Long overdue.

I've been gone for a long time, and honestly the deals have kind of become stale. There were plenty since the last blog post, so many I don't remember most of them but not as plentiful as when this blog started. I'm going to post the ones that came up most recently and as I dig through all my old gear I will post those as well. We've moved and had two more kids so my time is limited.

Here goes nothing!

Last week Peter and I went to Sams Club after running some errands to pick up water and milk. We always veer off to the left to the clearance section they always stash behind the photo center. Legit, who still uses a photo center? I'm imagining 1 Hour Photo with a creepy Robin Williams to be honest. I haven't purchased a Sams Club clearance item in years to be honest as there really aren't many. It's up to the manager's discretion on how they mark down stuff so you have to be there virtually every day to catch that one deal a month or quarter. It's the approach I used to take with Goodwill and it worked for many years.

We came across several TVs, but this Vizio 43" 4k  HDR model caught my eye since it was barely over $100. It's not a high end TV, but hell it'd make a great monitor in a pinch. I snagged it up, went to the register and purchased it while the cashier's jaw dropped. It's sitting on a stand at home while I figure out what we'll do with it - we tested it and it's basically brand new. The plastic was still on it and the remote had never been opened. The picture is about a $300 worth with contrast that 's not super great but for most people it'd work fine. I played Altered Carbon on it from Netflix and the HDR is a nice touch but nothing to write home about (I bet it's not a 10bit panel, but who knows).

The deal? 5 stars.
The rest? I don't rank anymore as I don't buy to resell. It's just not worth my time.

The next day we went to Best Buy just on a whim to see if there were any appliances or odds and ends that Peter might be able to use since he's building a house right now. There weren't a whole lot of deals but he did come back while I spoke with some past coworkers and mentioned they had pedestals open-box. We went over and there were two white Samsung pedestals for $50 each. We've come across literally a dozen or more of these over the past 5-6 years but they were always mismatched, or we didn't have room, or the wrong brand. We happened to have the wife's Escalade so it made sense to be honest. The feeling of guilt about buying stuff isn't super strong when its cool stuff for your wife, right? We got them home, installed them and made a mess cutting aluminum sheeting as we had to get a periscope to hook the exhaust up. As the old dryer sat the exhaust port lined up exactly with the hookup on the wall. Drats. This was an awesome deal since we now have recovered the space above the washer/dryer and can store whatever underneath. The dumb part? Normal washing detergent doesn't fit in the pedestals. Oh well, towels or something. The best part? You don't have to lean over as much when you pull laundry out and move it to the dryer.

Deal? 5 stars. MSRP was like $250 each.

The last one for this week, arguably the highest % savings but the most useless for me. We went to Target and found these:

We make the rounds on the back wall like any good Target bargain hunter should. That's where all the clearance is. There was a big cardboard box on the bottom that said "Lumisource" or something to that matter. To me that reads "I'm some sort of lamp, because Lumi means light". Well I was wrong. They were 24" stools. I pushed the box back into the clearance pile since our counter is 30" stools and these were 24". Wait a minute, Peter is building a house and I'm pretty sure his counters are lower. So we got them. They were marked $16.xx. I'd say that's one hell of a deal, over 90% off.

Deal? 5 stars xxxx!!!! (ebay ratings) A+++

So, perhaps the next update will be less than 4 years away.

Long term update!

Sorry for the late update guys and gals! With my daughter being born and us generally getting busier I have really let this blog slide. There's a bunch to cover so I'll start with some updates!

Accurian 8" powered subwoofer(s). I picked up one at the local goodwill probably 18 months ago and it just sat in my garage forever. I finally decided to use it and installed it in my bedroom alongside my PSB T65 full tower speakers. I have no specs on it and  honestly there are none that I can find on google. No reviews, specs, nothing. It added a decent amount of bass but nothing earth shattering. I suspect it came with a cheap 5.1 setup and it got separated when it went to goodwill. It was probably $5 if that. I couldn't go super loud since it's in my bedroom and my wife always complains about how loud the TV is at night. Fast forward a few months (almost 2 years apart from the first one) and while on vacation in Cambridge Ohio I decided to stop by the local goodwill while waiting on the girls to get their hair done. Nothing was great and we were about to walk out with nothing more than a $0.29 toy for Kaytelyn when I saw them carry out a very familiar box. For $2.99 I got a second Accurian 8".... 900+ miles away. What are the odds? I'll probably sell the pair for $100, they're pretty decent stacked and turned up. 

