurance warranty to hope nothing goes wrong?

These two units are very good core units for proper restoration and resale, but they are 40 years old.

SKORE is a flipper fantasy......like licensed stealing.
 
I own Rolex watches and I ware my Sub Mariner 99% of the time. The people at Rolex will give a recommended service interval, but will also state until the watch changes in time keeping leave well enough alone. I have had mine serviced twice, once because of damage and another because of a failed watch band. The dress watches I swap and trade. Mcintosh equipment I have serviced when something mechanically fails or something sonically changes. 2505 is still untoched except for cleaning controls. The other pieces over 10 years old have been repaired once. I admit my MX 119 had some issiues when traded in to Audio Classics for a MX 151. The only other piece that is untouched is the MR-78 which was purchased at the end of production. But seems fine, though it doesn't quite perform as well as the MR-80 after I had it serviced a while back. 6 years now, With micro switchs and sealed volume controls pre-amps work so much longer with out servicing. Gold connectors really help, too. I have a VU meter that likes to take a vacation once in a while on one of my 207's. Its not the impedance selector on the back and the sound is fine. So I'll wait until another issue pops up before having to tear the system down for repairs.
 
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There was a time when deals like this could be had. Then greed stepped in. Not by the owners of said gear, but by the flippers of it. Once upon a time, I bought, sold, and traded in used McIntosh. I was very honest with sellers of my intentions to refurbish their units and send them off to a new owner. I did all the cosmetic stuff and worked with a local McIntosh technician and sold units that met spec. McIntosh meant a lot to them and they liked the idea of their gear going to someone that would find a home for a piece they so cherished. When I explained my business model, they understood the costs involved in doing this and often shot me a very fair price that allowed me to do just that.

Then flippers got involved, provided no real service or value, and provided sellers some serious remorse when they learned that the guy they gave a fair deal to sold the gear for 4x as much the following day. This is why so much of what is advertised on eBay today is to be avoided. Once upon a time I had the highest average selling price of McIntosh and eBay. That was earned.

OP - your patience served you well. It sounds like the owners were realistic and realized that there would be costs involved on your end to get the gear up to snuff and enjoy it as they have.
He's flipping them for $2K on BT.
 
Not sure you read the thread progression or my other thread. I did NOT flip them! I bought a car without telling my wife LOL. And of course needed to purge hobbies.
You can do anything you want with them. They're yours. Damacman just commented on how flipping raises the future base price of equipment. I just commented because buying something at a really low price and reselling them at a big profit within weeks without any servicing or restoration is kind of like the definition of flipping. If someone is happy to buy your your equipment at your asking price when everyone is happy.
 
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