I would be interested to find out what “treasures” you people have come across in your journey to audio nirvana on the used market. For me, it was in 1993 (I don’t remember if the internet was already at its early stages of development – I don’t think so), and I came across an ad in our local newspaper for a Linn LP-12. The second I read the ad, I immediately called the seller who happens to be this older fellow who obviously didn’t have the slightest clue what he’s about to relinquish. I drove to his apartment and there it was, a Linn LP-12 complete with an LVX tone arm, a K9 cartridge and the smoke dustcover – all in excellent condition. The asking price? $100!!!! While I was in his apartment checking the table out, the seller received about three phone calls regarding the LP-12 too bad for those prospective buyers but first come, first serve. Talk about someone’s trash being someone else’s treasure!!!! About three years later, I sold the table for $900! It was about this time when the digital front end was really taking off with the transport and outboard DAC options. Now, I’m back into vinyl (just recently got back actually) and have a VPI Scout Aries with JMW 9 arm and a Dynavector 10x5 cartridge. This time, my analog set up is a keeper!!!! What treasures have you come across??????
Was this person elderly or challenged as we now say to be politically correct. It's always nice to get a good price a bargain. I just don't think if someone is clueless that I can share your joy.
I remember the time I was dealing with a blind older fellow who was in a wheelchair. His wife had just passed away a day or two earlier, and my oh my what a deal I was able to get on a wonderful preamp. All it cost me was my self-respect and dignity. WOW. Perhaps a story you should not share here.
guys, guys...i really didn't think people would be misinterpreting my thread this way. there was a used product for sale at a ridiculously cheap price. i don't know if this fellow just received it from someone, or whatever. bottom line is, i never coerced him to sell the table at that price. it was there for the taking, i was first on line, what was i supposed to do - shake his head and tell him to re-advertise for a higher price????? let's not be self-righteous here folks - if you were me, what would you have done differently? this is simply a case of someone's trash being somebody's treasure. if this doesn't happen in life, the proverbial saying would not have been coined at all....let's just try to read my thread like it's intended to be read. the older fellow from whom i bought the linn didn't seem senile or whatever...he was coherent and actually had a nice pad. for you to accuse me of taking advantage of other people without fully knowing the background, i think, is quite tactless.
this is getting blown way out of proportion. if this thread has offended anyone out there, apologies then...it was meant to be a simple thread other good deals people have come across....i'm truly amazed at how this thread has materialized thus far...just enjoy life guys and chill out....life's just way too short to be taking this way too seriously....over and out.
LOL. You just passed some major gas during a church service. Trying to apologize doesn't help at all. Phew! You'll just get more glares from the congregation whose mean age is probably a lot closer to your victim's than yours.
FWIW I agree with Mr Tennis. That IS what I would have done.
PS, Now if you want to discuss real deals, let me tell you about the time I screwed a too eager audio dealer.........Naw, probably the wrong forum too. :-)
When my father died my mother sold all of his "hobby" wood carving stuff at insanely low prices. My father collected wood and carving tools with a passion, but she had no attachment to the stuff and couldn't stand to look at it. She gave away $10K in exotic woods to whoever would haul it away. When I freaked out about it she calmly said "What would you want that old wood for?". Please, give gemini a break here, he may have actually done the gentleman a service.
I don't think it was Gemini's obligation to do someone ele's market research. On the other hand, for the sake of conscience it might have been good to offer more than asked (2x the selling price?)...still a bargain I think. In any case, no one forced the asking price. It's a FREE market last I checked, unless you wanna live in some socialist state.
PS - amending my 2x asking price suggestion...if you had a good idea of real market value a fair approach would have been to split that price. You are indeed providing a service by educating as to the true worth of his Linn. Split the price. Both come away with a win.
Just picked up a real nice pair of Original KLH 6 loudspeakers at my Annual Town Flee Market ..$1 with speaker cables too!!!!! Cleaned up they look and sound fantastic....
"I came across an ad in our local newspaper for a Linn LP-12. The second I read the ad, I immediately called the seller who happens to be this older fellow who obviously didn’t have the slightest clue what he’s about to relinquish. I drove to his apartment and there it was, a Linn LP-12 complete with an LVX tone arm, a K9 cartridge and the smoke dustcover – all in excellent condition. The asking price? $100!!!! While I was in his apartment checking the table out, the seller received about three phone calls regarding the LP-12 too bad for those prospective buyers but first come, first serve" You cant frame this with such pride then have a problem with folks who dont agree with you. I agree with others here, I am always looking for a deal and cant afford much of anything but I couldnt buy anything from someone I didnt feel knew what he had and would let him know it may fetch more money then is being asked. Who knows he might just sell it anyway but even if I lost out I would sleep good at night.
