Samsung 46B6000 LED tv, 46" 120hz $1299

So I bought a Samsung 46B6000 the other week, and let me tell you, it's one sweet ass tv. It's less than an inch thick for most of the tv, the thickest being just a hair over an inch. It's got a great black level, and looks sweet hanging on the wall. Basically, I love this tv. The problem? It was about $700 more than I wanted to spend on a tv. Yeah my income tax returns just came in and I made a little extra cash from my usual clients, but I really went into Best Buy with the intention of spending about $700, but not going over $1000 out the door.

Well, nothing was in stock! I tried the 50" plasmas from Panasonic and Samsung, to the Sony Bravias, to the other brands on the wall. None of them were in stock! Back and forth we went, from Ultimate electronics (who had a nice deal on a W series 40" Sony) to Best Buy, to Sears, and even Sams Club! No one had anything in stock so standing at Sears I spied yet another Samsung 46" LED tv. They had it on sale for $1299, which is an insane price considering the tv had a MSRP of $2499.99 less than a year ago! The colors are great, it looks sexy as hell, and it's not a horrible price. So I ask the Sears guy if they have any in stock, and while he was checking (for the longest time) we took the price tag and left.

I took it back to Best Buy and asked my friend to price match, which they should according to their policy.They did, but I didn't get the free blu-ray player with it. Oh well, I have enough blu-ray players and the amount I could get from selling the new one on Craigslist would be less than I saved with the price-match.

Taking a look at the employee cost at Best Buy (friend), they were selling it at $100 below their margin line at $1499 as it was, so another $200 off the top really killed them. I certainly didn't shed a tear.

Took it home and hooked it up - oh.my.God. The image is amazing. Wall-E was so crisp, the colors blew away the old JVC by a factor of 50 fold. Hanging it on the wall was a challenge however. The old tv was a 42",  which used a 200x200mm bolt pattern. The new tv is 46", and uses a 400x400 bolt pattern. The mount on the wall is more than sturdy enough to hold it, as the new tv weighs like 40lbs instead of 90. Gotta love LED technology. The problem was the old brackets were only 200mm tall, not 400mm. That meant only the top bolts would attach. I thought to myself... at the store they have the tv hanging from only the top 2 bolts since it was hung just like a picture, so I know it will hold up with just the top bolts attached. The problem was that if you dont secure the bottom of the bracket, they swivel the instant weight is put on them. To keep each bracket straight I took the bottom hole and used picture wire to tie it to the bottom bolts, effectively keeping it straight. Hung it on the wall and it looks great.

What really sucks is that the tv is so thin, it's right up on the wall, and the window sill directly beneath the tv blocks the speakers. You can't hear a damn thing. Oh well, there's a receiver hooked to it.

Anyways, this is definitely 5 stars in terms of how good the tv is. Unfortunately it was still $700 more (after tax) than I wanted to spend, so I think it's going back. I doubt it will sell out lower than $1499 (that's almost 1600 after tax), so if anyone wants it before I return it, I'll sell it for $1450 straight cash right now. It's 2 weeks old and has 30 days left on the return policy (perk of being reward zone silver apparently). Otherwise I'm just taking it back for my money.

I ordered a 47" Sharp 1080p 120hz last night however, to replace this. It's not quite as good, but its $700 less. No explanation on that necessary, lol.

Monetary Absentmindedness

This post will be separate from the other "great finds" normally associated with my blog. I have a pet peeve that most of you know about, something that irritates me beyond believe. This particular issue is when people post things on Craigslist with a price thats is unbelievably high. It's not usually ignorance that causes this, but the fact that they really think they can get that much money out of it. Before we continue further let's put a list of examples together:

• 6 year old computer that was "state of the art" in it's day. $1500
• 50 inch projection tv that's 12 years old, non HD, and $5000 in it's day. $1400
• Motorola Razr V3, $499 new 8 years ago. $300
• Iphone 3G (or HTC G1). Works perfectly, nothing wrong. Oh and the screen is shattered. $250
• 3 year old 50" plasma, 720p. $5000 new. $4000
• 51" Hitachi CRT projection, 1080p. $500.
• And the best ones... Sony PSP, 2 years old. Like new. $249 (msrp is $149)

The list goes on and on. A lot of them are centered around computers, but most of them are around old busted TVs. Do you really think that because you just spent $1500 on your new 50 inch+ plasma or LCD, that you'll be able to get the same $1500 for your 10 year old 50 inch projection tv? That's not how it works people. That's like taking you 10 year old car into the dealership and expecting them to give you a fair trade for a brand new one. Honestly I wish that craigslist had some sort of core logic that analyzed the product, and then compared it to the asking price. It it's way out of whack like these examples, it will just delete your post and laugh at you.

