"SPRING" Thrift Store Finds....

[OLDisGOLD]

That's nice! If you can fix them up for less than $30 in raw materials I'd say that's a definite find...

Here are my newest babies:

pair of Realistic Nova 8's in superb condition (drivers are untouched and all controls on back works for mid/tweeter level) for a grand total of $15.50.

and Yowza!! They sound really really good! I totally wasn't expecting them to project as much detail and accuracy to the original timbre for acoustic instruments as they produce. A little astounding I would say. Very non-fatiguing, no obnoxious frequency humps or blatant forwardness. Geez. This is not making my decision on what speakers to keep easy. Anyone else had these?

I just passed up a pair of Nova-8's at the SA yesterday for $30.00. I thought that was about twice what I was willing to pay for them. I had a pair of Nova-9's back in the 70's.

 

[audiopete]

Hi everyone, just wanted to add to this old thread.

I scored a pair of Kenwood KL-6060s in great shape with lattice grills and Kenwood tags,a pair of Paradigm Monitor 5 SE that need new woofer surrounds (anyone know the best place for 8" flat rubber surrounds?) and a single "Dynacoustic" speaker that I think is Taiwanese crap, but I could be wrong. 5 speakers - $10.

Also a pair of Sony SS 610 3 way bookshelfs that live in my shop and need some rewiring and binding posts added, and a pair of Panasonic 8840 bookshelfs that I am going to refurb and sell as vintage rear surrounds. $10 for all 4. I scored a single 4 way Panasonic SB 300 for $5 that I plan to add as a centre channel to the package. Vintage surround sound!

The Kenwoods are gorgeous and sound amazing. 4 way, 6 driver acoustic suspension with a 14" woof that isn't boomy in the slightest. These are upwards of 100 dB/m and will find a nice match with a Rogers/Phillips stereo SE tube receiver I am restoring (rescued from SA dumpster and full of vintage Rogers/Phillips Miniwatt 12AX7s, ECL86s and a Mullard rectifier tube!) The Kenwoods are hooked up to my Denon PMA 360, which is amazing in itself - volume open full with no input and source direct - no noise or hiss whatsoever. You wouldn't think it was even on till you pressed play....

My best score was a 1964 Hammond M143 in great shape (needs resto) for free from a private home. (along with other various free vintage solid state organs)

I hear you all about the thrift stores gouging....I mean c'mon, you get this stuff for nothing! Give us a break.

Cheers everyone.

 

[Ken Boyd]

The prices you claim that are outragous don't sound that high to me. Many people give lots of money and items for free to the SA and GW just to help people out, and you all are bitching that you can't find steals from a charity store, what has America come to. Lots of times when I buy stuff from the charity stores I will give them extra just to help out them. Many people give money to the SA during Christmas when they sit out in front of stores with the bucket and a guy ringing a bell, and all you guys want is something worth a lot of money for hardly nothing! The guys pricing items in the back are at most minimum wage employees that have no clue as to what its worth, in their eye's they probably price them based on what they think is a good piece of equipment, if the item is over priced just don't buy it, and when you do find something that is under priced I bet you don't run up to the cashier and let them know that items is worth a lot more and give them an extra 50 for it, do you? Have a heart and be happy when you do find a good deal and remember that those places are there to try and help other people that are in need, they serve a much better function than a government taxing everyone to give out food stamps and housing to someone that is just too lazy or has made all the wrong choices in life and now wants you to pay for it.

 

[audiopete]

Not sure how you turned this into a rant about government??? Do you like to drive on tax paid roads and cross tax paid bridges or would you prefer to provide your own infrastructure and services like water and sewer?

You have a sad outlook if you think everyone helped by the government is lazy and just looking for freebies from you. What happened to the unfortunates you spoke about earlier?

 

[Cogsinister]

It's not quite Spring yet..........

 

[audiopete]

I'm feeling it

 

[Ken Boyd]

Not sure how you turned this into a rant about government??? Do you like to drive on tax paid roads and cross tax paid bridges or would you prefer to provide your own infrastructure and services like water and sewer?

You have a sad outlook if you think everyone helped by the government is lazy and just looking for freebies from you. What happened to the unfortunates you spoke about earlier?

You missed my point, I was trying to put into perspective the reason for Charity thrift stores, its not about you finding steals but for helping people out who need help from the goodness of other people who wish to give. I only threw in govenment because of their approach is just takening without regards of if we wish to give it freely. I don't wish to steal the thread into some big debate on govenment I just wanted to remind people who seemed to be complaining of some high prices at thrift stores to keep in mind of the points I made.

 

[audiopete]

Hi Ken, I see your point, now that I look at it all from a step back. No, no, government is not where I want to go either.

I guess it is a strange predicament to complain about higher charity store prices. I guess we are used to thrift stores being thrift, but ultimately forgetting that they are for charity, which I am a big supporter of. We all need to help each other out a little to make all our lives better.

I think the issue is the rush you get when you find something valuable for so little and thrift stores are/were a good place for that. There are getting to be fewer and fewer surprises out there. I will keep on with the hunt, as always.

Take care, and I apologize if I was out of line, and certainly for missing your point.

 

[tubed]

If charity thrift store pricing becomes too high, the function of the charity thrift ceases to be what it was intended , the the redistribution of goods at bargain basement prices or a "steal" for a lack of a better term.

 

[Van_Isle]

I thought one of the other functions of a charity thrift store was to raise funds to support their programs? In that case "market value" pricing of what I guess could be considered "luxury" items, be they electronics or older furniture, or whatever, supports that.