If I were a really hot chic I'd definitely move in with any guy with an amazing system. Am I bad? Fortunately, unlike Gemini, I'll never be tested in that way.
If the person selling the turntable was selling it via newspaper ad, I presume he did not consider it "trash" but something of value he was selling to raise funds. The seller obviously lacked knowledge of its true value, whereas the buyer did. Given the wide gap in the true value vs selling price (9x), I personally would not have felt comfortable buying it under those circumstances for ethical reasons (but legally it would be legitimate.) I am glad to see the Audiogon respondents to this thread have high ethical standards: that is why I like Audiogon and buy with confidence from many of its members.
I think the question "what are the greatest audio treasures you have found" is a good question but in that question I envision more of a discussion of items that were outright discarded and found by you or broken items bought for a song and fixed to become valuable items. Regards,
Every day our ethics are tested many times in large and small ways. It's life. I am sure we can all recall times when we have done the right thing and times when we have done the wrong thing. I believe that I would now do what Mrtennis suggested, but who knows about the past.One has to see that there is am ethical issue in the first place to have any chance af responding appropriately. Often we just miss it. My first concern when I read the thread was of the old man as well. Gemini just missed it. He probably won't miss it next time. And the rest of us may have missed that we have a self righteous attitude...including me.
I would have done the same thing. I once sold a MTB for much less then it was worth, I needed the money bad. Furhtermore, I was about 15 years older then the kid that bought it, so I was "the Old guy". If he had offered any more than I had asked I would have thought "nice kid, but not to bright...he's going to end up spending his nights posting on message boards on the iternet or something...."
On the other hand, I was unloading a Thule Bike Rack offering it up for free to my local club, "first one to pick it up gets it"...The guy that got it gave me $50 bucks...The differecne is that it was "free", I had placed no value on it. In early case, I set a price to move it. I could have charged more, but I was in need of cash.
Yes I did on craigs list about 5yrs ago I came across an ad for a Mitsubishi tuner for 15.00 so I called up and asked can you give me the model number before I make the trip his reply was Da-f20 and it was in excellent condition, well lets say I hit the road in secounds cab ride to chelsea area in Manhattan and took away this treasure for a fab price of 15.00 if I wanted to be really cheapo I would have walked home and saved a stinken cab ride.
guys guys guys!! y'know, the salvation army is always looking for a few good men... you call them up and give away some of the excess stuff you've been accumulating (i know i have plenty of items stacked up in my closets). i gave away quite a few mid-fi items to goodwill years ago, and got a nice thank-you letter in the mail a few weeks later. now i have some older mac computers that i would like to give to a good (charitable) cause, as long as i can wipe the hard drives. any suggestions would be appreciated. however, as for the 4 preamps and two amplifiers i have sitting unused, i would like to get some money for those. but what really kills me are the people on e-bay who want to sell an old 2 page brochure with a PICTURE of a piece of stereo equipment for $25 (plus shipping).
"I immediately called the seller who happens to be this older fellow who obviously didn’t have the slightest clue what he’s about to relinquish"
Maybe when you're old and gray, some young wippersnapper will come by and screw you out of something you have while others make it obvious it's been undervalued.
At a minimum you should have told him it was worth more.
What's wrong with you people? I have never heard such trash.Please sir take more money for me.This is the fun of collecting it's THE HUNT,for the bargain.
taking advantage of old people is a splended hobby. That is a very insulting statement to all. Would I be taking advantage if I walked into a record store owned by someone coming up in years and seeing a record worth much more in a bargain bin for a quarter turn around and say hey this recording can be sold on audiogon for 30.00 and walk out empty handed.
I guess next time I walk into the salvaion army and by the grace of God I find a Piccaso for six bucks, I should turn it down because I would be cheating the needy out of Thanksgiving dinner.