The holy grail of my growing up. Polk LSi 25 loudspeakers. The highest speaker of it's time, in a totally different class than the rest of Polk Audio speakers. The original price was $2799/pair. I would have never had the cash to do that. I had resigned myself to never owning a pair and moved on to the usual hunting for cheaper alternatives. One late night as I was perusing the local Craigslist, a pair of these came up for $900. Not bad actually, but way more than I am willing to allow myself to spend on a single pair of speakers right now. I figure, hey...why not check out the Polk forums. I hadn't been on in months and thought to check it anyways. I hopped on and the identical pair was for sale in their classifieds for $475! I messaged him immediately and told him I'd take them if available. 12 hours later I paypalled him and they were mine, undercutting some other bidder who was dragging his feet (thanks for the payment Nolan). We went on vacation for almost two weeks and I went to pick them up in Chickasha.

After building some custom jumpers out of some Clearance AudioQuest cabling I fired them up. A.Ma.ZING....... Wow. These will not be resold so no value/ranking on them. But the value I give ***** five stars. Funny, as soon as I purchased these a 2nd pair was offered to the guy who got mad at me for buying them from under him. I told the seller I'd take second dibs as kind of a joke. Two days later he messaged me saying he was also in OKC and if I was local... they're mine when they came up for sale later this year. Might have two pairs soon.... and I may be done for a very long time in terms of searching. Now to find an LSi Center....

Polk E10 speakers. Got them for $5... not bad little bookshelves. Haven't given them the full testing yet.

Probably sell them for $40. Value four stars, resale three stars.

Boston Acoustics VR975 speakers and center. Talked down the seller from $150 to $100 for the set. They just moved in from out of town and the new house had no place for them. The wife really seemed eager to let them go, and the husband begrudgingly helped load them into my car. I hope I'm never in the position that my wife frowny faces me into selling my audio gear. I already took the initiative once when we had a smaller house to sell it all, it won't happen again. They sound great and have awesome power. They weigh as much as the Polks above. These were the best speakers I could think about when I was in high school. Something like $1600 a pair retail in 1999, with the center being $599. The caps need some glue, but are otherwise in amazing shape for being 16 years old. 4 more years and they're considered vintage. These sell for $700-1000 a set still, being amazing and all.

Value five stars.

Resale five stars.

PSB T65 speakers.

I got these in a trade with someone I call "Steve the Speaker Guy". He got me into vintage speakers and we trade gear on and off. I usually give him a lot more gear for one or two pieces of what I consider more desirable gear. Probably worth $600 or so, they're terrific sounding speakers. Resale is difficult as no one knows what they are.... damn Canadian speakers. These currently reside in my bedroom and at full blast will probably destroy some of my wife's fine linens. They're massive, over 20" deep and weighing over 70lbs each. They're definitely for sale.... because some new speakers are coming in soon.

Value three stars (since I traded and had to trade a lot).

Resale two stars (been listed for a while)

Is it cold in here?

So we've REALLY slowed down the thrift shopping lately. Pretty much we've stopped going to all of them except the one down on the south side that used to be a Circuit City. It's got the best Target stuff, but pretty much crap when it comes to rare things like audio products.

Anyways as we've become domesticated and my ability to run to GoodWill every day has ceased. Now I look for things that used to bore me. Is that a sign I'm getting old or complacent?  Getting a NEST (or 2) installed in my home was the most exciting thing in August of last year and in the new home last month.

