Arkay
Lunatic Member
Today I passed by one of the scrap/recycling collection places. Didn't see too much interesting... but I could hear music blaring out, as it often does from some portable unit or boombox or whatever they've picked up from the trash that trickles through the place. It seems to me that they take one, play it until it gives up the ghost, and then use the next one that comes along, until it dies, and so on. This time the music was a bit louder than usual, and a lot less "tinny"...so out of curiosity, I looked up to see what it was coming from.
On top of a stack of junk was a LARGE boombox. It was fairly dirty, but it had large woofers on each side. It looked vaguely familiar, but I've seen thousands of boomboxes and own around 100, and don't remember them all at first glance, so I looked closer to see what it was.
First I notice the two large TEAC logos on the upper sides of the faceplate area... TEAC made something like this? :headscratch Not that I'd ever seen before!
I have to look more closely...
Wait a sec... there is a MARANTZ logo in the middle top area, between the TEAC logos! Something weird is going on here. :screwy:
It gets worse... there is that classic SANSUI logo near the middle of the bottom part!
And another smaller, silver logo beside it...
Someone really went to town on this thing, sticking badges from all their favorite brands on it, and making sure that each badge was positioned precisely, where it would look "authentic", if it weren't for the number of them! These are all 3-D "badge" type logos you find on their regular hi-fi gear, that I am mentioning; someone must have collected these from various speaker grills or other sources.
But it was the little silver logo that finally got me to look at the box itself, and already with beating heart... I DID know this boombox! :yes: In fact, I would probably have recognized it instantly, if not for all those extra logos stuck on where they didn't belong, since I've had one sitting in my office-room for a few years, where I see it every day.
I picked it up and checked the manufacturer's nameplate on the back to make sure... YEP! No doubt about it! I'm holding in my hands THE single most sought-after, the most expensive, the holiest and the grailiest
D) of all the holy grail boomboxes on the entire planet ... the JVC RC-M90W, otherwise more casually known simply as "the M90". 
And I found it "IN THE WILD", not in a collection and not online, but in actual use in a streetside location.
It's just about the ultimate "wet dream" for any boombox collector, but basically unheard-of, in real life. It's the equivalent of finding Marantz tube gear or an SX-1980 at curbside, or at a garage sale for five bucks, or something like that.
I ask the old guy there (whom I've known for YEARS and bought stuff from before, usually at scrap-metal-value prices), how much it was. "That's not for sale. It has a lot of bass, which is what I hear best, so I'm using it myself. Hard to find big ones like that, with a lot of bass." This guy is not so young, and spends hours a day hammering apart metal scrap, so I imagine he needs something like this to hear the music well at all. He probably has no high-end hearing left. I can understand. I feel sorry for him, and I don't want to deprive him of his music. And he seems fairly adamant that it is not for sale.
...but still, I WANT THIS BOX! And I've never known this guy not to sell stuff, for the right price. Plus I know that he'll crank it up until it quits (or until someone steals it, a real possibility with THIS box), and then bash it apart for recycling (because that is what he does for a living, and what that box ended up there for!). I don't want to let that happen.
It's quite dirty, and I'm not sure how well it will clean up, but even a "beater" or parts unit of one of these is easily worth a thousand bucks to a collector... and getting one would make any boombox fan VERY happy. This one works, is complete, and may clean up pretty nicely in the end; at least nothing is broken or missing and it isn't DOA and while very dirty, it does not look damaged or scratched (beyond some mnor pitting on some brightwork). As a collector, I know what this is worth, and see it differently than he does. He ONLY wants the booming sound it can make, and has no clue about, nor any interest in, its collectible value. He doesn't know how to use a computer, let alone sell anything on ePay.
I ask again, and again he says it's not for sale. I know he would normally sell a thing like this for maybe twenty, thirty dollars, and I've bought two of them before in better shape than this from wholesale dealers, for no more than fifty bucks, so I know the local-market valuie, too. I offer him a whopping (for where it is, relatively speaking) $67, and but a bit of pleading in my voice. As I thought he would, he agrees to the sale at this price, with just a slight hesitation. The woman working with him there (I think she's his wife?) tells me that he'd already turned away four would-be buyers, who had also offered "a few tens" of dollars. I don't know if they'd offered as much or not, but I'm the one who got it! :yes:
I go over to the bank --where I was going anyway-- to cash a check I'd been given, and come back soon with the money. The guy is shocked that I came back so soon, and ribs me about my apparent eagerness, until I explain that the only reason I'd been going by there in the first place was to go to the bank, and now was on my way back (all true)!
