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The pain: Tell us how you overpaid!

legal eagle

legal eagle

Sound Hound
Just found out I paid waaay too much for an equalizer. Luckily, it's a few dozens of $s, but still it hurts...

Sob stories may include broken promises (such as "mint in box" which turn out to be a box that used to hold mints...).

For exmple: yours truly bought a Luxman MX-100 "with intermitent left channell" for 100$ + shipping from Canada, only to be told by his audio guy ((Rockville Hi-Fi in Rockville Center Long Island. The nicest and most honest guy who knows his business) that both channells are blown, and it is evident somebody tried to fix them only causing more damage beyond repair.

So?:tears::tears::tears:
:tears:
 
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Bought a couple of woofers from a guy once. Said they needed refoaming, and that he had tried one but he thought he did it wrong and that it needed redone. Turned out the woofer was blown, fried, with the VC fused to the magnet structure, fullly bottomed out. Had nothing to do with the refoaming. I forget what was wrong with the other one, but it was trashed too. Both went on the scrap heap. And I'm not one to throw things away casually.
 
I bought a SAE E101 eq from a true scumbag on ePrey several years ago. This character had completely, and intentionally misrepresented the functionality of the thing.

I paid a whopping $380+shipping. Turns out this creep had the brilliant idea of ripping off peeps and figuring he could get away with it. He even said this to me! "I never thought making money could be so much fun, or easy!"

Got my money back, kept the eq, and he got booted from the site. I learned a lot from that deal. This puke hadn't much of a feedback rating, but the eq "looked" really good in the pics.
 
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I paid $70 for a pair of Polk Monitor 5JRs and never liked them. Had second thoughts as I put cash on the barrelhead, as I walked out the door with them, and as I listened to them. Sold them at a loss.

Boo-hoo for me.
 
oldhifiguy said:
anybody ever heard of "buyer beware"?
Click to expand...

Yeahhh,
each and every one of us....
Just remembered another duchbag in Germany: Bought a BASF IA from him, no PAYPAL but only a bank transfer. Should have saw it coming. Than he demanded another 10 euros his bank charged him (yeahhh right...). I sent him to hell, epray would not help, and that's how I lost 150$.


Grrrrr
 
got totally ripped off by good old Bob at Vintage Electronics, who sold me a Marantz 2325 that had been 'completely gone through, cleaning, aligning, adjusting to perfection'...for $375. echowars, punker x, and a veritable braintrust here on AK busted their asses putting that thing right.

oh, and then there was the $300 pair of AR 2ax's from OakTree ....i was so green, i thought, Hey, 3 bills isn't bad for a good old pair of speakers...until i began to find out that most people pay something like $10 for them if they are not given to them...
 
Stopped at a garage sale. Showed the woman one of my flyers showing the kind of equipment that I was looking for. She said that she had something inside that I could look at. It was a huge Carver amp in her home entertainment / home theatre setup. She said that she had been having some trouble with it and described a scratchy and intermittent volume control. Sure enough, that is all that it was. I told her that her amp was far better than the Bose system that she was thinking of getting to replace it. I told her that I could fix the amp for her. I stopped back the next day with a few tools and some DeOxit. An hour later it was back in place working perfectly after having all of the controls and switches cleaned. She was thrilled and commented on how much trouble and money I had saved her. She then brought out her old dust coated Technics turntable with a bent stylus and no dust cover. She asked me what I thought it was worth so I guessed at about $35. She coerced me into paying for it and taking it with me. When I was leaving I was thinking, what the hell did I just do? And I really don’t even want this crappy turntable either. So I spent an hour and a half of my time, $10 on gas, and $35 for a crappy turntable that I didn’t even want? How did I let that happen? This time I guess the nice guy finished last. Never again. I guess that she must have really needed that $35. You wouldn't believe where she was moving to and what she was going to be doing but let's just say that the $35 would be like pocket change to most of us.
 
Marantz SR1000. Garage sale, $25.

Taught me three things: how to look for quality, the name on the front means little, and always test before you buy. It was a bad deal, but the lessons learned have been valuable.
 