Let's dissect those a little bit. These are real examples as well. I wish I could say I were making it up, but I'm not.

So the six year old computer. Computers depreciate faster than cars. The instant you drive one off the lot you don't lose 10% of the value or something small like that, you lose half the value of the computer. Why is that? Because the instant you buy a PC, it's already outdated by something newer, faster, stronger. Trying to sell your old busted PC for more than one that is new is just a dumb idea. In the case of today, someone had a Dimension 8200 for sale with a printer and what they think is a 21" LCD. Asking price was $1500. That's insanity to think they would actually get that, or even anywhere in the magnitude of 1/10th that. To prove that point you can go buy a Quad core i7 with 4-8 gigs of ram and fully deck it out for $1500. That much money buys a top tier computer nowadays complete with 24" LCD full high def. Even the lowest end computers with a celeron would outpace that computer by a magnitude of 5 to 10.

I'm going to group all the televisions into one to save some typing. Just because you spent $5000 on that big ass tv ten years ago, doesn't mean it's worth $1500 today. It may have been the latest and greatest back then, but now it's not even good enough to be relegated to the hole in the wall sports bar because it only does 480i and s-video is it's highest resolution input. It doesn't matter how big the tv is, if it's old it's old. Size of a television that age is only important to the homeless guy who might make a shelter out of it. Maybe a walk in closet or something? It would take literally 8-10 of those old CRT non-hd sets to equal the resolution of one 1080p set of any size. Then there are the people who advertise their televisions with specifications that aren't true. Come on people, we all live in the day and age of Google. It's just a quick type and a click away to knowing exactly what something has, and what it's worth. Your 51" Hitachi that you say is 1080p? Hate to break it to you buddy, but 99.9% of all CRT tvs out there do NOT do 1080p, they're 1080i. In fact you probably shouldn't try to tell me it is when I owned that same tv for 4 years. Then there's the people who have the three or four year old plasma/lcd for sale that they say is "1080i" and totally worth more than a brand new one. First off, only one brand makes a 1080i digital flat panel (it's a plasma), that's Hitachi. They don't make them anymore. Second, no one, I repeat NO ONE makes a 1080i LCD panel. They're all 720p or 1080p. That's 1280x800 or 1366x768, or 1920x1080. They're all progressive. LCD's as a technology cannot be interlaced, period. And finally, trying to scam the same amount of money out of your decade old box that you just paid for your brand new plasma isn't just shady, it's outright retarded. I don't even have to explain that one.

And lastly there are the phones/game systems. Don't try to get retail out of your phone when the screen is shattered. Don't say it "works fine except the touch screen". It's an IPHONE. Seriously? How the hell can it work fine if the screen is shattered and doesn't work? Nolan and I have seen this multiple times where peopel try to scam their broken stuff as working. On a similar note, the people who get pissy and say that a new Iphone is only $299 or $399 or whatever, and getting upset because people are selling their brand new unlocked one for $349 or $449, get a clue. The $299 or $399 price is WITH A CONTRACT. I know you don't understand what this means because if you did, you wouldn't be so dumb as to post your hate ads on craigslist telling the sellers how dumb they are for selling higher than retail. Walk into an AT&T store and see how much an Iphone is without a contract. It's not $299 or $399. It's $499 and $599. So unless the people on craigslist are selling those phones with a contract, they're actually selling it below retail.

And lastly there's the game systems. People seem to think these don't depreciate, or that there is still some shortage going on. Last time I walked into Walmart and Target there were cases FULL of every single game system that's out right now. Yes that means the Wii, and the PS3, and Wii Fit. So to you people charging $100 more than retail for your year old used system, I'm just going to flag you for being stupid. And yeah I probably will put up an informative post to let everyone know how dumb you are, and how they can get the exact same product with warranty for less by strolling into their local merchant.

As stated previously, the world of Google is at your fingertips. You can't feign ignorance since obviously you have internet. How else could you have posted the ad on Craigslist? Do your research, put a fair price and don't put misleading information in your ads. Someone will call you out on it. At the very least they'll flag it and you'll be left wondering why your post was removed.

