How did I do? Yamaha PF-800

[audiodogster]

I already posted this on the turntable forum but thought I might post it here as well.

I picked up a today Yamaha PF-800 today for $250. The seller had this and a Harman Kardon linearly tracking turntable and wanted to get rid of one so he listed the Yamaha on Craigslist yesterday for $350, then decided to test it as it had been in storage. He said it played fine but he noticed the stylus was at the wrong angle and sure enough, it was bent, so he dropped the price to $250. I was tempted to post it on here to ask people's opinions but I decided against it as I didn't want anybody pulling it out from under me. The ad had been up for 9 hours before I emailed him but apparently, I was the first of a wave of people to contact him. The seller spent about 30 minutes talking to me about it, his system, and working at CNN.

It weighs 28lbs. It has an Ortofon OM30 cartridge but the stylus was damaged so I will be looking for a replacement. It's about $220 for a new stylus from Ortofon but I picked up a JICO stylus for $33 on eBay (normally twice that from JICO themselves, a few people recommended JICO as being almost as good as OE Ortofon ).
The table is in excellent shape besides a couple of cracks in the dust cover, it even has the original record clamp with strobe light marks. I have to wait on the stylus to fully test it but the seller said I can bring it back if I'm dissatisfied. I've seen these go for $500+ in worse shape (minus the stylus on one) so I don't think I did too bad.

Here are a few pictures:

Excuse the fake setup, I put a mocked up system out a while back to stage my house. Yes, those are antique fire extinguishers as speaker stands. I have them filled with water, I am thinking of filling them with sand and making plates to mate to the lids of the extinguishers so I have a broader surface for the speakers to sit on and to bring them up a couple of inches. I have a low couch so the tweeters are almost but not quite at ear height now.

 

[jtee1340]

You got a great deal for sure. Nice table. I have a coworker that has one since new. Never plays it but won't sell it. Can't blame him either. lol Fire extinguishers....never would have thought of that. Very cool.
Congrats!
J.T.

 

[Raynald]

You did very well. The PF-800 is a very nice piece of work, I used to have one. But it has been seriously over valued in the last few years and is selling for far too much as far as I am concerned. The price you paid is probably a little below what they should be going for, but as you pointed out they tend to go for far more. The fact that yours still has the strobe disc is very nice.

 

[audiodogster]

You did very well. The PF-800 is a very nice piece of work, I used to have one. But it has been seriously over valued in the last few years and is selling for far too much as far as I am concerned. The price you paid is probably a little below what they should be going for, but as you pointed out they tend to go for far more. The fact that yours still has the strobe disc is very nice.

I would agree with you to an extent, at least in Atlanta, all turntables have gone way up in price. The resurgence of vinyl has made even the crappiest vintage turntables sell for more than $100, stuff people on here say they wouldn't buy if it was more than $20, even in fairly recent threads. I have been watching Craigslist for weeks and this was the first decent table that came up that the seller didn't want the eBay price plus 15%. I did find a thread from 2005 about this table where they said $250-$325 seemed to be the typical selling price so there's definitely been a rise in value.

Ironically, my mom was looking at some items on Craigslist and emailed the seller, turns out it's the same guy who sold me the turntable. Might go with her to check out his system.

 

[Karmices]

You did well. Solid performing turntable. Like a few others mentioned, they probably go for a little more than their worth, but I guess what something is selling for consistently is the going price.

 

[kdooley]

I almost called the guy but I have too many turntables as it is.

 

[Raynald]

I would agree with you to an extent, at least in Atlanta, all turntables have gone way up in price. The resurgence of vinyl has made even the crappiest vintage turntables sell for more than $100, stuff people on here say they wouldn't buy if it was more than $20, even in fairly recent threads. I have been watching Craigslist for weeks and this was the first decent table that came up that the seller didn't want the eBay price plus 15%. I did find a thread from 2005 about this table where they said $250-$325 seemed to be the typical selling price so there's definitely been a rise in value.

Ironically, my mom was looking at some items on Craigslist and emailed the seller, turns out it's the same guy who sold me the turntable. Might go with her to check out his system.

The PF-800 and 1000 went up in price before all TTs did around here. The reason is pretty simple. People buying high end TTs in those days did not want a Yamaha. And people I sold Yamaha to did not care about TT quality enough to buy anything better than the cheap low end models. If they cared somewhat I sold them a Dual. So very few 800's were sold. I had to special order mine.

Now that people are into collecting Yamaha gear, many want a TT to match. The low end stuff is of no appeal so they look for something like the 800 and very few are to be found which has driven up the price. From a construction point of view they were miles ahead of the competition at the same price. But most of those cottage industry built UK TTs with their associated poor QC did sound better and can still be found for less than the 800 around here.

 

[ggregg]

Sold those new and yes not very many. Nice buy.