Morality has nothing to do with this. Would I be hard pressed to inform a home owner if he/she is sellig me their home for below market value or would you claim real estate flippers are immoral for making a profit,or a day trader making more on a stock trade than the person who sold it to him/her on that day?
it was sarcasm. a form of humor. poking a bit of fun at an uncomfortable situation. that said, we've all done things that later may have restled with our concience. one would assume a record store would know the value of records.....gemini just had a 'jerry lewis' moment. he shouldn't feel bad or stupid about this thread....nothing's more embarrasing then hitting that send key at the same time you're thinking 'oh sh**'....ps, he has a very cool system...a classic.....i just hope he doen't tell us he got it all for 22 dollars. come back gemini, all is forgiven
jeez, were all the negative posts secretly penned by Rosie O'Donnell, societies moral authority?
with that being said, Gemini, seeing as that Linn will always be staring you in the face making you feel unfortable, I will give you $50, shipped for it.
What makes many of you think that little old ladies are ALL BROKE................? She might be wanting to get out of it quickly, to be with her family or what about maybe shes trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Don't think for one moment that older people are all honest geeezzzzzz get with it.
A while back I was into tropical fish and decided to get out of the hobby to free up some space and time. I put the equipment for sale in the local penny saver. A young man (kid) responded to my ad and came over to the house to look over the equipment. He was just getting started in the hobby and really like my equipment but clearly he could not afford my asking price. To make a long story short, I sold him all the equipment for $300 which was $1700 less than my $2,000 asking price. He got a good deal, and I got a good feeling that I started a young lad with his hobby. It has been almost 10 years since I sold the equipment, and I still have that “good” feeling….now that was a good deal. Some things you cannot put a price on.
That transaction would have left a bad taste in my mouth. That said who am I too judge Gemini. I'm just want to be able to look myself in the mirror. As long as he did not manipulate the person to sell low then it's up to his conscience. The reason I thought I'd post was that I buy things off craigslist and this issue comes up often. As it happens I saw a Macintosh receiver for $80 today. Called left a message and dragged it over to google to check it out. One guy was asking $650 for his, another was 4 days out on fleabay at $155. So pretty good deal. When he called I told him it might be worth more even as a bargain than what he asked. He said "yea I know but I just want to get rid of it". Thats pretty much the standard response that I get and it has never cost me extra money. But treating your fellow man or women like you want to be treated makes you feel better IMHO. Again you do what you want. I'm not preaching.
Blah, blah, blah. After upteen moral diatribes, I actually recalled a gem that my neighbor gave to my 10 year old self back in '74. It was a reel to reel tape recorder with a built in tube amplifier. He included a tape of pirated music which included a hilarious catchy song which also happened to be antisemitic, which I nonetheless listened to over and over again. This thing reproduced magical sounds and had a mysterious green pulsating V-guage on the end of vacuum tube thingy. One day I discovered a way to connect my Panasonic transistor radio into the microphone input and bam! Amplification with sweet disortion. It was freakin' hot. Another time, I figured out how to use this thing to eavesdrop on my nextdoor neigbor. That got old shortly. Man, I miss that thing. BTW, Mr. Gray, who was way older and wiser than I, gave me the thing for FREE!? If he had any idea how much he could have fetched on ebay, and had I the moral fiber and an ounce of wisdom, I wish I would've told him.
Are you Jewish, Hals den? Anti- Semitism can be very tragic. 3 million of 6+ million who killed between 1939 -1945 by the German's,were CHILDREN if you believe in the idea that sin has it's consequences remember children are incapable of sin in religious terms they don't know what it is.
Mechans, FWIW explaining the morality or humanality to folks who might be anti seminites is about as vacuous as explaining the value of generousity to 'Yankee Traders'. They are not only insensitive to your comments they actual take pride in their beliefs and accomplishments. Derision has never change anything except to cause them to wear sheets. :-(
No Mechans, I am not Jewish but my wife is. If I remember correctly, the chorus of the song I referenced went something like this: the rich folks hate the poor folks, the protestants hate the catholics, and everybody hates the Jews. Maybe it's more true than anti-semitic. BTW genocide was not invented by the Nazis, and it was God who told Israelites to completely destroy Canaanites. The Israelites were tricked into making a treaty with the people they were instructed to annihilate. The battles of the Old Testament make Iraq look like a mere skirmish in comparison. I don't want to defend the Nazis, but I do understand that all humans are capable of horrific violence and having the pride to believe we are better than the Nazis.
guys, i'm just shaking my head right now with a big smile as i'm reading all your replies. it's really funny how a simple, or what i thought was simple anyways, turned out to be quite the controversy. enough is enough i think..let's all move on...let's go back to what got us all into this crazy hobby...the music...godspeed guys and gals...... ps: anybody want a mint condition, japanese vinyl pressing of the beatles collection? i listen mostly to acoustic jazz and classical and have no idea what these are worth...$10 for the set? :)
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