Thrift store finds?

Just bought a pair of Infinity Qb speakers for $16 at Goodwill. They were marked to sell invidually for $8 each, but I splurged. I set them up in place of my Wilson MAXX-2's and, started wondering which pair I should keep. They sounded that good!
I didn't need them, don't want them, and, now, they're sitting in my house and I'm trying to give them away to someone. A friend said he'd take them, but that was a week ago and he still hasn't picked them up.

The Goodwills in Austin (and Houston) now have employees that recognize good gear and records and if they don't take them for themselves they put them in a bid case which quickly gets out of hand. I have given up on the "chain" thrift stores and found more gold at the mom and pop outfits, especially in the surrounding smaller communities.

As for my best find audiowise, other than a slew of turntables which I did fix up and flip when I was working in a record store in the mid 90's (pre-ebay) my best find was a pair of KLH 20s for $5 and some Pioneer HPM 60s (tweeter was blown in one) for about the same price.

As for the guy saying he was going to buy them, I would have gone to the manager and offered an amount for all of them and see if the guy could match it right then and there (assuming there was some good stuff in there). $50 would probably have done it. On a similar note, Half Price Books was notorious for having the employees take the best stuff (I have several friends who still work there and they use to get some killer rare stuff for cheap). A while back mgmt got wise and now they limit their hold bins and the amount they can purchase. They can also "check" items out which they take home and copy. The quality of their stock has gone up immensely.

Mechans,

If a guy like that did that to me, I'd say you can grab the box AFTER I go through it as I saw no name on it nor saw it in your hands before I started to look through it.

On another note a couple of other thrift buys...

A technics M258R cassette deck. for $5.00 Cdn. A nice 1981-82 auto reverse deck but with fixe heads one in each direction. Nice unit only needed tweaking of left channel output.

A JVC AX-4 Integrated amp of about 1981 era. Work perfectly. Paid $18.00 Cdn.

I usually find at least one pig who has to have all of the records until he lets you see them.
Recently a thrift store staffer bought out a new movers box full of LPs. 100 or more. I started to go through them. When this jerk has the audacity or the balls if you prefer, to look me in the face and say to me "I am taking all those" he had not looked at a single disc. I said you can't sell every scratched to death time life music of the 50s record on ebay. The guy then denied that he was a flipper.
I don't flip but I would if there was something I thought anything was worthy of the effort. Why are they invariably ashamed to say sure I flip. This is how I make enough extra money to get by. I never have seen a sign which says Flipping not allowed. I said to him-you don't have that many hours to listen to them all. His response I throw them out if I don't like them.
I wanted the sales clerk to complete the transaction in front of me.
new point
I will say there are some interesting medium value pieces fairly often, of late I picked up a Sony reel to reel intact with unused 60s style mike. Another non flipper asked me casually if there was anything in the audio trash heap . They have a pretty solid Sansui TT but get this the TT still has the OEM Sansui cartridge. He brush it off. I came back and he was scrambling to take the head shell off.

Pair of KEF 103.2 near mint at Goodwill for $25 and a
pair of Magnepan MMGs also near mint at the same Goodwill for $40 all within the same week three years ago. Nothing else but junk there since.

Original Marantz 7C, 8B and model 10 all for $30. (just kidding). Have seen Altec console speakers and large Advents in abundance here in Upstate NY.Have picked up many sealed newer records for a dollar or two, but you have to have patience going through them.

Thorens TD-115mk2 in very nice condition for $10 at Goodwill.

Dynaco ST-70, PAS-2, and FM-3 as a set, priced at $50 . . . but it was half-price day at this particular North Miami thrift shop. I got them all for $25 . . . but this was circa 1991. Wouldn't expect it to happen again. Oh and they all worked.

Maggie MG-1 for $80:Sony 200 disc for $60; Polk rti 25's for $20: Eva Cassidy 'Time after Time' for $3: Numerous Monster cables for $3-5 per pair: Toshiba vcr-$300 for $8. Everything has worked great so far. They have a good electrician working there. Better than a lot of used stuff at stereo stores or even new stuff. I collect the things and put together systems for my kids and other friends and fellow workers.