Back to the story - last week we were in GoodWill and people were mobbing the buckets as they came out. I guess 2pm is the primetime. I found a Ninja food processor which for our usage is awesome (making guac and wicked hot sauce). Then the next bucket came out and contrary to my commentary on how everyone was crazy for bumrushing the buckets I ran over and had to see what was in it. There was a huge box - a Vornado whole room heater brand new. $20 seemed a good deal since I don't want to resell it. We have a big house and for some stupid reason it's still snowing/icing in April. Next month will be 105F I bet. Then I ran back to our cart and on the way I hit a smaller box on the shelf... a Vornado personal heater! $12 wasn't terrible so I picked that up too..

I have to say - these things don't put a lot of instant heat out, but they do put a large stream of lower heat (result is same btus I suppose) that circulates in the room so the whole room heats up evenly. You don't have that one spot that's really warm and the rest of the room is cold. Good deal? Yes. For $32 we bought $90 worth of heaters and saved $70 off the Ninja. A good week indeed.

Sorry I've been missing so long - been busy having a kid (which is the primary focus of thrifty picks now) and maintaining the house.

Tomorrow I  make my own thrifty picks for others at my garage sale. Hope it does well!

Long time

Sorry for the lack of updates guys! We've been busy. Getting married, buying a new house, etc. The wife is pregnant and we are busy just about every day. The thrifty picks have been few and far between lately. I'll start getting some more blogs posted as I clean out the junk and find stuff I've purchased in the past few months.

Idiots on Craigslist

Okay this isn't a Thrifty Pick at all. But I am so tired of the people on Craigslist saying the stupidest shit.

Here we go:

http://oklahomacity.craigslist.org/mcy/2601508815.html

I have a pair of STOCK Harley mufflers for sale. Picture, part number, and description in the ad. You'll notice I've modified the ad because I keep getting stupid emails/texts asking questions that are obviously answered in the ad.

One person asked if they were aftermarket. Google what "Stock" means buddy.
One person asked me what bike they were for. Dude the part numbers are in the ad.
One person was so bold as to ask why I had them. Noneofurfuckinbusiness.
I got tons of these with no offers to buy. Well, one guy offered but never showed up.

Today however, was a doozy of an interaction. This guy just didn't friggin' get it. For some reason he couldn't get it through his damned head that the "dents" in the mufflers are supposed to be there. They're manufactured into the muffler so when you mount them to the bike these go on, they clear the frame and don't rub. He kept saying he'd offer me $20 because they were damaged, or dented. I'm like dude, you can't offer less based on a feature. I explained it to him no less than four times that the dents are how they came. He might as well have been a brick wall. What's even stupider is his offers went up and down. Seriously. I'm just going to paste the conversation because it tells the story by itself:

+14057590502: How much for your mufflers since they are dented 9:47 AM Me: They are not dented... 10:29 AM Me: Those are shaped that way so it fits the bike curves 10:29 AM +14057590502: Oh so how much do you want for them 10:45 AM Me: Make an offer.... 10:45 AM +14057590502: well since they have a small dents ill give you 20? 10:46 AM Me: They don't have ANY dents.....why don't you get that? 10:47 AM Me: And no. I can send them off for more than that 10:47 AM +14057590502: Well give me a base price so i know where to start 10:52 AM Me: Retail on them is 288 per side. That's 576 total. Ill sell them for 200 total. 10:55 AM +14057590502: would you take 125 for the small dent in the side i see in the picture 10:57 AM Me: (1/2) Dude you aren't getting it. Those dents are normal.....they are manufactured that way so it clears the under side of the bike. Its not damage, its built t 11:01 AM Me: (2/2) hat way 11:01 AM Me: That's why the recess is in the same place on both mufflers... 11:05 AM +14057590502: AHH i see how do you think it would cost to take the recess's out 11:06 AM Me: I don't know, they are manufactured that way. They face the inside of the bike so u won't see them anyways 11:08 AM +14057590502: So since they have a manufacture defect of a dent would you do 100 11:09 AM +14057590502: sorry i meant 175 11:13 AM Me: Its not a defect 11:18 AM Me: They are made that way. Its curved to fit the harley. please stop acting like they're messed up. They are stock. Google the, its NORMAL 11:19 AM +14057590502: So will they fit my suzuki intruder with those dents on there 11:20 AM Me: You tell me, I don't own a suzuki or any bikes 11:21 AM +14057590502: Why do you have an exhaust? 11:21 AM Me: Because my friend told me to sell it 11:22 AM +14057590502: Did you ask him if he laid the bike over twice and dented the exhaust? 11:27 AM Me: Dude forget it, you are gettng the message 11:28 AM Me: I'm tired of telling you they are not damaged. Google the model numbers and you will see they are designed that way 11:29 AM +14057590502: what is the lowest you will take 11:31 AM Me: Already told you. You aren't listening 11:31 AM +14057590502: will you take 150 11:31 AM Me: I'm going to block your number because you are not listening to me at all. I said 200. Not 20, not 100, or 150. 11:33 AM

