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Thrift Store Gold???

ItBites

ItBites

New Member
Thrift Stores as a source of Audio Goodness? Please chime in!!

Some folks be lookin down they snouts at thrift store scavengers and sayin this endeavor be a waste o' time and pesos. Well I be such a scavenger of thrift stores for several years now. And I have bought a speaker or two off Craigsdump as well. The only speakers I bought retail after college (I'm old now) were the first Qty 2 of my current Qty 5 Miller & Kriesel S-100Bs and the first of my current Qty 3 M&K subs, all of which I enjoy in my HT 5.3 system. But I've found a bunch o' cool stuff for my collection of 2 channel gear, even though none of it is of Mark Levinson or Wilson caliber. I can't even fathom making a complete inventory or accounting, but listening to my small Garage Radio, when asked by a friend one day, I estimated we were enjoying over $18,000 in gear at that moment, at about $0.06 on the dollar or thereabouts. :yikes:

So, my latest find the other day at my friendly, local Goodwill store:

NEAT Acoustics Critique mk1 (big shout out and mucho thanks to AK'er HELLE for identifying these for me - :bowdown:). Plus two heavy and metal stands and four decent banana plugs included.
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I haven't cleaned 'em yet because I've been entranced listening to them :smoke:, but they will dress-up nicely as well, when I get around to it!

AND these aint the only gold I've mined... Who else and what else?
 
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Very nice if you check my recent threads I have found all garbage at goodwill .
Most of which I did not buy , the best speakers I saw only had one so I didn’t buy them .
They still were shelf system speakers.
My area you gotta have enough cash to buy stuff not going to find anything good in thrift stores .
Congratulations luck is something I do not have.
 
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The quality of vintage speakers at thrift stores has a lot to do with the population density and socioeconomic demographics of your region 30-50 years ago.

My very first speaker purchase not connected to a boom box was a pair of A/D/S L810 i got for $24 in about 1994, at a thrift store. They were in very rough condition. I still have them and keep meaning to do them a proper restoration but some of the cones show evidence of super-amateur repairs so, yeah. Some of the surrounds now need replacement, the veneer was and is a mess, the original (particle board and cloth) grills are long gone.

What else. Boston HD5. Boston A120. Boston A70. JBL J216. A total of 9 Realistic Minimus 7 / 7W. Optimus 77. Some small fullrangers including some small marble-look JBLs and some small honey yellow Pioneers that are quite good for nearfield. Pinnacle AC-550. JBL 8330 honest to god high-efficiency movie theater speakers (but i understand that the real gold rush for these was 5-8 years ago and people were buying them for as little as $8/ea from multiplexes that upgraded). JBL L36 Decade that i am just finishing up repair on. Baby Advent II. Years ago Advent 4002 but i never fixed them. KEF Uni-Q somethingorother. ESS PS-920. DCM TF-350. And today i brought home a Klipsch RW-10D powered "digitally controlled" subwoofer for $7 (MSRP $549).

There have been duds over the last 25 years. Like the DCM QED, DCM KX-6, some other stuff i forget.
 
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You also have to keep in mind that there are a lot more people than you looking for them, and some of those people have a lot more free time than you do. And occasionally they have a hookup with someone on the inside.
 
If one spends enough time visiting thrift stores in a big area, eventually something worth owning will pop up.

For four years, my employment allowed me to hit three or four per day. I was driving a company truck, burning their fuel and could be dispatched anywhere. It was fairly productive.

When I changed jobs, and became tethered to one spot it was foolish to use my own gas and spend my free time to continue that practice.

If I were retired (I should be but I must continue working) and was comfortably well off financially with space to spare at home, I could see myself continuing that past time to occupy my days.

It is cost prohibitive these days to go hunting specifically for audio gear.
 
A couple years ago I did maintenance and repairs for a local self-storage company with locations spread around the Triad (Greensboro - High Point - Winston Salem) and would periodically visit some specific Goodwills.

