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Goodwill/SA/Thrift Store Discussions & Finds

rocketJeff said:
I trade for a Proton D940 40wpc receiver from Craigslist for a bottle of 40 Olde English :D for a total of $3 after tax from the convenience store.

This receiver sounds great (especially for $3!). It doesn't sound as clean and smooth as my Marantz 8000, but is extremely dynamic and detailed.

There are some static when I turn the balance and volume knob that I am hoping to be able to remove with some deoxit. :yes:
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I had to Google what "40 Olde English" was........

How desperate can someone be for a drink ?

Not a bad receiver tho...looks a bit NAD like....the corners have seen better days tho :)
 
Cogsinister said:
I had to Google what "40 Olde English" was........
Not a bad receiver tho...looks a bit NAD like....the corners have seen better days tho :)
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Nakdoc said:
Proton was owned by Taiwan manufacturer Fulet. Fulet was the OEM for NAD when thier stuff first hit the market, and made them up until the 3150 generation. I don't know the politics, but somehow NAD used another OEM and Proton appeared, with better styling and most of the sound of NAD. It was almost like NAD was ripped off by Chinese copycats...
Fulet always made crappy boards, soldered poorly, and had cheap controls, but the sound was fabulous. As someone else mentioned, their 619 tv was one of the best made. The Proton D1200 is an excellent power amp, with pretty meters. By the time the D940 came out they had begun to produce much better boards.
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That is why they look alike. BTW, I have two of the D1200 amps. Yes, nice.
 
New old SL-1500

A trip to the GW in Roseville (a store which I spoke harshly about the other day) yesterday had a SL-1500 on the shelf. It had a piece of masking tape on it that said something about a bad speed control on it. I plugged it in, and it wasn't even close to correct, according to the strobe on the platter.

Figured it was another fixer-upper beyond my abilities, and I left it there. But I looked at AK last night to see if it might not be a worthwhile project anyway. Apparently this is common in old Technics tables, and it is often fixed by deoxiting the controls. (Deoxit is kind of like duct tape for electronics technicians, ain't it?)

So I happened to be out that way again today, and thought "what the heck" and went in the GW. The TT was still there, still priced at $14.99, but now without the cartridge that was in the headshell yesterday. Some sneaky bastard...

But I picked it up, brought it home and used the shell and cartridge from my SL-2000. It works. I'll probably go through a whole can of Deoxit to get it clean, and the dustcover, while intact, will need quite a bit of buffing.

So now I'm up to three turntables.:D
 
SA-9500 a No Go

Cross your fingers for me folks .... local SA is supposed to contact me tomorrow with a price on a Pioneer SA-9500
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Well, I tried. Looks like a senior employee who was off for some time happened to come back today and he absolutely refused to let anything go out of the recycle bin. So there is one SA-9500 off to the final frontier as of tomorrow.:tears:
 
Van_Isle said:
Well, I tried. Looks like a senior employee who was off for some time happened to come back today and he absolutely refused to let anything go out of the recycle bin. So there is one SA-9500 off to the final frontier as of tomorrow.:tears:
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Utter madness...........
 
Van_Isle said:
Well, I tried. Looks like a senior employee who was off for some time happened to come back today and he absolutely refused to let anything go out of the recycle bin. So there is one SA-9500 off to the final frontier as of tomorrow.:tears:
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The 'rule of thumb' is:
Buy it when you see it.
 
theophile said:
The 'rule of thumb' is:
Buy it when you see it.
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Thats it.When I see something that I need or want bad enough and I know is worth it even though it may not be a steal I will buy it.Thats because I know if I go back for it it will be gone.Experience taught me that.
 
superdog said:
Thats it.When I see something that I need or want bad enough and I know is worth it even though it may not be a steal I will buy it.Thats because I know if I go back for it it will be gone.Experience taught me that.
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I walk away from a pair of Acoustic Research AR-3's a few weeks ago. They wanted $20 for them and they need new surrounds. I had just finished restoring my KLH 6's and didn't feel like taking on another project.

I HAD NO IDEA WHAT THEY WERE WORTH!

Too bad I didn't know any better, but I bet that it put a big smile on the person's face that found them and knew what they were.
 
Nikko NR-350 Receiver $5 at my local thrift........
3487246252_6d188b2620.jpg


I had the top off to try and blow some dust out of the slider switches......i must get some switch cleaner..........

3487246478_b74b14cd29.jpg


The case still had ther protective film on it, removing it after 20 years made a right mess........

It needs a clean, but its not in bad shape....

The Receiver sounds very good, in fact very very good !!!!, far better than the Sony its on top of.......and it drives my 6 Ohm Speakerlabs, something the Sony was unable to do......

Not a bad afternoon........
 