Bought a vintage Kenwood receiver on Ebay for $85.00. Described as 'mint', this receiver looked as if it was picked up from the curb(with dried mud caked on the back and sides), one channel out, no panel lights, and was charged $65.00 for shipping. When it arrived, the post office sticker on the box was $17.50 :grumpy:
 
Aldo said:
Bought a vintage Kenwood receiver on Ebay for $85.00. Described as 'mint', this receiver looked as if it was picked up from the curb(with dried mud caked on the back and sides), one channel out, no panel lights, and was charged $65.00 for shipping. When it arrived, the post office sticker on the box was $17.50 :grumpy:
Click to expand...
I hope you did everything possible to get that particular eBayer's head on a pole.
 
one time, i saw a craigslist ad for NOS AR turntable for $200. i was working, but told my co-workers that i had an emergency matter to attend to. when i got there, there was the turntable in an original box. i was so excited and ready to hand over $200 cash. when i opened the box, something wasn't right. it smelled like cigar and looked all beat up. when i unpacked it, it was missing many parts and definately not NOS. i asked the guy, "what's up?" and he said, "oh, it's not new? i thought it was brand new since it was in the box." i wasted one hour of my work time and gas and etc. to deal with this damn bastard. his friend asked me, "then what do you think it's worth?" i said, "not $200 for sure....maybe 60...i don't know." and he said, "since you're here and all, why don't you just give me $60, and i'll let it go." guess what i did. yes, i'm an idiot. it had no cartridge, no arm rest, dead motor, no plate mat, no accessories, and etc. i tried to restore it but ended up getting another one.:no:
 
just spent 90 bucks to ship an EMPTY bike box to florida from texas. ups ground. i think i could have driven it there for less... went back to the same office supply today for copies. .25 cents each. fine. i hand the guy a cd with a pdf on it. oh, it's .25 cents a copy, but five bucks to open the file!

guess that was the last time i go there... :finger:
 
Back in 2000, I absolutely had to have a Sony D-555 Discman. Got in a bidding war over it and ended up paying $260 for it. I was complete with remote, remote sensors, case, and two dead rechargeable batteries. I Still have it, though it is showing the "textbook" signs of bad capacitors and a flaky transport that most all old Discmans get (probably dried grease). Would like to fix it and enjoy it again.
 
bought a pair of vintage 12" Lafayette drivers - looked to be mint condition - description said work great, etc. One of the voice coils was destroyed and that driver distorted - such a shame, the other speaker sounded so great. I'm still looking for a replacement since they are really Goodmans drivers.

Then there was the TEAC 15ips 4-track reel-to-reel I bought on Ebay from a poor widow 'getting rid of her husbands stuff'. The entire things reeked of cat urine and the record function didn't work... the heads were worn to boot. I'm sure she didn't know anything about it - but still...
 
shrinkboy said:
got totally ripped off by good old Bob at Vintage Electronics, who sold me a Marantz 2325 that had been 'completely gone through, cleaning, aligning, adjusting to perfection'...for $375. echowars, punker x, and a veritable braintrust here on AK busted their asses putting that thing right.

oh, and then there was the $300 pair of AR 2ax's from OakTree ....i was so green, i thought, Hey, 3 bills isn't bad for a good old pair of speakers...until i began to find out that most people pay something like $10 for them if they are not given to them...
Click to expand...

This is the first complaint I've heard about Vintage Electronics. I've bought from him maybe 6 or 7 times and never been disappointed. I'm surprised he didn't make it right for you.

Oaktree...only one thing to say about them...expensive. I have had them bookmarked for nearly three years and never came close to be even tempted to buy anything. Just last week while cleaning up my bookmarks I deleted them.

Terry
 
TWan-- i didn't even mention the ct-f950 he never did get right on three trips to him, which finally had to be turned over to pustelniakr to get set right. this was before i discovered the bomb lurking inside the 2325...
 
I have overpaid on a lot of gear but in the end it all works out. The finds that I have gotten for next to nothing have made up for my monetary lapses in reason. Along the way I have learned a lot and feel that I have a system that is worth far more than I paid.
 
That's a very good point. While I try to be as fair as possible with people selling equipment at garage sales that they don't know the value of, I usually don't know what the condition of the equipment is either. Overall though, especially after putting some time and effort into cleaning up and repairing vintage pieces, I too have come out way ahead. An occasional bad buy has to be kept in perspective. It's just part of the game.
 
Only one bad deal on ebay......Infinity center channel listed as mint and showed up with dried soda on top, an inch of dust on the drivers and two smashed in corners. Cleaned up nice, and tested out perfect so I just tried to get the guy to refund $20 or $30 instead of hitting him with negative feedback. He offered me a discount on a future purchase.......yes he did. Long story short paypal got me $50 back. I never go without paypal.
 
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