Goodwill/SA/Thrift Store Discussions & Finds

Yep! I’m seeing retail pricing lately in some of my thrifts. And the oddest things too! They had a pair of vinyl covered no-name speakers in the boxes for sale at $89.99. They sat there for three weeks with the speakers getting more damaged as time went on. I’m wondering if they threw them in the dumpster? All because they grossly over priced them.

Other sources seem to be getting better though.

I saw a nice Yamaha CA-2010 for $400 on the weekend. I passed, mainly because of timing. There were two other items I wanted more that took care of the $400 play money.
 
Virgil said:
Visiting Seattle and thought I'd stop at a GW in Burien. Good idea, found a pair of KEF K120s for $19.99. Fine but the real gem I thought was the Pioneer SX-9 top of the line receiver for early 80s for $34.99. I think just after the flouroscans series.

Yeah they're gaudy as hell & not as nice as what they replaced but for some reason they caught my very young eye way back then.

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I found an SX9 at the thrift a few years ago.It was missing a door but did play.It sounded pretty good for the two days I used it before it went kaput.I like quality early 80s gear.Problem with this and earlier gear is there is always a good chance it either doesn't work or is not going to work shortly thereafter and there are no qualified people here to repair.Not to mention the money it takes to repair or restore this era of gear.
 
superdog said:
I found an SX9 at the thrift a few years ago.It was missing a door but did play.It sounded pretty good for the two days I used it before it went kaput.I like quality early 80s gear.Problem with this and earlier gear is there is always a good chance it either doesn't work or is not going to work shortly thereafter and there are no qualified people here to repair.Not to mention the money it takes to repair or restore this era of gear.
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The SX-9 had a true Monster Receiver amp section. It first appeared in the SX-3900, then the SX-D7000, then the SX-9, and then another dreadful looking receiver. Not a big fan of the SX-9 or the later models, they had micro-switches with small contacts that wore out or were very hard to clean. All of them were good sounding in a Pioneer kind of way. That is, not obnoxious and good enough.
 
Not music but cost $1.00

Works great and came with all of the parts (except for the floppy disk)

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SoCal Sam said:
The SX-9 had a true Monster Receiver amp section. It first appeared in the SX-3900, then the SX-D7000, then the SX-9, and then another dreadful looking receiver. Not a big fan of the SX-9 or the later models, they had micro-switches with small contacts that wore out or were very hard to clean. All of them were good sounding in a Pioneer kind of way. That is, not obnoxious and good enough.
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If one finds one working for cheap cool but I don't think these age well at all.I hear you on the micro switches.Problems waiting to happen after thirty years.This find was a good reminder to be very careful about bringing this type of stuff home.Check it out real good first no matter how cheap.
 
booted said:
hello all i found (2) realistic turntables today. (1) realistic lab 400 (2) realistic lab 500. Paid $9.99 each...View attachment 1301257 View attachment 1301258 View attachment 1301259 View attachment 1301260 View attachment 1301261 View attachment 1301262 View attachment 1301263
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Nice find! Thrift store? The LAB-400 (and its brother, the 420) are probably the best looking Realistic TT's. So very 70's Radio Shack, but has still aged well.
I believe that LAB-500 was an oddity made by Mitsubishi and the technically superior of the two. While not as attractive to my eye, I know a local fellow with that same one collecting dust in the basement and, if he does sell it, it'll be a good deal for 10x your price
 
Yesterday was thrift day for Walter and me. First was Buy the Pound where I picked up around 280 45s. They were in decent shape and many were small label, promos and oddball groups. I started sorting and I've found Northern Soul, Psych, Funk, you name it. Very eclectic mix. I also had a bag of books and CDs and the total came to just over $8.00.

From there we hit SA where they had 3 boxes of fresh albums, many of them hard rock and metal. Walter found about 30 and I came in at 15 LPs for $1.00 each. Here's a sampling.

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bobsvinyl said:
Yesterday was thrift day for Walter and me. First was Buy the Pound where I picked up around 280 45s. They were in decent shape and many were small label, promos and oddball groups. I started sorting and I've found Northern Soul, Psych, Funk, you name it. Very eclectic mix. I also had a bag of books and CDs and the total came to just over $8.00.

From there we hit SA where they had 3 boxes of fresh albums, many of them hard rock and metal. Walter found about 30 and I came in at 15 LPs for $1.00 each. Here's a sampling.

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Balaam and the Angel !!! AWESOME!!!
 
Just got a load of vinyl in from the recyclers and found some tapes mixed in. Amongst them a 7.5ips chuck berry master and another one with no artist listed, track names are "in jungle town" "every beat of my heart" and "Brisbane Road"

Edit, vinyl is mainly jazz, one nm £60 Blue Note pressing, nm 1st press The Wall with the sticker and a NM 1st WYWH along with 30 or so decent but not really rare jazz pressings
 

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Oh, that might be something. It was likely for someone to transcribe the songs for sheet music. If you are really really lucky they could be guitar only demos or something else not commercially available. If they are the released versions it still might be exciting to a hard core Berry collector. If I found that I would have to bake it and play it immediately. Curiosity would kill me.
 
markshan said:
Oh, that might be something. It was likely for someone to transcribe the songs for sheet music. If you are really really lucky they could be guitar only demos or something else not commercially available. If they are the released versions it still might be exciting to a hard core Berry collector. If I found that I would have to bake it and play it immediately. Curiosity would kill me.
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Unfortunately despite having 5 R2R decks none actually work so I won't be able to play it for a while :(
 
Dazaa said:
Just got a load of vinyl in from the recyclers and found some tapes mixed in. Amongst them a 7.5ips chuck berry master and another one with no artist listed, track names are "in jungle town" "every beat of my heart" and "Brisbane Road"

Edit, vinyl is mainly jazz, one nm £60 Blue Note pressing, nm 1st press The Wall with the sticker and a NM 1st WYWH along with 30 or so decent but not really rare jazz pressings
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What is that Hindustan lp under the box?
 
Dazaa said:
It's one of 50 Indian 78's that I wanted but had to buy the whole lot, quite a few interesting instrumental tunes and lots of soundtracks.
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You lucky you know what. I've only ever found one, and it had a crack. Still cool as hell, but I wish I had more. How many were in the lot?
 
Over the past year I've been simultaneously disappointed and relieved by thrift scores drying up.
Between having a few nice higher-end pieces and limited storage space, I've been determined to only acquire when a find stands to elevate my system.
But resolve broke down when all three of these Pioneers popped up the same week, three different shops, for under $20 total, Including the StraightWire cables.
When you hot, you hot!
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SA-510, SX-680, SA-7100
Each in peachy condition, save for a missing switch cover and a B-speaker button, snapped off by a certain enthusiastic seven-year-old who thinks everything is a knob. <sigh>
How could I resist a mini representation of each stage of Pioneer's hey-day?

Now I mean it, no more mid-fi, no more mid-fi...
 
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