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theophile said:
The 'rule of thumb' is:
Buy it when you see it.
Click to expand...

I got lucky with my Altec Valencias(which I posted about very,very early in this thread).
They were in a Salvation Army store( ! )and I initially saw them and marveled at what these big,to my eyes(then)ugly speakers were.
I had never seen Altecs before,nor knew anything about them.The SA store wanted $350 Aussie dollars,which at the time was approx just under $200 US.
I couldn't spare the cash when I saw them. :no:
When I got paid,I went back and they were still there. :banana:
Naturally,as my signature below this post attests,I bought them.My Saving Grace,was that all the other prospective buyers were 'lowballers',who were offering the SA store amounts like $50.
The guy who runs that section of the SA said to me that he knew what they were,and he knew that they were worth more than $350,but he wasn't going to ask for more than $350 and he wasn't going to accept less.
I walked in,said "Do you want $350 for those?",and pulled-out the $350.
The rest is history.

Thank GOD for lowballers. :D
 
Just picked up a Dual 1257 with a very recent looking ortofon cartridge for $15. All it needed was a small repair to the RCA cable... sounds great and is working perfectly. :)
 
superdog said:
Thats it.When I see something that I need or want bad enough and I know is worth it even though it may not be a steal I will buy it.Thats because I know if I go back for it it will be gone.Experience taught me that.
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I guess that's a lesson. I went in to the local Goodwill one late afternoon and saw this beautiful Sansui power amp that had just been dropped off. I asked the girl if I could buy it but she said it had to be "cleared" through the back first. I asked another clerk, same story. I just could not persuade them. I went in the next morning a few minutes after opening, and it was gone, sold the previous day after I had left. However this Technics SL-110 was sitting by the door now, same story with the clerks. I said, "look, I missed one thing I wanted, I HAVE to buy this!" A little chatter amongst the clerks and the manager - she came back and said "well, we should test it and put a label on first, however,... ..this is a big thing and not easy to carry around. .. It will be more expensive than the other turntables because it looks so nice." (There were some idler Duals and a Sony linear tracking thing on the shelf.) I was expecting $50 or so, she asked "Is $12 ok?" I felt very guilty, gulped, and said, "uh..yeah, fine." :naughty:

It has the SME 3009 in very nice condition except for a scratch on the wand. It had no cartridge, two of the headshell wires were broken so I extended them and mounted a Shure V15 Mk5 MR for now, until I find something better. The TT had the 45 adaptor, oil and anti-skating weight. It works flawlessly and is VERY clean, other than the store dust which I haven't cleaned off yet. So I just need the tonearm wire, (Where'e the best place...?)

Next to it is the CS5000 I'm currently using.
 

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Even though I talk about backing off the thrift trip I will still go.A spur of the moment trip before going to work landed me a Technics SL-1200 for 25 bananas yesterday.I have learned though to resist the lesser buys now.Never know when you will strike gold which has happened to me before.
 
theophile said:
I got lucky with my Altec Valencias(which I posted about very,very early in this thread).
They were in a Salvation Army store( ! )and I initially saw them and marveled at what these big,to my eyes(then)ugly speakers were.
I had never seen Altecs before,nor knew anything about them.The SA store wanted $350 Aussie dollars,which at the time was approx just under $200 US.
I couldn't spare the cash when I saw them. :no:
When I got paid,I went back and they were still there. :banana:
Naturally,as my signature below this post attests,I bought them.My Saving Grace,was that all the other prospective buyers were 'lowballers',who were offering the SA store amounts like $50.
The guy who runs that section of the SA said to me that he knew what they were,and he knew that they were worth more than $350,but he wasn't going to ask for more than $350 and he wasn't going to accept less.
I walked in,said "Do you want $350 for those?",and pulled-out the $350.
The rest is history.

Thank GOD for lowballers. :D
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A happy ending indeed, Congrats on your great speakers!!!
 
Thanks for the congratulations.

Call me a cynic,but I would say that in some instances the 'manager out the back' has an arrangement with a regular buyer,who takes the Cream of the Crop.
Whether there is any financial kick-back,or whether it is simply a favour for a friend or relative,I don't know.
I do know of a first-hand admission from a St Vinnies store worker(that I was acquainted with),who said to me(not hearsay)that the best stuff gets bought by the staff.I am certain that the policy of the management at the individual stores would be the factor which would prevent or conversely encourage this behaviour.
 
I just recieved a Scott R74S reciever from a friend that he saved from a guy that scraps out electronics. It's missing one of the wood panels and has some damage to that back corner. I haven't opened it up yet or powered it up, but it looks like a high quality unit made in USA :thmbsp:.

Edit: I checked it out and powered it up. It works great and sounds very nice.
 
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