What's even funnier is he said he understood halfway through, then went back to not getting it at all.

Please, go crawl back under that rock you came out, I'm done dealing with retards.

THX guys, I do like it loud...

Once again it's been a while. Craigslist has been crazy the past few months. I've sold more on Craigslist since my last post than I have in all my time otherwise, combined.

In the months of October and November I made more money selling the crap in our closets at home than I did working for Dell on my salary/wage. What does that mean? I sold a TON of high margin stuff. I just sold a DBX 4BX sound expander the other day for $225, and it only cost me $5 at Goodwill about 8 months ago. Most of my sales were like that. I was sitting on a gold mine and finally cashed it in.

So anyways, back to the topic at hand, something THX certified. In our home we have 3 systems you can watch movies on, one in the bedroom with my 46" LED, one in the middle living room with the 37" LCD, and one in the big living room with the 100" drop down high definition projector. Well my goal had been to upgrade all the systems eventually to HDMI with high definition codec decoding (DTS MasterHD, Dolby TrueHD, etc). So far I only had a mid-line Harman Kardon AVR254 7.1 HDMI receiver in the big living room. It's pretty damn good actually, but I've always wanted more. Don't forget my 10 year old Sony 555ES receiver that I sold for $200 as well, that's what started all this.

So, step 1 - make some money to buy a nice receiver. Well how do we make money, my thrifty pickers? Buy low and sell high. I perused the Best Buy auction site as usual, and craigslist, and Goodwill. In the end I bought two receivers for the time being, a Pioneer 820-K and 1019AH-K. Both were HDMI receivers, supporting 1080p and high def codecs. The 1019AH-K was last years model, 7.1 channel top of the line. It's identical to last years Pioneer Elite, sans the pre-outs and cool amber display. The 820-K is this years 5.1 HDMI 3D capable. Basically I paid about 100 for each one, as is coming only with the receiver. I used them in my bedroom and middle living room for a while.

Well the performance of them was unimpressive, so I sold them both. The 1019 sold for $225, and the 820k sold for $150. Not bad, I ended up with $375 made from $200. I also sold the Velodyne sub I bought at Goodwill, $200 on a $30 investment. So I decided to spend about $400 on a receiver, because Christmas is here and I didn't want to unload all my money on a receiver. I figured I'd get a mid line receiver, that was higher end than what I got from the Best Buy site. I looked around at Yamaha, Denon, Sony, and Onkyo. In the end I settled on the Onkyo TX-NR807 7.2 (9.2 with additional amps) Network receiver. It's last years $1100 HDMI receiver. The only thing it doesn't have is 3D capability. I could care less about that feature.

Well I ordered it refurbished from accessories4less.com and it arrived in 3 days. Cost? $429. I got the box with all the accessories and manual, and opened it up. It's in brand new shape. Not a single scratch on it. I seriously don't think this thing was ever used. It probably left the factory, was delivered and opened, and then returned. Well it saved me over $600 so I'm not complaining.