And that's all I have to say about that. (today).

Goodwill theory....

So Nolan and I have this theory, well mainly Nolan but I agree with him. I have my own theories but we'll get to those later (remember Hemi).

To quote Nolan (Stambaugh): (excuse the spelling, sometimes he's special)

Noramlly thrifts have used clothes obviously, Lots of glassware - useful or not. right now you know im in the Alcohol related glassware which i can usually score. Crutches... for soem reason because alot of people need them once and arent stupid enough to do whatever they did again so they get rid of them

and skii's... probly what people did to need cruthces

Anyways it pretty much holds true. I've never been to any thrift store that didn't have one, if not all of these. And to that list I add golf clubs. So as a test I'm going to update this blog every time I remember to take pictures at the thrift store I happen to be at. Here's yesterday:


So, as you can see in the top picture.. Skis, and a ton of golf bags. There are more clubs than bags so the rest of the clubs are in the corner behind where you can't see. In the second picture you can see yet another pair of crutches. Are these the only pair? I wouldn't bet my life on it. What's really funny is a pair of crap wooden crutches are $50 from Walgreens, and metal ones like this which are basically brand new are $90! I think the price marked was $3 on these. You do the math and tell me where I should go if I ever break my foot dropping a piece of Goodwill audio gear.

There are other trends too, but we'll get to those at a later date.

There's PA in goodwill? or goodwill in PA? hmm

Well I was in Goodwill (yes, again.. get used to it) in August and once again there was nothing good in the usual spots. The usual spots being :

1. Front glass counter
2. Rear Electronics wall
3. Front of store by the telescope that never sells.

I decided to veer off my 60-second path and go over to where the busted furniture usually is. I see these odd black cabinets, and immediately I realize they're PEAVEY ... something. Well there's this old ass PA-400 amp and two 12" cabinets. $70 on the tag for the whole setup. I plug it in, the lights come on. Some of the output transistors have been replaced, but it looks good. Next question, will this fit in my trunk? Who knows, but I'm going to find out! Dragged it all to the counter with the usual lady giving me the weird looks because she has no idea what or why I'm buying again. Here is the result:

So apparently my 2006 STS trunk while small, still fits 2 12" cabinets, a head, and about 22 bottles of 2 liter cola.

Well I got it home and realized I don't have any 1/4" jacks to power or connect this damn thing. Off to Guitar center to buy them. I hook it up and play some music. The buzz is so annoying. I think it's normal for PA gear but considering I use B&W speakers and amplifiers with significantly lower THD... this is bleh. I bet they would have made a great setup for the garage if I wanted movie night with the projector on the door, but nah.

So I sold them, and made a tidy profit (600%).

Ratings:

Price: $60
Status: Flipped
Condition: 3.00 Stars
Cost: 1.5 Stars
Flippable: 4.5 Stars
Potential Income: 4.5 Stars

I should probably make a chart for what these ratings mean huh?

What's that? Rotel?

So the final piece of equipment from the trip to the 23rd/MacArthur thrift store is one of my prized posssesions, a mint condition Rotel RC-972 preamp. I've wanted a higher end preamp for some time but they were few and far between, not to mention the fact that they're outlandishly priced. This coupled with the fact that I'm always broke, and don't really want to spend any more than is necessary...this not being a necessary item and all.

Anyways what excited me the most about it was the $5.98 scribble across the top in red wax pen. Rotel... six dollars.... wait what? That's akin to my Cadillac having a sticker price of $1000. A quick google shows this as an almost $900 unit.

http://www.audioreview.com/cat/amplification/preamplifiers/rotel/rc-972/PRD_118380_1591crx.aspx

How does it sound? Great. It's neutral. I turn all tone controls off on it. I like that its remote controlled (I still have to find one...). It replaced my NAD preamp and I haven't looked back. I could probably flip it for $400 or so, but I've always wanted something of this caliber, and I probably will keep it until I find something better, like a McIntosh or something.

