Ridiculous resale price of vintage equiment


The price of used vintage is downright beyond ridiculous nowadays.

It seems like many hispters are buying crap based on the looks and many flippers are happily milking them.

As an audiophile and collector this really pisses me off... sure I could sell my collection for stratospheric numbers but then what would I do with my hobby?

When I see good looking stuff, like an ARC D70 MkII selling for as much as a crappy sounding, unrestored Marantz 2240.. well, I croak. Heck, I gave one of those away because they are not very good.

Today I was comparing my really recently rebuilt ( and I mean, really rebuilt, not just "recapped" ) Marantz 2325 and Sansui G-7500. The Marantz is dark but warm, the Sansui,which sounds a lot better than the Marantz, paints a nice musical landscape but has no real depth, etc... I gave them both the best chance, driving them from the pre-out of my CJ preamp so they are getting an outstanding source... and yet, well, they sound vintage.

Is the Marantz worth $2500? Is the Sansui worth $1500? From an audiophile point of view, nope. They look good, but my DIY Aleph 5 monos, my ARC D70 MkII, and a bunch of my other amps/preamps sound far better... and yet, they are not overpriced.

OK, except for the buffoon in eBay who was asking for $26K for his Pass Aleph 2 amps.

At least the poseurs have not found Quad yet.

What do you think? Are these prices interfering with your hobby?  

esporma

Showing 5 responses by mahgister

You think that you are spot on about me with your sarcasm...You are not completely beside the target for sure... 😁😊

And i thank you because your two posts are very good and humorous and witty and SHORT...

But one this is said, yes the impact of the Rockfeller foundation in america education is so huge, that uneducetad mass specialization is one of the cause of audiophile ignorance beside marketing snake oil method...

Then we are BOTH right...

Save i spare my sarcasm when i can do it at the expanse of others....

I am less humble than you are for sure though ... And i say it WITHOUT sarcasm....

Truth matter most than my own post to me though....it is because of that that my posts had some CONTENT over any arguing with or without sarcasm....

i spoke too  much for my own good and i will mute myself now....😁😊

Who knew it was a Rockefeller’s fault that an old Sansui integrated was worth more today than 5 years ago?

 

Great post! thanks to say it shortly...

I will only add that economy is a pyramidal control chain explained long ago by Bernard Mandeville...

( For the anecdote the inventor of cancer drug "snake oil" first original product method is the father of the first Rockfeller, the con artist William Avery "Bill" Rockefeller called "devil Bill", who educated his son in his own personal "economy" theory and Rockfeller history after that was key moment in the personal education of Bill Gates in alleged "philantropical economy" theory and they called their globalistic control method : Gates and Rockfeller foundations; this anecdote resume almost modern economy save for the banking system which is another story explained by the bank of international settlements history after world war one)

 

 

Logic is a mess in most brain because almost nobody can even figure out Aristotle tool value and his limit explicitly understood by Aristotle himself...His logic is related to his metaphysic and not reducible to any abstract formalization at all...

The working brain must work with logic yes but at a level way over logic to be effective in his reach...

Logic cannot teach us how to see a flower....And like Goethe demonstrated in his marvellous book about plant dynamical morphology, most people had never SEEN a plant and they are even not conscious of this fact for the rest of their life...Classifying something with a name by programmed HABIT is not an active perceptive seeing experience....

It is the same for acoustic: applying an equation will not solve a small acoustic room problem sorry...You must "see" the room and take the necessary listening experiments to solve the problem and tune the room...

Economics is what the super-rich tell the Government what it is ! NO JOKE ,

My first year at Uni I took both Econ 101 and Logic 101 .

I was going nuts as one totally made the other a lie .

Went up to Econ Prof and told him my thoughts .

 

He looked at me for about a minute and nicely said to me , ": Yes, Econ is a mess but one decided upon " .

Value is a subjective/objective factor that cannot be erased or replaced by market price evaluation...

It is a personal motivated complex choice to buy a vintage piece....

My own choice is explained above about my Sansui decision...

But someone else could want to pay 2000 bucks for my Sansui for complete other reasons than mine and for his specific needs...

For example there exist on the contemporary market of new product no amplifier at any price with the possible flexibility choices associated with the Sansui AU 7700..

Then somebody with other needs than mine can claim that 2000 bucks is not a too much high price to afford a piece of gear so useful in flexibility of use....

Anyway no other contemporary amplifier at any price is comparable with the great number of his features and possibilities ... NONE...

Then value is not price market...

Value is a  more stable factor than price market which  fluctuate  around  offers and demands relation... 

Collectibles are a good example of great values with sometimes low resale possibilities...

Anybody who think with basic can understand basic in acoustic and economy...Yes...

It is not number theory nor Quantum physics here...

 

But it is "difficult" to figure our small room acoustic at no cost for ourself... Try it...It takes me brain work...

And it is "difficult" to understand economy at the world level and in his relation to city level....What is simple matter is to understand the level of insanity now....Most people dont figure it out though because insanity is their normalcy...

And if economy cannot be figured out without politic, ecology, and many other related  fields, likewise audio cannot be understood completely only with acoustic we need also dealing with many different engineering fields from recording aspects to play back  engineering and electronics etc...

Things  appears  simple at one level and complex at other one.... Sorry....

Then understanding economics really is difficult, and understanding audio really is difficult....I will say the opposite of you sorry....

Because you are an humble dude, congratulation! Understanding both is over the head of most people indeed you are right here....

Myself being less humble than you, i go on ANYWAY with my ongoing study of both at my level of understanding for sure....But the key to understanding is studying...Nothing else...Irony cannot replace brain work nor sarcasm save  in audio thread ...

 

«If you understand toilet bowl mechanic or your bowel movements this does not means you are a city sewage engineer »-Anonymus Smith

 

Understanding economics isnt difficult, being an audiophile isnt difficult.... But being both must be.

I paid my Sansui AU 7700 100 bucks and pay for its refurbishing a little bit than 100 bucks... Yes i was lucky...

So good the Sansui is though, and it is a marvellous machine sound wise and with flexibility, i would never had paid much more than the price i paid for 7 years ago...

Why ? Because when you pay between 1000 and 2000 bucks with no warrent for a piece of gear near 50 years old, i prefer to buy my dreamed Berning Zotl amplifier at 6,000 bucks...I see my Sansui now near 2000 bucks 1/3 of the ZOTL price... For the sound quality it is not a high price, but for an old piece of gear it is way too much....And the Sansui so good it is and it is, cannot beat some new tech....

And i love my Sansui... His S.Q. /price ratio is over the roof, unbeattable...At the price i paid...Under 300 bucks refurbished...