I was actually lazy this weekend, normally with a new toy of this magnitude I would have stopped any and everything I was doing to go hook it up. It wasn't until Sunday night that I decided to hook it up. I yanked all the wires out the back of my trusty HK AVR254 and put it to the side. Lately I've been on a kick of trying to clean up wires. I'm tired of having to twist speaker wires and stick them in the terminals, and screw it down. I bought a ton of Nakamichi banana plugs and I screwed them on the ends to make setup easier.
Anyways, the actual hookup of the receiver took about 30 seconds. 3 HDMI in (Bluray, Cable, HD-DVD) and 1 out (LCD/Projector) along with the power cord. That's it. Oh and the speaker wires.

The other ten minutes came from plugging all the power cords back in and routing them through the stand. The problem with my Z-Line glass stand is you can see ALL the wires behind it. Any one know a way to hide grand-central station of wires?

Anyways I powered it up and tried to play a movie. Conveniently, Avatar was already loaded in the bluray player so I just let it play. I fast forwarded to the scene where they blow the hell out of home tree and let it rip. Holy crap this receiver has power, but where was the bass? The front panel showed the sub was on, and so did the onscreen display. I played with it for five minutes wondering why my trusty Polk PSW150 sub wasn't firing off. Stupid me, I forgot to plug the sub cable into the receiver. Once I did the bass was back, but it was kind of disappointing. Nothing was shaking, the bass was barely felt. I decided to run the Audessey auto calibration at this point to maybe get some better sound.

The Audessey process is pretty cool, you get this odd shaped mic with a tripod mount that you put in your listening position(s) and run the setup. It sends out pings from all the channels first to see what speakers are actually hooked up. It correctly identified my setup as 5.1 instead of 7.1 or 9.1. I don't see any point in 7.1 anyways. After that it asks you to put the mic in your listening position 1 and runs some random noise through each speaker. I put the mic on a surveyors tripod and let it rip. The process measures the frequency response and time delay between all the speakers, so that it knows how big each speaker is, and how far it is from the user. It got each speaker down to the inch. The only problem is it set my center channel to 40hz and mains to 60hz. This means my front stage can put out a lot of bass by themselves, but it was odd the smaller center was measured as larger than the sides. Oh well, I reset them all to 80hz since this is a THX receiver and that is the normal THX setting. After it ran the tests, it took about 5 minutes to run its calculations and save the config.

I unpaused Avatar after this and it was amazing. The sound from the speakers was calibrated now and it was just like IMAX. But the bass was still missing. It was there but subdued. I hit some buttons on the remote and saw that the LFE/Sub was set at -15. Why did it set it so low? It must have thought my sub was way too loud. I set it to -5 and the house started to shudder like a tornado was approaching. Audio nirvana hit. 135 watts per channel, and near-reference levels of THX sound made it amazing.

The receiver gave my speakers a new lease on life. Not that the HK was bad, but the Onkyo has much more power (135w vs 50w). The HK will be fine in the bedroom. My Klipsch system sang to heights it had never seen before. The bass was tight, the treble was refined. I watched about 20 minutes of the movie and decided this one is a keeper, unless someone offers me more on Craigslist, hehe.

I hooked up the router to the receiver and let it do a firmware update. That took about 30 minutes, but at least it was automated. The HK unit took like four hours because you have to use a serial port and it has to do a bunch of random crap. After that I fired up the NET mode of the receiver, and it connected to Pandora. Logging in was a pain in the ass, as the remote has no keyboard and the onscreen keyboard was so slow. Thankfully you only have to do this once. I put Usher on and it sounded pretty good for internet compressed music. I need to get an SACD player some time and see how it sounds.

Highly recommended, especially for this price.

THX Power, finally

So this is one of the few Craigslist deals I've picked up recently. I actually emailed this lady about her Insignia receiver for $100. She said it was a $500 receiver eight months ago. Well the only $500 receiver Insignia has is their HDMI capable one which for $100 is pretty good. Turns out it was just a NS2000 - Stereo receiver, which is $100 retail new. But she said she had an amp with it for sale, too. What was it? I asked. Parasound HCa-1205a.