Currently this is attached to my NAD214 amplifier and B&W DM2000's. Awesome :)

Ratings:

Price: $6
Status: Keeper
Condition: 4.50Stars
Cost: 1 Star
Flippable: 4.5 Stars
Potential Income: 5 Stars

MMM Yam..Yama...Yamaha

So yesterday I posted the nice MK VX-7 sub I found at the Community Thrift on 23rd and Macarthur. Well some other things came with that package. The main thing that drew me there (and prompted Nolan to call me) was this huge stack of Yamaha equipment. There was an awesome amp, the MX-830 along with an Equalizer EQ-630, dual tape deck KX-W602, and 5 disc CD changer CDC-815. I drove there nervously, Nolan warned that if I did not show up on time a horde of Mexican thrifters (its right next to the Mexican discoteca) would swarm my prize. I plugged them in quickly and tested, all working. I packed them up and took them home. Hooked them up and wow, this stuff is great! The EQ has awesome bars, but is ultimately useless to me since I don't like tone controls on my 2-channel rig. The amp is powerful, but I don't need it. I test it and list it. It sold a week later. The rest of it works great and has great sound. The tape player had a dent in the top that i popped out and reassembled.

The rest of it now sits in the closet. I will probably integrate these into the hidden audio rack thats behind the wall in the living room, since it all matches.

A great find at a great price. Still not the best of this particular bunch, but pretty damn close. The amp alone paid for the whole setup and then some.

Ratings:

Price: $60
Status: Partially flipped
Condition: 4.00 Stars
Cost: 1 Star
Flippable: 5 Stars
Potential Income: 5 Stars

Some rumble bumble

So I get a call one day back in September or August from Nolan, one of my partners in crime for thrifting. Well I'm sitting at work while he and his friend Philip are out doing their own thrifting. They find this awesome Rotel Preamp and Yamaha setup, so I tell them to hold it while I run over from work. Upon arriving I notice this little gem sitting on the floor with the grille on. It just looked like some cheap $20 subwoofer until I took the grille offf and googled the model. MK VX-7. It's a 50 watt 8" powered subwoofer with some very nice looking gold RCA plugs. It's missing the fuse holder cap but I figure it's an easy fix. I wheel this and all the other stuff with me out. Nolan takes this gem home for a month and does nothing with it!

Well a month passes and I ask for it back so I can work on it. Of course it doesn't power on. I search high and low for a fuse holder to no avail. I even purchase a replacement holder with cap. The old one is very well attached so I decide to open up the plate amp, and install the new fuse holder in place of the old one, but I did not affix it to the outside plate as it was not an easy removal. I put the appropriate fuse in and powered it on. It works! This thing moves a ridiculous amount of air. There's an odd whistling however, coming from the original fuse holder. I've got nothing to put on it so I fill the hole with liquid nails, and put another fuse in it to fill the void. Problem solved.

I plug this into my 2 channel system with my B&W DM2000 towers and let it rip. It's being fed a secondary RCA preout from my Rotel RC-972 preamp. The bass is tight and powerful. It certainly feels and sounds more than 50 watts. What a great find. Retail on this thing is somewhere in the $599 neighborhood, but MK is no longer in business. Still, for $5.98 this was one of the best finds to date. I have yet to decide whether I'm keeping it or not.

Ratings:

Price: $6
Status: Undecided
Condition: 3.75 Stars
Cost: 1 Star
Flippable: 5 Stars
Potential Income: 5 Stars

Another Klipsch find!!

So I get bored a little bit in early Thanksgiving and head over to the Unique Thrift over on NW 23rd and Meridian. I'd only been here once before, but luck usually plays out better when you only frequent them seldom (yes I understand that was oxymoronic).

I walk in and see nothing, there's some old PS1s that don't have analog outputs soldered on (something I'd been looking for, for about a year now). I walk up and down the electronics aisles. There are old DVD players, about five tape players, and other useless junk. My eye did notice a medium sized USPS shipping carton that was open, but I had no idea what was in it. I pick it up off the top shelf and peer inside. My, a pair of Klipsch Quintet II's. I pull them each out, pull off the grilles (which are in great condition). Their wax pen markings say "5pc set 39.96". Wait a minute, a $499 set of speakers for 90% off? Sold. I'm not even checking them out any more than this. I walk to the front and pay for them. The kind lady behind the counter tries to see if they're classified as "furniture" to get me 50% off. Shoot I don't care, but 50% is even better. No go on that, but I get them anyways. She mentions someone else came in the previous night and eyed them but thought it was too expensive. Idiot.