Anyway, I pay him the money, and he unplugs it and hands it to me, seeming much happier now about selling it, since he has cash in hand. He mentions cleaning it up, and we discuss this, with me assuring him that I'll use good stuff and do a good job of it. The handover complete, I carry it home and start to clean it up. It's playing in the background now, a classical FM station, and you know what? For a boombox, it's really not bad-sounding at all!
:thmbsp: It should be better after a good bath, some DeOxit and a recap job. Most likely I'll sell this to pay for other gear, since I laready have one of these, but I don't mind using it for a bit, first, when I want portable music. My other M90 "keeper" is so mint that I don't want to move it anywhere, lest it get scratched. This one I'm not worried about.
But I get ahead of my story... before I leave him, I tell him I'll try to get him another replacement box with big woofers and bass, so he can still hear music. I'm trying to clear out stuff, anyway, and among my piles of boomboxes I know I have another "Corona" brand box that isn't worth much in the market (IMO it SHOULD BE, based on the sound! :yes, but which also has big woofers and very full bass, and which can get really loud... in fact, it's one of the best-sounding boomboxes I know of, even though it is little-known, and it should be just right for his needs. I'll pull it out and take it to him soon, so he can still have his music and the cash, too... and I can have the more "collectible" box, which matters to me, but not to him. Win-win all around, with each of us probably believing we got the better end of the deal.
The only problem will be if I decide later to sell this, and actually get a thousand-plus bucks for it... then I probably should give some of it to him. Technically no real obligation to do so at all, but I'd feel guilty if I didn't. If not cash, I'll find something else that he'll like, or buy him a nice dinner or something. In the meantime, I'm going to just enjoy possessing and cleaning up another "ultimate boombox" for a bit. I might leave all those logos/badges on for a while -- it makes for quite a good conversation piece!
I'll almost certainly sell this eventually, because my space is shrinking and I can only keep a very few boomboxes in total, but at least when I do, it will pay for some other stuff!
I think for me, half the fun of this was simply to be able to say that I found this thing "In the wild", and did NOT buy it from eBay, or a shop, or a dealer or collector. That is virtually unheard of, and probably the ultimate "coup" or "score" (how does one write :"scroe" in graffiti?) in the boombox world.
Just thought I'd share today's little audio adventure... even if it wasn't quite the usual kind of gear that is talked about on AK, and even if I did almost take advantage of someone (depending on how you look at it).
On top of a stack of junk was a LARGE boombox. It was fairly dirty, but it had large woofers on each side. It looked vaguely familiar, but I've seen thousands of boomboxes and own around 100, and don't remember them all at first glance, so I looked closer to see what it was.
First I notice the two large TEAC logos on the upper sides of the faceplate area... TEAC made something like this? :headscratch Not that I'd ever seen before!
I have to look more closely...Wait a sec... there is a MARANTZ logo in the middle top area, between the TEAC logos! Something weird is going on here. :screwy:
It gets worse... there is that classic SANSUI logo near the middle of the bottom part!
And another smaller, silver logo beside it...
Someone really went to town on this thing, sticking badges from all their favorite brands on it, and making sure that each badge was positioned precisely, where it would look "authentic", if it weren't for the number of them! These are all 3-D "badge" type logos you find on their regular hi-fi gear, that I am mentioning; someone must have collected these from various speaker grills or other sources.
But it was the little silver logo that finally got me to look at the box itself, and already with beating heart... I DID know this boombox! :yes: In fact, I would probably have recognized it instantly, if not for all those extra logos stuck on where they didn't belong, since I've had one sitting in my office-room for a few years, where I see it every day.
I picked it up and checked the manufacturer's nameplate on the back to make sure... YEP! No doubt about it! I'm holding in my hands THE single most sought-after, the most expensive, the holiest and the grailiest
D) of all the holy grail boomboxes on the entire planet ... the JVC RC-M90W, otherwise more casually known simply as "the M90". And I found it "IN THE WILD", not in a collection and not online, but in actual use in a streetside location. It's just about the ultimate "wet dream" for any boombox collector, but basically unheard-of, in real life. It's the equivalent of finding Marantz tube gear or an SX-1980 at curbside, or at a garage sale for five bucks, or something like that.