What's that? It's a THX Ultra certified five channel amplifier. 140 watts into five channels RMS @ 8ohms. 200 watts into 4 ohms. That's one hell of an amplifier. I picked it up for $200 (cheap) and took it home. The guy said he had a candle on it and it kind of melted. No joke.

http://www.parasound.com/vintage/hca1205a.php

I got it home and opened it up. I wasn't going to power it on with wax caked to the top. I take the top cover off and bang the wax out. No big deal. Then I look inside and theres wax ALL over the toroidal transformer. I scrape it off, and out. It's everywhere. Luckily it's only on the transformer and not on any of the circuit boards, that would be a nightmare to clean. Overall I pulled about 18 oz of wax out of that thing. What type of candle was he burning?

After cleaning it up I hooked it up to my RT-55s and let her rip. POWER. Wow is there power. The good ole' NAD before was great, but this was moving.

Great power. Great price. Cleaned all up - paired with my RT-55's bi-amped (first time ever) and a Velodyne VA-810 subwoofer... Awesome.

This one really sucks....

And it's true! Hey readers it's been a long time since I last posted. Well I don't have any pictures for today's blog (wait, i found a stock one!), but I'll be sure to get some when I have time. I've been a bit busy and have sold off quite a bit of my inventory. That being said, I still have more than a closet full of audio gear that's got to go.

So today's story, about sucking.... I went to Goodwill last week and as usual there wasn't much to purchase, so I rounded the corners and on top of one of the higher racks was this big yellow thing that caught my eye. I looked up and saw this weird 'cyclone' looking yellow thing. I yank the handle and pull it down, and behold it's a Dyson DC07 vacuum cleaner. Yeah one of those $500 vacuums was sitting at Goodwill. Immediately I rolled it up to the front where the power plug was and plugged it in. It powered on with a terrific roar. I look under at the brush and it's not spinning. Damn, the belt must be broken or something. Still, the price tag reads $19.99 and it sucks, hard.

At the counter the usual girl tells me, " I told them to price it at $50, someone still would have bought it". Well I'm glad they didn't. I bought it, stuffed it in the trunk next to the subwoofer/amp that I bough at goodwill (another story...later) and went home.

So I bring it home and let it sit for a while, since I didn't really want to mess with it or the belt. The belt is $7 on ebay, and that's apparently the only place to get it. It sat in the same place for a day, then I remembered something about the Dysons - they don't turn the brush on until you lean the handle back and put it in gear! It's to save power for the hand wand and increase suction. I plugged bit Yellow in and leaned it back, behold the vacuum works! Sure, it's missing the hand wand tools, but the hand wand and extendable hose are built into the handle so it's got those at least.

I took it apart, flushed out all the old dust, and washed all the filters (which are hand washable!). After that this thing sucked even harder, which is amazing.

$19.99 for a Dyson, from Goodwill. I had hoped for one but gave up hoping long ago as these things never happen. Persistence paid off this time. And it sure does suck.

No resale on this one. $500 vacuum - $19.50 paid (discount) = $480.50 + tax saved.

More Vintage Goodness!

So yet again I am perusing the NW 50th and MacArthur Goodwill, and as usual nothing good comes of it. Then this odd looking brown box comes into view. It's got that weird rusted looking grate on top, similar to my Kenwood from 197x. I pull it off the shelf and take it to the power outlet. Hey, it's one of those old Technics receivers that people rave about. Model SA-303. It looks nice that's for sure, with its analog tuner dial and LED lights for meters. Personally I prefer the VU type meters, there is just something about it that strikes the mechanical side of me.

It powers on and the meters dance when I play with the tuning. It's very dirty, with red dust all over it meaning it was probably in a shed somewhere for many years. Oh hell, its $3, why not?

I buy this bad buy and take it home, hooking it up to a cheap set of speakers just in case the output transistors are fused and decided to blow up. I don't want my $1000 B&W's to explode in a firestorm of vintage sparks, you know? The first thing I try is the tuner, it works, but as with just about any old tuner, the stereo portion is difficult to pull in. Mono works fine, which means the "squelch" or whatever it's call on stereos is disabled. If you turn stereo on, it goes silent because it cannot lock a signal. No big deal, I'm not going to use it for FM anyways.

