Goodwill/SA/Thrift Store Discussions & Finds

I thought so. I'll be interested to see what you think of its sound. Cheers, and happy cleaning!

Alright, she's all cleaned up and I'm running her now. Dude, I must say it sounds just peachy. I wouldn't say it's at all lean sounding, no need to run it with bassy speakers at all. To the contrary, it is nice and warm sounding with sweet highs, it almost sounds like my Pioneer SX-650. I like it. Now to hunt down a couple bulbs. :music:

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Alright, she's all cleaned up and I'm running her now. Dude, I must say it sounds just peachy. I wouldn't say it's at all lean sounding, no need to run it with bassy speakers at all. To the contrary, it is nice and warm sounding with sweet highs, it almost sounds like my Pioneer SX-650. I like it. Now to hunt down a couple bulbs. :music:

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Good to hear you like it. Those tend to fly under the radar. Looks like it cleaned up real nice! Enjoy it! :music: :)
 
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Yesterday was a banner day. A pair of Paradigm Atom V.3 for $10 and a really sweet pair of Energy C-50B bookshelf speaks for $7.

Until...

Got bored cleaning the garage so I walked over to talk to a neighbor who was also in his garage.
He has a pair of Kenwood LS-990 speakers that he got a GW for cheap. I hate him now. :(
 
I enjoyed that blog. Looking forward to reading more!

I think the best days are store and location dependent, although your reasoning makes sense, in your locale.

In Canada, we just don't have your size, except in cities like Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. I find locally, different stores stock at different times. I get to know the store to find out when is the best time. I also talk to the staff. I'm no longer go as frequently as I used to, so I'm not scoring the popular stuff, but I continue to find off the radar items regularly. Rarely in audio anymore though. It is very very competitive now! You pretty well have to take it off the cart or someone else will.
Totally agree about audio. Used to be that I could find something decent every week or so. Now I'm lucky if I can find something one a month. I also used to be into vintage BMX; they are totally gone.

And thanks for the compliment about the blog. We post something new every few days.
 
Totally agree about audio. Used to be that I could find something decent every week or so. Now I'm lucky if I can find something one a month. I also used to be into vintage BMX; they are totally gone..
A sign of the times? I would say the same for over in the UK, compared with about 15 years ago.
 
You just need a lucky streak. Found loads of stuff last weeks. most of it was generic Japanese stuff, which I cleaned, re-soldered and generally abused to make it sellable. That funded some (to me at least) more interesting gear, like this Kenwood KR-4070 which needed a lot of TLC. Now it's just waiting for two pilot lamps, which should be here tomorrow (or proabably not ;) ). Then I can put it together again and (mis) use it.

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Got a picture of some junk in the trunk I picked up at Savers today. They were having a 50% off clothing sale and the place was mobbed. I can't believe nobody grabbed this before me :dunno:. Sherwood S 7450 CP in decent condition.
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Even more amazing that it still has all it's control knobs !:banana:

Thrift "shoppers " in my area love to "liberate " the knobs off of shiny silver faced stereos and cassette decks :crazy:
 
I was just talking to the manager of the local GW, and he mentioned that he caught a guy that was stealing knobs a while back... They have had problems with remotes as well. They now bag them and tape them to the too of the unit.
 
I was just talking to the manager of the local GW, and he mentioned that he caught a guy that was stealing knobs a while back... They have had problems with remotes as well. They now bag them and tape them to the too of the unit.

At one particular thrift there is the same problem the guy(s) steals everything silver. Plus a turntable cartridge won't last more than a day without being stolen.

It has been real dry the last few weeks. I went to one thrift today and it looks like not one thing has changed a bit.
 
Hey thanks for the info Bilbo, it needs a new stylus so I'll order one today and post back here and let you know how it goes. Everything else seems to work.

Got the stylus in and it works, sounds good. It doesn't have that vintage silver face look to it but it's pretty cool.
 
At one particular thrift there is the same problem the guy(s) steals everything silver. Plus a turntable cartridge won't last more than a day without being stolen.

It has been real dry the last few weeks. I went to one thrift today and it looks like not one thing has changed a bit.
Not much here either...now I'm looking on offerup and letgo for stuff.found a pair of kenwood jl-1090av speakers for $25...great sound and condition.can anyone tell me good or bad deal?
 

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I was just talking to the manager of the local GW, and he mentioned that he caught a guy that was stealing knobs a while back... They have had problems with remotes as well. They now bag them and tape them to the too of the unit.

