• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Gear pricing?

R

Rodrigou

New Member
Good morning good people,

While I have been peeking at the forum for a while, this is my first post, thanks in advance for all the info, very helpful stuff to know getting back into the analog music world.

Question here, I keep seeing posts where people talk about very low prices for receivers, TT's and the such. I fail to find stuff on those ranges anymore but I see these posts are from 2008 and on, talking about gear pricing. Is it the case that pricing on gear is going up because vinyl is making a come back? Geography plays a roll on pricing (I live in northern VA) Just curious as I cannot find those 10, 20, 30 $ gear deals anywhere..lol

I am about to buy a SA-404 receiver, at 110$ looks pretty nice and has been allegedly serviced so "I should trust no problems are coming with it".. is it worth it? I love the look of the Technics receiver and have a 202 and 300 already..

Any thoughts will be appreciated,

Thanks!

R.
 
Register to hide this ad
IME prices as low as you mention are mostly a thing of the past. You may get lucky occasionally at a yard sale or thrift store, but Craigslist prices, while still reasonable, are generally not that low.

Having said that, the price you mentioned sounds like it may be on the high side unless the seller can prove it was serviced recently. The cost of service would normally exceed that asking price.
 
If it is truly a recent service it would not be out of line to ask to see the receipt from the shop.
 
Plus get a more clear definition of what "serviced" means. Cleaned? One bad component replaced? Full recap?
 
Thanks for the feedback, end up not getting the SA-400.
Instead a friend came up out of the blue to give me the receiver and turntable he got from his Dad, sadly for him (not for me) he does not like the physical format or the wires or the analog so I ended with a Pioneer SX-525 receiver and a Yamaha YP-B2, both very pretty looking. I paid with half a cow on the grill and a couple of bottles of wine, awesome deal, if you ask me. Love the blue light on the Pioneer.

These will go in my office for sure, now on the market for a pair of shelf speakers and I'm done, maybe a pair of BA-40's that I am looking at on CG :)

Thanks again, awesome page!
 
Getting great deals on gear is a lot like fishing.
Sometimes you'll fish all day and catch nothing - other times you cast your line and pull out the big fish right away.
That being said in my experience the days of frequent "scores" is behind us.
The real secret (as you've found) is to let it be known amongst your contacts that you're looking.
 
First and foremost: Welcome to AK.

Second, great stuff you got.

Third, pricing is hard to explain and something you have to follow and experience to understand. I bought a Technics SA-500 a couple of years ago to give to my son for college. I paid $100. (I rate it now as nice looking but fair should quality based on the second one I got.) They are selling on ebay for $200 so applying 60% rule, local prices should be around $120. I was given another SA-500 for free. Guy I bought some other gear from. I was missing knobs, had paint across the faceplate and working condition unknown. Spend $40 on knobs (maybe bulbs too, don't recall) and spent 2 hours cleaning switches (bad sound initially) and cleaning faceplate. Now it works, sounds ok, and I could sell it for around $100, but I'm not really making much of profit. So people still get deals on stuff, but they are working to find them and working to make the items work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom