Sometimes it says to me not to quit the pot, because I'm being bluffed so after calling the showdown, I could go and buy some more goodies.
Sometimes you just get lucky
Back in the day, as CDs were all the "perfect sound forever" rage, my young daughters were in need of their first bicycles. Having just bought our first house, money was pretty tight. So, I looked at my collection of a little over 400 LPs -- classic rock, progressive rock, and jazz, mostly, and all in great shape -- that weren't getting much attention just then and decided to sell them at a local record store for some bike-buying cash. The clerk sniffed at me and declared that he would only give me $20 for the lot. At that point, I knew that bicycles would require a Plan B (which happened) and that I should probably hold onto the collection (which also happened). Fast forward to today, and my record collection is 3-4x the size it was back then and includes a fair share of rare items, MFOMR, One-Steps, UHQRs, box sets, etc. But those original albums remain some of my most cherished. And I constantly thank the "Great DJ in the Sky" that the clerk that day didn't make a reasonable offer. I wonder if any of you have had similar experiences?
Happy Listening,
Dawgfish
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@roxy54 Staying with it in poker. |
glad to hear, @dogfish! |
My mistake at about the same time when I bought my first CD Player and disks was to sell or give away all my albums. Fast Forward 35 years, my wife bought me a TT as part of a package deal. At the time I had no Phono section in my gear but soon enough did. I started buying copies of what I lost and then found my brother still had the box I gave him. I got about 50 albums back in the exact condition as they were when I gave them to him and never played between then and when I got them back. Wish I had kept them all. |
luck, your story reminded me The 1st time (no internet then) I had to re-cone my 15" woofers made in 1956, I was worried they were too old to repair. I put on my John Lennon Tie for Good Karma. I put them in sturdy boxes, they weigh 37 lbs each. On the way to work I went to pro shop near the Holland Tunnel, double parked, lugged them inside without a word, and went to park. Unbelievably, NYC, got a spot right away. Got inside, a technician examines, sure enough, they have cloth surrounds, they don't do that, only foam, cannot tell you who could, good luck. Downhearted, I mutter in my mind: Geez, no Karma today (except the parking spot). One foot out the door, another guy who was listening says 'Kevin might be able to fix them", tells the cashier to give me Kevin's tel. #. "Nice Tie" he says, disappears into the back room. I wore that tie when I dropped them off with Kevin, a dude who worked out of his apartment. Bingo, fixed. Is that the definition of Karma? |
In the late 80s my roommate tried like hell to get me to give him my albums when he moved out because in our small NYC apartment I’d switched to CDs as they were the new thing and took up a lot less space. At the time I wasn’t as focused on sound quality (I was young and stupid) and was enjoying the convenience and lack of pops/clicks with “perfect sound forever,” but a little voice kept telling me to hold on to my records and thankfully I ultimately listened to it and kept all my vinyl. Fast forward 35 years and I’m now really looking forward to getting my vinyl rig back up and running in the near future whereas if I’d given my records to my roommate, who I’m still in touch with, I’m sure my treasured collection would be in a landfill somewhere because he doesn’t have a turntable or even a decent stereo anymore. I don’t know if it was luck or what, but I just thank the Audio Gods for that little voice back then. |
Excepting records that I had an emotional attachment to, I sold most of them at a garage sale for $1 each back in the 90's. Of course I regretted it soon after. But my brother is in another class altogether. Had a Garrard TT, tube amp and Kef bookshelf speakers and a HUGE vinyl collection. The entire collection and equipment is now stored in a damp basement, and he only listens to music with an MP3 player and $80 Grado headphones. Duh. |
I play bass and have done so professionally in rock/alt bands. Almost getting a contract here and there. Neat tidbit...we shared stages now and then with Hootie and the Blowfish while they were still in school in Columbia, SC. It was around that time that I decided I was too cool to have some of the albums I had so I sold a bunch of non-serious rock things. I generally really regret doing that. Especially in the case of a certain one....Xanadu with ELO and ONJ. See what I mean? lol But now that one can get up to $10,000 according to some. When I hear about people getting rid of old albums I wonder what kind of gold mine there was in them. |
roxy54 I know the spiritual foundation of Karma, I was using a more secular approach, half in jest, half not. "individuals' intent and actions (cause) influence their future (effect)" from wiki In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptively called the principle of karma, wherein individuals' intent and actions (cause) influence their future (effect):[2] Good intent and good deeds contribute to good karma and happier rebirths, while bad intent and bad deeds contribute to bad karma and bad rebirths. |
I didn't have any bad intent in what I said, and I understand that you were using it in the secular, pop culture sort of way, the same way that Zen is misused. I guess I just get frustrated sometimes because I see its meaning skewed so often. I was pretty certain that you knew the actual meaning of the word. |
Glad you had a happy ending! I fully understand financing the kids wants and the needs of a new house. We moved our 6 kids into this house 25 years ago. To say money was tight is an understatement. The livingroom/listening area was much larger, and I needed longer speaker cables. Based on numerous accounts that speaker wire doesn’t make a difference, I bought cheap wire. The system never sounded great in the new space, and I attributed it to room acoustics, and lost some interest in it. I busied myself with the new house, raising kids, life, etc and played mostly CDs on holidays.. I ended up selling my AR turntable with a Premier MMT arm and Grado Signature 8 cart (regret #1). The LPs got relegated to the crawl space, where they suffered some water damage during a torrential downpour. (regret #2) 😥 It turns out that speaker wire does matter. 🙄 Once there was cash for decent basic 12 awg OFC copper wire, the system sprang back to life, and revived my interest in the system. The TT eventually got replaced (but I still miss my AR). I’ve since cleaned up many of the LPs, but the covers are mostly trashed. Vinyl is expensive, but I still make some purchases, and get LPs for gifts...still a treat! |
@knotscott stories / memories like yours is why I come here. 😊 |
knotscott You reminded me of my wet LP story. I lucked out by my friend's divorce! He told me there were about 50 jazz lp's in the basement of his house that the wife would not let him near. "You can have them if she will give them to you". I go, she likes me, tells me I can have them, but there had been a water leak over where he had left them. She just left them there molding. I had zero money, wanted to learn about Jazz, so I lugged the soggy moldy things home. Scrubbed the LP's with sponge and liquid dish detergent, put in the dishwasher rack to dry, did the best I could with the covers, and proceeded to get a free introduction to Jazz.
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Ironically, that seemed to have ended with his song titled "God". . . but then, disillusionment is often part of the process. . .
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stuartkWearing that Tie gave me Great Luck, the topic here. My last comment on this side-bender I didn't mean to start: America, despite behavior, has a very high percentage (63%) of people declaring themselves Christians. It always amazes me how many sing the words of ’Imagine’ The best-selling single of his solo career.
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