That explains why a local GW had a CD player with an empty bag taped to it.o_O

Remotes disappear very quickly in my area................usually a CD player will be on the shelf partly covered in adhesive tape - presumably the tape used to hold the remote- not surprising as Ebay prices for remotes are at least $20.00 USD.

Finding an audio component remote in one of my local thrifts is very rare.

Not the only popular theft items, though.
Some years ago I walked into a Best Buy washroom and found an empty laptop box.............apparently some customer simply grabbed a factory boxed laptop off a shelf - removed it from the box while in the washroom- and walked out with the laptop when security wasn't looking.:wtf:
 
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Keep meaning to post about the stuff I picked up recently and also just had a funny story / cautionary tale.

Had a decent Thrift / Garage sale stretch last week. I picked up a NAD T550 DVD/CD player, Older Sony STR-DE695 AVR and a Bello Audio Tower (not 100% which model). The Sony I grabbed because I have a Sony stack that I've had forever integrated in my computer setup. My Sony receiver was an older pro-logic though so this way I was able to update the receiver but still have a matching Sony stack. The NAD wouldn't play CD's at first (but did play DVD) but I remembered an old CD laser lens cleaning disk I had from way back. After using it the player started reading CD's just find and sounds wonderful. The Bello rack looks like this one:

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My only concern is that my Yamaha CA-2010 which is destined for that room seems WAY too heavy to put on those glass shelves. I might have to find another material to us for the shelf under that unit.

Here is my funny story/cautionary tale: I recently ran into one of the guys from work while leaving the Goodwill store near work. I had no idea he was an audio guy and also hit the thirfts. I was talking to him today about it and learned that he was into speakers and he told me that he found a pair of M&K speakers for $40 at the Salvation Army across the street from work. I was shocked. I'd pretty much decided that this SA never had anything good and wasn't worth visiting with any frequency. It's right across the street from work, easy to get to, and super convenient but I only hit it up on occasion because I've had very little luck there. I think I've only found a few albums, CD's and a nick-knack or two. Just goes to show that you have to keep looking and you never know where that score is going to happen. Just because a store doesn't usually have good stuff doesn't mean a major score can't be had there.
 
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Keep meaning to post about the stuff I picked up recently and also just had a funny story / cautionary tale.

Had a decent Thrift / Garage sale stretch last week. I picked up a NAD T550 DVD/CD player, Older Sony STR-DE695 AVR and a Bello Audio Tower (not 100% which model). The Sony I grabbed because I have a Sony stack that I've had forever integrated in my computer setup. My Sony receiver was an older pro-logic though so this way I was able to update the receiver but still have a matching Sony stack. The NAD wouldn't play CD's at first (but did play DVD) but I remembered an old CD laser lens cleaning disk I had from way back. After using it the player started reading CD's just find and sounds wonderful. The Bello rack looks like this one:

7002c68b6b1f57387a7b603109fc.jpg


My only concern is that my Yamaha CA-2010 which is destined for that room seems WAY too heavy to put on those glass shelves. I might have to find another material to us for the shelf under that unit.

Here is my funny story/cautionary tale: I recently ran into one of the guys from work while leaving the Goodwill store near work. I had no idea he was an audio guy and also hit the thirfts. I was talking to him today about it and learned that he was into speakers and he told me that he found a pair of M&K speakers for $40 at the Salvation Army across the street from work. I was shocked. I'd pretty much decided that this SA never had anything good and wasn't worth visiting with any frequency. It's right across the street from work, easy to get to, and super convenient but I only hit it up on occasion because I've had very little luck there. I think I've only found a few albums, CD's and a nick-knack or two. Just goes to show that you have to keep looking and you never know where that score is going to happen. Just because a store doesn't usually have good stuff doesn't mean a major score can't be had there.

Yes indeed, persistence does pay off. I only have one shop near my work, its a Salvation Army store. Last year, I got 3 or 4 pairs of decent speakers, a tube console, a Meade telescope and several other items from this store. I also found several Beatles LPs there.

This year, I've had a couple of LPs but nothing else but I visit every single day in hope, based on last years results :)
 
Not the only popular theft items, though.
Some years ago I walked into a Best Buy washroom and found an empty laptop box.............apparently some customer simply grabbed a factory boxed laptop off a shelf - removed it from the box while in the washroom- and walked out with the laptop when security wasn't looking.:wtf:

He probably put it in a laptop bag, and then said "Oh, sorry, I forgot I was carrying my laptop when I came in. Let me go put it in my car...."
 
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