chazzbo,
guess the six pack got to you joe, 'cause the way you were hammering on the keys you would think they were bad notes coming from an old upright 88, mottled through with slamming the can down hard on the low C.
While I tried to stay with you and make it through your thinking I kinda gave up. It reminded me of tending bar and listening to people slur their words the more they drank. But at least you didn't commit the other mortal sin of bad internet posts, ALL CAPS.
About the album pricing issue, back in the day some one bought 1 share of Qualcomm for $600.00. So, about the DUSKO GOJKOVIC Slavic Mood LP, am I missing something here or is this something I can't live with out and need to whizz away $415 on it. 'Course, some poor bas**d in Bangladesh lives for a year off the sum of that LP and doesn't know it exists. (Pearls before swine, don't you think, or don't cha?)
But's we gots our priorities. Right! And we can spend our money the way we want. Now add to that, what about poor ol' Dusko himself. I suspect he might not have seen a total of $415 from that album either. But that's what makes the world an interesting place.
Me, I just picked up a clean copy of Bitches Brew at my neighbor's garage sale for $3.00. And I think I paid way too much.
I will agree, the thrift stores have gotten out of hand. Where I use to get amps, TT's, CD players and other electronics for the cheap now their prices are reflecting ebays. For example, Advent Original's for $20.00 five years ago, now going for $80.00. Not long ago I saw a Pioneer Pl 516 TT selling for a ridiculous $129.95 at my favorite thrifty.
To make this point clearer, I use to have rear room access to one of the thrifties in my city and could direct the attention of an item to the "marker" who would put it on the floor while I was still in the shop. (Mind you nothing shady was going on, just a little help from a friend. I always paid their price and up front too.) Now those items don't make it to the floor. They are being put on ebay instead. So lately I'm mostly finding the typical Best Buy consumer junk there too.
Although I did find a nice pair of Morduant Short MS 35Ti's and MS 15Ti's, with Monster Cable for $75.00 last month, because I don't think they knew what they had. What was disgusting is they had the the tuner from this setup, an below average Rotel 830, going for $59.95, and an Audionics CC 2 amp, temptingly over priced at $175.00. Now if the entire package was $175.00 that would have been a different story. But as far as I'm concerned these were not bargain prices. At these prices, the initial cost cannot justify the inherent risk of spending that much on an antiquated obsolete amp with limited replacement parts, no guarantee of working and no way to set up and test at store. 'Course I could of waited until Tuesday when they offer senior discounts of 25% off. But then it's no deal either.
So I going to paraphrase chazboo in this respect, thrifties are going the way of the past for cheap electronics.