Kenwood 700 Series

I once bought a camera from a pawn shop where I had purchased many things in the past and knew them very well. About 1 week later, I had a call on my buzzer at home and a policeman asked me whether I'd bought a camera from xyz pawnshop. I said yes. He told me it had been reported stolen and he was there to take possession of it. He gave me a receipt for the camera being seized and told me to contact the pawnshop as they would likely reimburse me..

They refunded my money in full, but technically, they are not bound by law to do so, so I was happy. Some pawnbrokering chains in Australia offer a money back guarantee if the item turns up as stolen. They have a period after they buy where serial numbers are crosschecked in a national police database of stolen items, but sometimes, that period of time is not enough and the item is reported after a customer buys it.

Not sure what you guys have in the US, but our system is excellent. The national chains like Cash Cxxxxxxxxx are really good and give warranties, money back for faults/failures and their prices are crazy low at times. The days of the dirty old pawnbroker trading in stolen stuff appear to gone in this country AFAIK.
 
Just enjoy them, don't worry about the very slight possibly of them being stolen. That power amp weighs 65 lbs easily and close to 30 for the pre. Who would steel all that weight and then bother with the boxes, manuals and whatnot for a lousy 50 bucks each?
Most likely the owner was in a desperate way and needed the cash for whatever, and the pawn shop just wanted to move it for double it's investment without fussing with possibly having to fix it.

One time back in the 70s I had taken my 700's over to a friend's party and later the next day or so someone broke in and stole a bunch of stuff including a turntable, but my Kenny gear was still there along with my JBL L200's. Like that song says

"Now I don't know, but I been told it's hard to run with the weight of gold,
Other hand I have heard it said, it's just as hard with the weight of lead
."

That Kenwood 700 was the gold alright .. maybe the thief was thinking more of the lead in a 12 Guage!
 
Last edited:
One other thing, the pawn shop may not have realized what they had due to this not being a common piece of vintage gear. Maybe couldnt determine its value. I know some gear heads here on AK knows about them, but they are fairly rare and thus not easy to pin down a value.
I paid $1500 for mine (in 1975 dollars) ;)
 
They have a period after they buy where serial numbers are crosschecked in a national police database of stolen items, but sometimes, that period of time is not enough and the item is reported after a customer buys it.

Not sure what you guys have in the US, but our system is excellent.

Ahh...Australia. I love that place. Here in the USA we're busy trying to keep up with the mass murders 'n stuff.
 
Plus this time of year is when I love Pawn Shops and they try to unload as much inventory as they can so they dont have to pay taxes on it at the end of the year. So rather than paying taxes on say $1000 per unit and just sitting there, they just doubled their money and moved on. Thats what I am hoping for. Until someone knocks on my door, i am going to enjoy them as they make my JBL HP 520's sound beautiful. I have already purchased laptops that are in the $600 - $800 range for under $100. So far i have found 2 for $50, one for $40 and one for $75. Crazy enough the $75 one was an Apple Macbook Air (2014), they couldnt restore/reset it and marked it as damaged. Luckily for me I work on Computers and had it fixed within an hour. :)
 
Sure someone could have broken into a storage locker and lifted those units or he could have grabbed them from where the owner was storing them in his home but coming with the boxes and such, I doubt the stolen nature of them and what police dept in this country is hunting for two pieces of 40 year old stolen stereo gear? Enjoy them.
 
Someone pawned them for $50 each, which is about right for something that old, untested etc. The guy obviously never came back and they simply wanted to quickly move the gear with their margin on top.

Having worked in a pawn shop repairing gear many moons ago, they put a fixed margin on their buys regardless of how little they pay for things.

Don't ruin the guy's scroe. Don't listen to the jealous. What makes anyone think they are stolen? They were in their boxes, looking pretty much like they have been stored there for decades. Someone may have inherited them from Grandpa and wanted to borrow against them.

Awesome Score! :)
No harm in checking the 'provenance' but OP certainly doesn't have to worry about being arrested for receiving stolen goods. Even if they are stolen, which is hardly proven at this point. He bought them fair and square at a pawn shop where he has a long-standing history as a customer, and he has the receipts to prove it. That said, he should scan the receipts into the cloud for safekeeping
index.php


Well I went to talk to them at the Pawnshop and they asked me how the systems were. They also asked why I didnt get the turntable that came with it (Harman Kardon Rabco ST-7) and that I should have gotten the original box for it that was also in the dumpster. I slapped myself in the face cause I was only looking for Kenwood boxes. I put it on layaway as they were only asking $120, dont know what its worth but it looked like in new condition.
 
Sometimes we all get blinded by Good Fortune! So interesting that they thought that turntable is worth as much as it Kenwood 700m or 700c for that matter! This case one man gathers what another man spills . You done good, turntable or not.
 
I know its already been mentioned, but it could just as easily have been a pissed off ex or soon to be ex being spiteful as the gear being stolen. When I split up with my ex-wife, I grabbed my stereo and got my motorcycle out of the garage before she changed the locks because she would have sold or pawned them out of spite. I wasn't quite quick enough to save my rail buggy though. I wouldn't worry about the gear being stolen unless the police show up and say it is. Enjoy your score, and congratulations!
 
Yep, I'm betting they're hot as hell. First, who pawns these for $50 if not, second, what pawn shop wouldn't know these were worth A HELL of a lot more than a bit over a C-note. Might want to look into it, wouldn't be fun getting arrested for receiving stolen goods.
Maybe but who steals the boxes and paperwork?
 
Where's the pawn shop? Do they have a Porsche 911 (in the original packaging) in a garage out back?

I own the 700M. I bought in the 80s, and a search for the 700C brought to this thread.

This is a great find. Congratulations.
 
Back
Top Bottom