Best scores: Yamaha CA-610 II (bad channel) with its matching CT-610 II in VG physical condition for $20 and $10. Onkyo TX-2500 missing a bit of lettering just needed control cleaning $10. Same store a month or two later a pair of Advent Baby II needed refoam $10. My KLH Model 17 were $80 but in such great physical shape for a speaker from 1972. All fixed now either at my house or part of a friend's living room setup (Onkyo and Advents).

Saw someone lugging out an Onkyo TX-5000 one time as a I pulled in. Saw someone had bought four Pioneer CS-99A for $10 each the day before I visited another time. Had bought tags had not picked up yet. Passed on a Sansui 5050 in good physical shape at $140 and R-50 at $40. Winston-Salem GW stores can price the nice stuff pretty high.

This was over a 3-4 year time span. It is how often one visits them and did something get put out someone else has not grabbed yet. I think some entities are putting the better stuff up on the auction sites.
 
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OK, so not for everyone and only in certain locales... It still might be fun to read about someone else's good fortune, though? This is AudioKARMA... Karma!

Right?

AND, speaking of Karma. I don't want bad Karma from bragging, and that is not my intent; just to share a cool story maybe? SO disclaimer: I am fortunate to be in a good town for this, so I only look about once or twice a week, or less. And, while I enjoy finding some cool gear and even discussing a find, I am not boasting and in general, I am cursed by bad luck. So, as an added benefit beyond just listening to nice sounds, picking up a few trinkets here and there keeps me busy while I try to figure some things out and get back to whatever seemed so important... before.

But I digest...

Back on the fun stuff:

1. Thanks for chiming in to those who have!!!! I'm now really interested in how bad scavenging in certain locales might be as much as what good finds folks have made!!! Thanks Ultumax for relating your situation! Where you be, by chance?

2. Not one person has even asked how much I paid for my new British Critiques! I find that crazy. It is "the obvious next question" and this is a forum... So it may be that no one cares, but that never stopped me... So, what did I pay? Only this one time and to get the ball rolling, I will divulge voluntarily: $24.99 at Goodwill. Nice, heavy, metal stands and four banana jacks included. no tax.

3.Yesterday, I bought an Acoustic Audio PSW-12 500W active sub for $15.99. Works great (OK it is not the Velodyne or the HSU or even the fun JBL Pro 500, which were all found cheap in thrift shops), and it just needed the RCA inputs replaced after a too-tight RCA connector pulled the metal rings off (my guess?) Not as good a deal as the gentleman above, but still pretty good?


Thanks for tuning in... More to come!
 
My best thrift store find was a pair of Polk Monitor 5B. They were originally marked at $75 each. Too much!! The ReStore changed to a new pricing system and marked them at $15 for the pair. Score! They are in great shape and sound fantastic. But they do not have the Peerless tweeters. :(

Polk Mon 5B front no grills IMG_0848 small.JPG
 
Those Neat speakers are indeed neat, I found a pair a few months back. Never heard of them before and was surprised to see how much they cost new, very basic cabinets and drivers but they feel quality.
 
ItBites said:
Thrift Stores as a source of Audio Goodness? Please chime in!!

So, my latest find the other day at my friendly, local Goodwill store:

Who else and what else?
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ItBites said:
It still might be fun to read about someone else's good fortune,
I don't want bad Karma from bragging, and that is not my intent; just to share a cool story maybe?

Thanks for tuning in... More to come!
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@ItBites

This is the Speaker section and I see you found a cool pair of speakers, congrats!!! There is already a 16 year old thread dedicated thread to thrift store finds that is probably one of thee most popular threads here on AK where people love to share cool stories.