I take them home and hook each one up individually. All of them work. The stands are floppy, but a quick twist of a small hex wrench solves that. After that they were put back in that USPS box for four months until I traded them for an EIKI projector and extra bulb. The projector alone is about $500, and the bulb about $300. Not a bad trade I tell you what.

No use for them so they were flipped.

Ratings:

Price: $40
Status: Flipped!
Condition: 4.55 Stars
Cost: 1 Star
Flippable: 5 Stars
Potential Income: 5 Stars

An awesome find at Goodwill

So back in November I stopped by my local Goodwill on the way home and walked down the aisles. I've done it so many times it takes only 60 seconds to hit every hot spot in this Goodwill. Being on the way home its actually faster to go inside the Goowill, hit up all the stuff, and leave cutting through the parking lot since it bypasses the stoplight. Anyways there was nothing of note today...until I rounded the corner of the taller shelves and saw two gigantic black box speakers. Not the thin sexy ones you see today, but the big wide heavy ones of yesteryear. They had the odd looking copper name badges with copper lettering... Klipsch. I'd never seen these before, so I flipped them around and saw "Forte II". I had certainly heard of them. These are legendary. How much are they? Well each is labeled $75, but usually they give me a pair price. No big deal. I carry one to the front and ask them to watch it as I get the other one. I carry each of these 70lb suckers to the front and get in line. Theres another Vietnamese patron in front of me buying a Yamaha electronic keyboard (full sized) for $25. Rosey (my girlfriend) paid like $200+ for hers a few years ago. That's a deal if I ever saw one. What's funny is the stand they were selling with it was $50. That made absolutely no sense. I guess he felt screwed but I told him the keyboard was still a good deal. Well since he felt apt to not get the best deal, he had to share that with me after we discussed it. My turn to check out, she asks me how much they are, and I say $75. She's like a pair? I say yes, you guys price speakers by the pair. The Vietnamese guy is like nooooo they're $75 EACH! I guess since she had to radio back to get the price on the keyboard stuff he wanted me to not get the best deal too. She radios the guy in the back.... asks him if they're priced each or a pair. It's all static as she has to repeat about ten times as I'm aching to get out the door and not pay any more than I have to.

Finally the guy spells it out for he on the radio: "$75 EACH". I win I guess, as the Vietnamese guy stammers out the door. I didn't even test these yet, but screw it they're worth it. I pay with my usual credit card and 10% off card. $70 for a pair of Fortes that could easily sell for $600 low and $900 high? That's a deal. I cart them out to my car, and realize my 09 Cadillac CTS isn't a Caddy of yesteryear, where trucks were measured in bodies and not golf clubs. There's no way they're fitting in here. Well I picked one up and forced it in the trunk width wise... amazingly one fit with it going left to right instead of long ways in. I put the second one in and it fits exactly. As I'm loading this second one in a 40 something year old man who looks like he crawled out of the woodwork approaches me with his son, holding some old receiver in his hands. He doesn't look happy.

"Hey I was going to buy those, I just went home to pick up my receiver to make sure they worked!" All I could say was "Sorry?" as I quickly loaded the speaker, somehow fitting exactly in the tiny trunk. I closed the trunk and hear him stammer into the Goodwill. "I'm going to give that damn lady a piece of my mind.....and it faded into angry gibberish." First come first served I guess, I didn't hesitate and I went home with them. That's how I roll at thrift stores.

I get them home and have Rosey help me unload them. Another bit of money spent...but these probably won't be flipped. They're in great condition, all drivers work, all original surrounds and cones. They're 3 way, with two horns, a 12" active driver, and a 15" passive radiator in the back.

I hooked them up and the sound is wonderful. They were in my 2 channel set up for about a month before I cleaned up and moved them to my main home theater. They are still being used today, along with my Klipsch KG4 speaker that I use as a center channel (more on that in another blog).

These are in my "keeper" stash.

Ratings:

Status: Keeper
Condition: 4.75 Stars
Cost: 1 Star
Flippable: 5 Stars
Potential Income: 5 Stars

First post... should be my 1000th

So I'm beginning this blog to chronicle one of my obsessive hobbies : thrifting. I love going into thrift stores and finding some great deals on random objects. It's a constant battle of getting the best in the most odd locations. I'll be posting my best finds of past and present, and anything I flip out of it. It's a great hobby but it's ultimately self-defeating if I don't turn the stuff around for some profit!

More to come very soon.