I ask the old guy there (whom I've known for YEARS and bought stuff from before, usually at scrap-metal-value prices), how much it was. "That's not for sale. It has a lot of bass, which is what I hear best, so I'm using it myself. Hard to find big ones like that, with a lot of bass." This guy is not so young, and spends hours a day hammering apart metal scrap, so I imagine he needs something like this to hear the music well at all. He probably has no high-end hearing left. I can understand. I feel sorry for him, and I don't want to deprive him of his music. And he seems fairly adamant that it is not for sale.
...but still, I WANT THIS BOX! And I've never known this guy not to sell stuff, for the right price. Plus I know that he'll crank it up until it quits (or until someone steals it, a real possibility with THIS box), and then bash it apart for recycling (because that is what he does for a living, and what that box ended up there for!). I don't want to let that happen.
It's quite dirty, and I'm not sure how well it will clean up, but even a "beater" or parts unit of one of these is easily worth a thousand bucks to a collector... and getting one would make any boombox fan VERY happy. This one works, is complete, and may clean up pretty nicely in the end; at least nothing is broken or missing and it isn't DOA and while very dirty, it does not look damaged or scratched (beyond some mnor pitting on some brightwork). As a collector, I know what this is worth, and see it differently than he does. He ONLY wants the booming sound it can make, and has no clue about, nor any interest in, its collectible value. He doesn't know how to use a computer, let alone sell anything on ePay.
I ask again, and again he says it's not for sale. I know he would normally sell a thing like this for maybe twenty, thirty dollars, and I've bought two of them before in better shape than this from wholesale dealers, for no more than fifty bucks, so I know the local-market valuie, too. I offer him a whopping (for where it is, relatively speaking) $67, and but a bit of pleading in my voice. As I thought he would, he agrees to the sale at this price, with just a slight hesitation. The woman working with him there (I think she's his wife?) tells me that he'd already turned away four would-be buyers, who had also offered "a few tens" of dollars. I don't know if they'd offered as much or not, but I'm the one who got it! :yes:
I go over to the bank --where I was going anyway-- to cash a check I'd been given, and come back soon with the money. The guy is shocked that I came back so soon, and ribs me about my apparent eagerness, until I explain that the only reason I'd been going by there in the first place was to go to the bank, and now was on my way back (all true)!
Anyway, I pay him the money, and he unplugs it and hands it to me, seeming much happier now about selling it, since he has cash in hand. He mentions cleaning it up, and we discuss this, with me assuring him that I'll use good stuff and do a good job of it. The handover complete, I carry it home and start to clean it up. It's playing in the background now, a classical FM station, and you know what? For a boombox, it's really not bad-sounding at all!
:thmbsp: It should be better after a good bath, some DeOxit and a recap job. Most likely I'll sell this to pay for other gear, since I laready have one of these, but I don't mind using it for a bit, first, when I want portable music. My other M90 "keeper" is so mint that I don't want to move it anywhere, lest it get scratched. This one I'm not worried about.But I get ahead of my story... before I leave him, I tell him I'll try to get him another replacement box with big woofers and bass, so he can still hear music. I'm trying to clear out stuff, anyway, and among my piles of boomboxes I know I have another "Corona" brand box that isn't worth much in the market (IMO it SHOULD BE, based on the sound! :yes
, but which also has big woofers and very full bass, and which can get really loud... in fact, it's one of the best-sounding boomboxes I know of, even though it is little-known, and it should be just right for his needs. I'll pull it out and take it to him soon, so he can still have his music and the cash, too... and I can have the more "collectible" box, which matters to me, but not to him. Win-win all around, with each of us probably believing we got the better end of the deal.The only problem will be if I decide later to sell this, and actually get a thousand-plus bucks for it... then I probably should give some of it to him. Technically no real obligation to do so at all, but I'd feel guilty if I didn't. If not cash, I'll find something else that he'll like, or buy him a nice dinner or something. In the meantime, I'm going to just enjoy possessing and cleaning up another "ultimate boombox" for a bit. I might leave all those logos/badges on for a while -- it makes for quite a good conversation piece!
I'll almost certainly sell this eventually, because my space is shrinking and I can only keep a very few boomboxes in total, but at least when I do, it will pay for some other stuff!
I think for me, half the fun of this was simply to be able to say that I found this thing "In the wild", and did NOT buy it from eBay, or a shop, or a dealer or collector. That is virtually unheard of, and probably the ultimate "coup" or "score" (how does one write :"scroe" in graffiti?
) in the boombox world.Just thought I'd share today's little audio adventure... even if it wasn't quite the usual kind of gear that is talked about on AK, and even if I did almost take advantage of someone (depending on how you look at it).
We'd love to see the collection!
