Vintage McIntosh Motherlode in Connecticut

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Another interesting story is AC actually came to his home with a van a few years ago and brought a few MC3500's back to Binghamton with them.

I was thinking about Pinging them to this thread, they will be abel to fix most of this stuff if the price is right, and some of it can be used as parts for customers.
 
At least his hoarding will net his family a good amount of money rather than a good amount of trash.
 
I counted 25 MC60, and you know damn well some of these were bought as pairs with consecutive serial numbers when new and have always been paired together. These guys didn't bother making matched sets and selling them as pairs. They could have made 10 pairs, and had five singles for some wanting a mono system.

The above, as a collector of stuff I like to put things together how they where bought new in the day. When buying, a selling factor is how close to as new I can buy. Does the unit/units have all the packaging and paper work? is it consecutive serial numbers, are all the original parts there?

These guys are taking everything apart and selling things individually. For example, they have listings for random groups of manuals, lot's selling boxes alone, selling mono blocks individually, and the tube screens are listed in another lot.:wtf: All this stuff is from the units they are selling, but nothing guarantees you can win what should have been with your unit. Let alone the fact in the end you'll probably have to spend over price to try and get the complete package.

They would have been far better off with some stuff putting matched packages together. The better units would have manuals
 
The above, as a collector of stuff I like to put things together how they where bought new in the day. When buying, a selling factor is how close to as new I can buy. Does the unit/units have all the packaging and paper work? is it consecutive serial numbers, are all the original parts there?

These guys are taking everything apart and selling things individually. For example, they have listings for random groups of manuals, lot's selling boxes alone, selling mono blocks individually, and the tube screens are listed in another lot.:wtf: All this stuff is from the units they are selling, but nothing guarantees you can win what should have been with your unit. Let alone the fact in the end you'll probably have to spend over price to try and get the complete package.

They would have been far better off with some stuff putting matched packages together. The better units would have manuals

Well, nothing says you have to bid. Leave it for us local guys.
 
I was thinking about Pinging them to this thread, they will be abel to fix most of this stuff if the price is right, and some of it can be used as parts for customers.
Audio Classics has already registered to bid, according to the auctioneer.
 
This could be a case where manuals were kept in a file cabinet and equipment somewhere else. The auction company is just selling what they find. I can't imagine them taking the the time to take apart pieces to try and get more money. I could be wrong.
 
Well, nothing says you have to bid. Leave it for us local guys.
My comment was an observation, and yes I would not bid on stuff that I know is all broken up though multiple listings, thats stupid. Then the fact there is a lot of unknown cost with the vast majority and what your actually getting.

I did sign up but didn't put a card in yet because I might bid on some things that are more straight forwards as to what one gets at a cost.

Audio Classics has already registered to bid, according to the auctioneer.

Good, they will bid to a fair price of what they can used and make money on.
 
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Oh no; I didn't know that Walt had died and I'm very sorry to hear this as I've kind of lost touch with him over the past couple years. To say he was eccentric is a huge understatement. A while back when I was looking for a 2nd MC2500 I asked him about one of his as he had 3 of them sitting in his living room unused. No dice though and he wouldn't part with one. Every time we chatted it was about an auction that he was going to or had recently been to or was returning from that day. He wasn't able to fix anything unless it was easy to get at fuse so my best friend Dave used to do a lot of his repairs. I also don't think he listened to music but he loved Mac gear or most any of the better vintage gear. One of my better dealings with him was for a showroom condition Soundscraftsmen 4002-5002 combo. Wow; I had no idea the extent of his collection. I wonder where the auction proceeds are going? Last I knew he wasn't married and I don't think he had any children either.
 
This could be a case where manuals were kept in a file cabinet and equipment somewhere else. The auction company is just selling what they find.
McIntosh boxes have the Serial number on the box and the amps. If you ordered two mono blocks from them they normally would give you consecutive # units. There is 25 MC60 mono blocks, it doesn't take any time to pair up amps and look at any MC60 boxes you have that match. You then decide witch amps look best and throw the user manuals and service manuals into the lots.

