Rosen, it's total luck, but it helps if you go look during the day, rather than in the evening. The best time to look in Goodwill is after they roll the carts of crap out on the floor, but before they put the stuff on the shelves. They don't care if people look through the carts, and a lot of times there's good stuff buried in there. I've had the best luck between around 10AM and noon. Heavy traffic thrift stores get busy between 12-1 because people will go there on their lunch breaks. So go at 11 and you can pick through the stuff before 100 other people have.
Yesterday I found a Marantz 6300 turntable (missing the feet but I already have a solution in the works) in very good working condition, except that the dust cover is going to need some polishing, and it will need a new cartridge (or at least a new stylus). The cartridge installed in the picture is not what came with the unit, but something that I put on so I could test it. The dustcover isn't pictured because I removed and washed it. There are a couple of minor blemishes in the wood veneer, but overall the unit looks very good. I need to clean it a bit more. I already cleaned the speed adjustment pots with DeOxit and they work great. Motor holds speed perfectly.
Also found a nice pair of KLH 911B bookshelf speakers. Not the greatest speakers in the world, but I was looking for a small pair for a second audio system that I was setting up, and apparently EVERYONE on Craigslist in my area who's selling speakers think that they're sitting on a pot of gold. I didn't have any extra speakers at all, so this set will do nicely until I find a better set down the road. The speakers are in my living room, hooked up to a Pioneer SX-990 that I got about a month ago at another Goodwill for $10 (it required about $15 in additional parts to get working, including making some custom speaker cables to get past the fact that I don't have those dopey proprietary speaker plugs). I have the Dual 502 TT that I bought from Chicks hooked up to it, and that cost me $30, so I got a the whole system for around $60 total. One I get the 6300 TT all set up though, it's probably going to replace the 502 that I have out here.
Also found 3 LPs. Dire Straits' self-titled album, "Poolside" by Nu Shooz, and "The Captain & Me" by The Doobie Brothers.
Turntable was $15, speakers were $6, and the albums were $2 each. Both the turntable and the speakers were found in the aforementioned carts at Goodwill. Someone was actually holding the TT up on the ledge of the cart with one hand while trying to dig some piece of black plastic crap out of the cart with his other hand. He was more than happy to let me relieve him of the TT. While carrying it back to a table where I could put it down and inspect it, I saw the speakers in another cart, and managed to wrestle them out of there while never letting go of the 6300.
Chris