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Monsters Receivers On Ebay!
- Thread starter SoCal Sam
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Arkay
Lunatic Member
Do they sell "drool guards" for keyboards? I think I might need to get one soon, if there are many more posts/threads like this one!
All three very desireable receivers, although personally I'd probably jump first at the Marantz. Unfotrunately, with the prices these fetch on ePay plus international shipping costs, I'm not even going to bid on them.
Maybe one day, if I'm very lucky, I'lll get these from my local used-audio hunting grounds. I did recently get an SX-1250 there to keep the SC-1050 company, am soon adding a 9090DB to the 9090, and just yesterday found one of the very rarest big Marantz boomboxes, to join its almost equally rare cousins I've picked up. With patience and persistence, there is always at least HOPE of finding ANYTHING here!
Thanks for posting those links. I'll be following the auctions with great curiosity.
All three very desireable receivers, although personally I'd probably jump first at the Marantz. Unfotrunately, with the prices these fetch on ePay plus international shipping costs, I'm not even going to bid on them.
Maybe one day, if I'm very lucky, I'lll get these from my local used-audio hunting grounds. I did recently get an SX-1250 there to keep the SC-1050 company, am soon adding a 9090DB to the 9090, and just yesterday found one of the very rarest big Marantz boomboxes, to join its almost equally rare cousins I've picked up. With patience and persistence, there is always at least HOPE of finding ANYTHING here!
Thanks for posting those links. I'll be following the auctions with great curiosity.
Arkay
Lunatic Member
I know, I know. I've been thinking about buying bibs by the boxful to wear during my hunting expeditions, if I can just find a place that stocks them. I dont' want to add too much to the summer humidity in the warehouse places from too much drooling. :scratch2: Or did I have a stroke or something? Is it senility?
Just kidding, of course. But I do really appreciate that this hobby is a different kind of experience for me, here, than it is for most people living in other places. I'm extremely fortunate to be able to see (and pick from) more gear per year (heck, per month!) than most people would probably find over a lifetime. I don't want to spend my whole llife here, but whenever I finally move to some place nicer (short of dying, when I might go somewhere a lot worse!
), I'm sure going to miss these "happy audio hunting grounds"! I do think about that, sometimes. How much and which gear will I ship with mem whenever I eventually leave Hong Kong? What, when, where and how will I sell off/reduce the collection? Will I sell from here, or ship and sell elsewhere, or just hang on to it all until I kick off, and let the scavengers have it? I dont' know yet.
I have sort of stumbled sideways into a secondary collection, too (after the regular audio gear) - boomboxes, of all things. I used to look down on them as cheap junk. Not any more, even though I know they basically (mostly) are. Not the greatest gear around, but great fun to hunt for and cheaper than "good stuff" to collect, and I'm finding some of the rarest and most-valued boxes on the planet, sometimes for relative peanuts. The resale value on them stuns me - up to $2000 on that auction site, for a box I got recently for $38. This week I found an even rarer box, so rare there is no acknowledged/precedent price level for one; a Marantz that appears to be even rarer than the 500. In terms of value-for-money and investment potential, the boomboxes are probably surpassing the audio gear I find - and there is a relative lot of both, even in a "drought" like we've been having here lately. They are pretty decorative, too - sometimes more so than some of the classic gear (which remains my first/main love within this hobby).
Yesterday I saw two 1060s, one in wood (but with two wobbly/damaged controls!), a 1070, and a 1090, just to mention the newly-spotted Marantz integrateds. Almost got a Sansui AU-517, but passed because there were a few more rust dots on the case than I was comfortable with; probably would require an extensive restoration. More other stuff than I can remember or mention, and that was an average day, in a relative drought! Hundreds and hundreds of components: TTs, amps, speakers, receivers, LDs, DATs, VCRs, TVs, you-name-it! ... and while some stuff is slower-moving and some is snapped up quickly, there is always a steady turnover at the margins, and I see that every day that I get there!
Like you say, to drool for! I try hard to make the best of the situation, given my current situation (limited space and funds) -- if for no other reason than that I know how many people would "die" to have the same chances I'm lucky enough to be facing. [And admittedly also because it is highly-addictive FUN, too!
]What I need to do next is figure out how to get enough money to buy my own warehouse/museum and fill it. That would solve my problem... at least for a year or so, until IT got filled....
SoCal Sam
Lunatic Member
Awesome Arkay! In Los Angeles, there are hoards if collectors and entertainment types so the pickings are thin. If anything shows up on Craigslist, I tpically have to email within the first 15 minutes or forget about it! Sellers have told me they get dozens of emails and if they have advertized a phone number, it's even worse. My sources for gear are usually picked clean and what is there is BOTL or beat to heck. Worse, the thrift stores are on to the vintage craze and prices have been going up. (Apparently, they have internet access and can look at ebay.)
I spent a few summers in Hong Kong during the late 70's and can remember electronics shops literally at every corner. The display windows were full of interesting boomboxes. I bought a TOTL Sony CFT-580 (?) with wood sides and cloth grills in 1978. It gave 20 years of faithful service and went on many road trips until the power switch finally gave out. I wish I'd taken care of it, it was one nice sounding boombox!
I spent a few summers in Hong Kong during the late 70's and can remember electronics shops literally at every corner. The display windows were full of interesting boomboxes. I bought a TOTL Sony CFT-580 (?) with wood sides and cloth grills in 1978. It gave 20 years of faithful service and went on many road trips until the power switch finally gave out. I wish I'd taken care of it, it was one nice sounding boombox!