So yeah they are breaking it up in hopes you bid on more listings even if you don't need the majority of a box lot.
 
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So yeah they are breaking it up in hopes you bid on more listings even if you don't need the majority of a box lot.

We don’t know how this equip was stored - might have been in a heap under a tarp. I get the feeling auctioneer is doing his best with a lot of tonnage - few busted faceplates tells me that they’re not hacks and took their time excavating.
 
He hired someone from NYC to help him with the cataloging and testing, which entailed using a variac to bring up the amp to line voltage. Musta have taken forever to "test" all those amps.
The catalog descriptions are reasonably accurate, ie, if a listing say pitting, there is pitting on the chrome. Not a lot of boat anchors. All in all, the stuff is in decent cosmetic condition.

We don’t know how this equip was stored - might have been in a heap under a tarp. I get the feeling auctioneer is doing his best with a lot of tonnage.

If they took the time and money to test and bring a hundred tube amps to safe power up it's nothing to match things together. They looked and posted the serial numbers in each listing as well. So the only thing I can deduct is they want to spread the buyer around to many listings and fight for a setup thats nice. I wasn't born yesterday, and if that was to much work matching components then I doubt anything was powered up safely on a veriac.
 
Audio Classics has already registered to bid, according to the auctioneer.

In a way, this is good IMO.

AC will likely pair up good units, a good pair is better for the McIntosh community and better selling money than two individual units. If they are able to buy much of it, likely manuals and boxes will be mated to their respective equipment.

Another important aspect is that this avoids de-valuing (at least temporarily) the market. AC can test, repair, and sell units a couple at a time and avoid the flood of low-priced broken units into the market and avoid the depressed comp prices that would affect the greater market for a while.

For those wanting to flip units, this will reduce the opportunities, but OTOH it will also keep the selling prices & market up for good units. a win-win IMO.

I have found AC to have reasonable selling prices anyway, they are often better units for the same money (sometimes less than) as flipper units on evilbay. Best of luck to all.

I just would like to be able to walk through this collection and touch a few things before it all goes away, ... I guess I can always drive to AC?
 
WAlt's dad is still alive. I assume he'll get the dough...
I'm guessing his Dad must be up there in age as Walt must've been 60ish? Do you know what he died from? I was wondering why I hadn't seen him at my usual audio haunts in a quite a while now. Sad news for sure.
 
Whether we like how it's being auctioned or not, the way they're going about it almost ensures the highest return on each item. This is the same reason that folks part out fully functioning vintage units.

My collection, at its largest, was about 1% of this cat's. And I had rooms full ...
 
Oh no; I didn't know that Walt had died and I'm very sorry to hear this as I've kind of lost touch with him over the past couple years. To say he was eccentric is a huge understatement. A while back when I was looking for a 2nd MC2500 I asked him about one of his as he had 3 of them sitting in his living room unused. No dice though and he wouldn't part with one. Every time we chatted it was about an auction that he was going to or had recently been to or was returning from that day. He wasn't able to fix anything unless it was easy to get at fuse so my best friend Dave used to do a lot of his repairs. I also don't think he listened to music but he loved Mac gear or most any of the better vintage gear. One of my better dealings with him was for a showroom condition Soundscraftsmen 4002-5002 combo. Wow; I had no idea the extent of his collection. I wonder where the auction proceeds are going? Last I knew he wasn't married and I don't think he had any children either.

I'm guessing his Dad must be up there in age as Walt must've been 60ish? Do you know what he died from? I was wondering why I hadn't seen him at my usual audio haunts in a quite a while now. Sad news for sure.

Walt was stricken by the Big C.
 
All that gear hoarded and he didn't even have a working system? Thats called mental health issues.
 
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