Let's face it, the average shopper using a thrift store because their position in life necessitates it isn't normally interested in purchasing that old Marantz receiver ... they are looking, for example, for clothing their children can wear to school.

 

[Cogsinister]

So you could have Two parts of the thrift store.....one for people who can't afford to shop anywhere else.....and another for people in expensive cars who want something for nothing.......the person on the cash could smell the customers and direct them to the correct side of the store.......

 

[Ken Boyd]

I don't know about having two sides to a thrift store, but I think your response was in jest. You have to admit many people other than those looking for cheap items because they can't afford them are ones looking for items to turn around and flip on auction sites and CL forums. That latter shopper makes it more difficut to find the good prices as well as some guy in the back that thinks something is worth more than it will sell for. How many time have I gone in antique stores and seen for the most part prices of items that are so high that very little of the items move. Look at eBay, how many times do you see people put high prices on items that hardly ever sell they just keep relisting them over and over hope someday that someone will buy it. Maybe some day someone will but for the most part the market will determine the price and you can put any price on it you want but if you start it at a dollar the buyers will let you know what they are willing to pay. Most thrift stores will where I live put a price on an item and after a short time lowers the price if an item stays to long. The Goodwill stores where I live have two sections the first section is where the put the new items and after a while if it doesn't sell them move it over to the other side where everything is a dollar or two. I myself hardly ever find any good electronics period, but I do visit them a few times a week for books and music, half of my music collection has come from the thrift stores, not many people here buy records most people today don't even have a turntable, other than audiophiles. The real challenge for me is to find some that have not had cheap turntables damage a record. Same is the case on CD's, I find many of the CD's are not in good shape, and I don't want any scratched up CD's. Most audiophiles treat their music like an investment, they take of it, and they for the most parts don't sell it or give it to the thrift stores. I find an exception with Classical music as their is much less of a market for it here and I have found a lot of good Classical music, and for the most parts the records have had little or no play time.

Hope everyone has the opportunity to find some good deals at the thrifts, I myself never thought of a thrift store having good deals on audio equipment until I came across these forums.

 

[Cogsinister]

Yes it was in jest

 

[cabinetnut]

Sansui sp 2000

I don't know anything about the amps, volts, watts, drivers, etc that everyone on the forum does, but really like the looks of the vintage speakers. Just bought a Sansui SP 2000 at a thrift for $50. Didn't buy the other until I gave the first a listen. The thing weighs a ton and is in excellent shape on the outside, so I felt the sound would be great. However-compared to my old Pioneer HPM-500's, it sounds AWFUL! like Mick's crying for help from a cave deep inside the speaker and Keith's no help at all - plus there's hardly any base. I can tell there's 'sound' coming from each of the speakers (6), but it's like listening to my old am transistor radio.

Anyway, we're trying to redo the main living area in a real 'retro' look-and it really looks great w the old lattice grill that i remember people had growing up that had real quality stuff- so thought for sure this would be too. Going to keep it as furniture anyway, but would really like to know if perhaps there's a simple fix to such a box that appears to be wasting it's potential. Is there any way to salvage this thing with replacement parts, or possibly put the HPM-500 speakers (2 way) and guts into the Sansui (6 way) or perhaps just clean it up somehow as is?? Thanks

 

[mikewish]

The local Goodwill here has raised the prices on ALL vinyl LP's to $10. None of them sell, so after a few weeks they go to the landfill. Who is that helping?

 

[Harvey/ Ga]

I
Anyway, we're trying to redo the main living area in a real 'retro' look-and it really looks great w the old lattice grill that i remember people had growing up that had real quality stuff- so thought for sure this would be too. Going to keep it as furniture anyway, but would really like to know if perhaps there's a simple fix to such a box that appears to be wasting it's potential. Is there any way to salvage this thing with replacement parts, or possibly put the HPM-500 speakers (2 way) and guts into the Sansui (6 way) or perhaps just clean it up somehow as is?? Thanks

Putting new capacitors in the crossover might help. Made a BIG difference in the sound of my old Wharfedale 60's.

Most folks are happy to help in any way that they can...I will :thmbsp:

 

[Harvey/ Ga]

The local Goodwill here has raised the prices on ALL vinyl LP's to $10. None of them sell, so after a few weeks they go to the landfill. Who is that helping?

They charge 50 cents for vinyl and 25 cents for cassettes at my local thrift.

The local GW (different thrift) charges $1/cassette. Haven't seen vinyl there.

 

[AV-Man]

I went to a local Goodwill store yesterday and picked up a Nakamichi OMS-1A single disc cd player for $15.00 in great condition. I have never owned anything by Nakamichi, but felt for the money it was worth a gamble; it tested fine at the store. Anyone have any feedback or opinions on this unit?

There was also a pair of the vintage wood lattice grill Sansui SP-2500's for 60 bucks, in decent condition including both cabinets and drivers. I left the for another fellow audio collector.

 

[audiomagnate]

I picked up a pair of ADS L1530s at a consignment shop last week for $200.00. After replacing the tweeter fuses they work/sound fine.

 

[Teradacto58]

Polk Audio Find!

Found a sweet buy today, at one of the local thrift stores!! A nice pair of Polk Audio Monitor 7A speakers....only $20.00! Gonna try them out later tonight! Here is a picture I borrowed of of AK. Mine are as same as the picture , but have clear domes on the tweeters.