Bigears
Manager of my own day
You said it Sam. SoCal is so picked over you have to make a career out of combing C/L, thrifts and swap meets to find the BOTT or MOTT gear. Even then the pickings are slim. We have many folks that buy and flip this stuff with no regard for anything but the profit. I run into certain eBay sellers at my hunting spots and when I get home the gear is already on eBay. One seller in particular lives less than a mile from me and seems to hit the motherlode every week. I think he does this full time. I've lost out huge deals by being only 30 seconds behind this guy.
sauvong
Active Member
Don't feel so bad guys. Now that I am working most days I am not finding anything up here either in the SF bay area. I know there is a lot of gear out here but the competition has become fierce. Seems like the word is getting out that maybe all this "junk" at the thrift stores is worth something. Ebay is not helping about either by having all these seminars on how to get rich quick. It even appears that the good gear is not even hitting the floors. And when the stuff does hit the floors the price is astronomical. One AKer found a pair of Polks marked $200.00 and when he asked the Goodwill employee why such high a price he was told they checked on Ebay and that is how much they are going for.
Also 2 weeks back at the local flea market I saw a Scott tube tuner and the guy wanted $170 cause his buddy saw one go for $270 on Ebay just the other day.
Goodwill is now doing eBay pricing, the flea market people is now doing eBay pricing. The word thrift store and flea market is loosing its meaning. I didn't come to these places to pay eBay prices, I came here to get a bargain. I guess it doesn't help that eBay is three blocks from my house. Bah, let me chuck a few stones.
Sau
Arkay
Lunatic Member
I humbly and officially thank the audio Gods that I moved away from Southern Cal and came to Hong Kong.
:ntwrthy::ntwrthy::ntwrthy: =>audio Gods
Sort of wished I'd cottoned on to all this a few years earlier, though. Back then, from all accounts the pickings were really, really fabulous... Just to cite an example, I could have stocked in STACKS of things like AU-9500s for $35 each, and TOTL quad receivers from Sansui and Marantz for not more than fifty bucks. Lots, lots more, too... just five to ten years ago. By now much of the best stuff has already been siphoned off to parts North in China, and that process continues relentlessly. I'm late to the party, but better late than never, as there is still some "good hunting" left among the scraps. Hoping to do with stockpiling a few boomboxes now what I am already too late to do with components.
:ntwrthy::ntwrthy::ntwrthy: =>audio Gods
Sort of wished I'd cottoned on to all this a few years earlier, though. Back then, from all accounts the pickings were really, really fabulous... Just to cite an example, I could have stocked in STACKS of things like AU-9500s for $35 each, and TOTL quad receivers from Sansui and Marantz for not more than fifty bucks. Lots, lots more, too... just five to ten years ago. By now much of the best stuff has already been siphoned off to parts North in China, and that process continues relentlessly. I'm late to the party, but better late than never, as there is still some "good hunting" left among the scraps. Hoping to do with stockpiling a few boomboxes now what I am already too late to do with components.
SoCal Sam
Lunatic Member
I'm fortunate enough to be able to afford the gear I want. I won't overpay but I will also pay market if I really want something. That being said, I prefer a deal when I can find one and if I lose out, so be it. Like Bigears, I've lost out on some great deals like a Mac tube set for $200, Marantz 2500 for $200, and Klipsch LaScalas for $350. I was responder number two for the Mac and Marantz.
Arkay
Lunatic Member
That has got to hurt! At least when I lose out, it is usually because someone beat me to it by getting there/seeing it/buying it first, not because of a bidding war. The tradition here is that whoever opens negotiation first has the right to finish their effort by either reaching an agreement and getting it, or by walking away. If they stop negotiating, put the item down or start to walk away, even if only for a minute as a (risky) negotiation tactic, THEN someone else can jump in and open their own negotiation. The first person has then conceded their place in the cue, and has to wait until the new guy either buys or walks away. In other words, only one person at a time negotiates. Any time they pull back, another person can take over with their own negotiation. Sometimes I've seen someone back off for a minute, hoping the seller will drop the price, and I've stepped right in and bought it immediately for the seller's asking price. :yes: Other times, I've had it done to me. :sigh: The system works well to keep people from killing each other, and is reasonably fair to both buyers and sellers, because first-come, first-served is considered fair, and if a person loses out because they pulled out of negotiation, they have only themselves to blame.
As for paying fair prices, by now I have a decent sense of what local wholesale pricing is like. By online auction standards, all my buys are real bargains, and frankly I wouldnt' pay "market value" (because I don't have to -I'm spoiled!
)... but then again, I pay fair market prices for the market I'm buying in, usually pretty much the same prices other buyers are paying. All sales are final, for gear sold as-is, and usually no testing. The sellers themselves honestly do not know if the gear works, probably 90+ percent of the time. Caveat Emptor! That is a major reason why prices are cheaper. Pay in cash, and provide your own transport. No returns, although you can usually sell the gear back at a reduced price. ONCE IN A WHILE, a seller will offer you a "money back guarantee" for an item, but that is a relatively rare exception. On the good side, I get to see and inspect all purchases "in the flesh" before buiying -- no trying to see through poor pics and wondering if the seller is telling the truth, and no worries about shipping damage.
Brudha
Shania before Mark Twain
I believe the buyer is an AK member who hasn't posted in quite a while. Isn't that hard to search it out here. Looks like he's on a mission in accumulating a collection of all the brands' biggest monsters of all time.
He just might have them all by now and this was his last piece of the puzzle.........