I see you've been here about a month now so I'm not sure if you're aware of it

https://www.audiokarma.org/forums/i...oodwill-sa-finds.6803/page-1450#post-12910360
 
I have found that I lived in an oasis of vintage audio.I've been thrifting since 2000 and found way more than I can remember.After a lull a few years ago it kicked back in for a while.Silver receivers are almost non existent anymore as are turntables.Speakers show up occasionally.One factor that I think is the tank is running dry.There was only so much to be mined and it's been mined for twenty five years.
 
superdog said:
I have found that I lived in an oasis of vintage audio.I've been thrifting since 2000 and found way more than I can remember.After a lull a few years ago it kicked back in for a while.Silver receivers are almost non existent anymore as are turntables.Speakers show up occasionally.One factor that I think is the tank is running dry.There was only so much to be mined and it's been mined for twenty five years.
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Sometimes I see a whole raft of speakers show up at once that gives the impression that someone's wife made them dramatically reduce their collection.

Some of the small and even tiny bookshelf and desktop speakers (formerly parts of mini stereo systems) from Philips, Pioneer, and JVC are pretty good for near-field music listening but it can be hard to tell which ones.

I bought my first thrift store turntable just last year - a Sony PS-FL77 linear tracker. Needed a new belt for the arm actuator.
 
Was dropping stuff off at a thrift 2 weeks ago and saw a minty pair of Kiipsch Fortes in the back bin getting ready to be hauled it. Offered to buy on the spot let me know the price - and got them for free. So yeah sometimes you get lucky, and stuff shows up. There is no way to time it or know when it will happen but it still does.
 
This is in the Speaker section, so I'll limit it to thrift shop speaker scores. They're all pairs. Thrift shop amps, tuners, CDPs, DACs, TTs et al not included.

LS3/5A, made by Chartwell, $10
KEF Reference 101 $10
JBL L-200B "Studio Master", $150
JBL L-220, $200
JBL C40 "Harkness" $80
NHT 2.9 $180
Dali 8 $50
ESS Heil AMT-1 $40
ESS Heil AMT-1B $50
ESS Heil AMT-10 $25
Yamaha NS-1000M $300
Yamaha NS-10 $10
Vandersteen 2C $30
JBL L-65 "Jubal" $40
 
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62vauxhall said:
Not a casual thrift store shopper then? Seems more like it’s your occupation not your hobby
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Never an occupation, never bought things to flip, though I'd sell when I didn't want them anymore on to free up space. I live in LA, a mecca for thrifts. I lived in NY and London too but found very few, maybe the high rents. Here there were lots. "Were" — no longer. And LA is a center of movie and music studios, and high-end stores (though that too has waned). With so many sources, higher-than-average disposable income, areas of uber-wealth, and more thifts, there was just more gear. I think much of it was obtained by inheritance; the heirs didn't want it and didn't know the value. The thrifts definitely didn't know the value, Yorx and Krell were just "for the electronics section", no difference between them. The LS3/5As sat on the shelf for ten days, how many people saw them and ignored them? They looked like small, cheap, boring speakers. Even I barely glanced at them, but tapped them with a knuckle — hmm — then turned them around , and saw the label LS3/5A., Chartwell. Couldn't believe it.
 
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bimasta said:
Never an occupation, never bought things to flip, though I'd sell when I didn't want them anymore on to free up space. I live in LA, a mecca for thrifts. I lived in NY and London too but found very few, maybe the high rents. Here there were lots. "Were" — no longer. And LA is a center of movie and music studios, and high-end stores (though that too has waned). With so many sources, higher-than-average disposable income, areas of uber-wealth, and more thifts, there was just more gear. I think much of it was obtained by inheritance; the heirs didn't want it and didn't know the value. The thrifts definitely didn't know the value, Yorx and Krell were just "for the electronics section", no difference between them. The LS3/5As sat on the shelf for ten days, how many people saw them and ignored them? They looked like small, cheap, boring speakers. Even I barely glanced at them, but tapped them with a knuckle — hmm — then turned them around , and saw the label LS3/5A., Chartwell. Couldn't believe it.
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There's still plenty of good stuff showing up in thrifts in the NYC metro area. It boils down to lucky timing. I've had my share of great finds.
LA, sounds like a gold mine as to how you describe it. Keep shopping!
 
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