I hook into the AUX jack with my laptop and see if it will play some lossless FLAC. Works, but the left channel is distorted and static ridden. I twist the input selector knob and the volume to see if it's a pot that is causing the issue. The volume seems fine. The input selector pot is the cause. Apparently it's not making contact when turned to the far clockwise position (AUX setting). If I plug into the tape input and flip the tape lever, the input is clear. This thing needs cleaning inside, and the pots need a shot of De-oxit.

Well I never get around to cleaning it. I play music through it for a while, and put this thing into the close for three months. Now let me tell you, this past Friday and Saturday night I stayed up until 2 or 4 am posting stuff on craigslist, this receiver certainly made it into that group. Asking price? $50. It's on the list for maybe eight hours before I get an email about it. Some country sounding woman calls me and asks about it. Don't you hate it when people call, text, or email you with a generic question like, "I'm interested in your receiver" ? Yes I know a lot of people only list one thing on Craigslist, but I even got one yesterday that said, "I'm interested". That was it. Interested in what? Do you have reference? Are you hot? Oh wait, it's probably a Craigslist item you're interested in, not a casual encounter. Wrong section of the forums, buddy.

Anyways, they say they want to buy it, so I pull it out and hook it up to some Beovox S45-2 "audiophile" bookshelf speakers that I picked up that very day. Well they never show up, so I figure they got disinterested. Sunday morning they call, but Rosey and I are on the way to the Edmond arts festival to kill some time. I tell them call me around 5pm and we'll meet up to do the deal. 5pm rolls around and nothing, I call them with no response. 6pm and nothing. Geez people, don't make a deal and then bail out, it's really annoying. Anyways around 6:40 they call saying they have to 'make plans' to come over because it's "so far away from Midwest City". Oh please, I drive with the girlfriend to Tinker every weekend so I can visit the Goodwill there.

Anyways around 7:45 this cracked out woman with meth-teeth shows up at my door with a five year old kid. I notice her giant extended-cab truck parked in the street instead of the driveway. My driveway is 2 cars wide and about 6 cars deep, seriously, DON'T BLOCK THE ROAD. It's dangerous and irresponsible, not to mention lazy.

Anyways she comes in, listens, and promptly pays me $50. That's a $47 profit, or approximately 1200% margin.

Crazy huh?

Total time invested? $10 of windexing the thing to get the dirt off.

Ratings:

Price: $3
Status: Flipped
Condition: 2.50 Stars
Cost: 0.1 Stars
Flippable: 3.5 Stars
Income: $47

Some rackmount goodness!

Well, it's been over a month since my last post. Such a long time. Now that doesn't mean I have neglected my thrifty ways, mind you!

Yesterday we went to the Oklahoma Arts Festival and took in the nice weather and the starving artists' works. It didn't last as long as I figured it would, since it's a pretty big event.

Anyways afterwards we went thrift hunting at the usual Goodwill stores. The intention was to let Rosey go find baby clothes for her best friend, who's pregnant with her first child. It just happens that Goodwill is also one of my favorite place(s) to go. We went to the one on SW 89th st and Penn first, since she didn't really look too much there last week. We walk in and she goes to get some clothes, and I do my walk back to see if that pair of Advent 1's were there from last week. I've read that they're some pretty awesome speakers, unfortunately one was water damaged and the cone on the woofer was disintegrated. It was probably a $5 fix for a $15 set of speakers that could easily bring in $150. They were there, and still marked at $15. I passed on them again, and went to their crappy electronics section. This store never has anything good.

The first thing that I spot is some weird rackmont piece that's silver. My eyes were blurry since I had my prescription sunglasses on (they're old) so I had to let them adjust. Instead of looking to see what it was, I just knelt down and grabbed it. Upon further inspection I saw the price tags for $10, so I didn't figure it was anything special. The front said "XTi 1000". Big whoop, some random off brand piece of hardware. Then the brand logo was revealed from under my hand: "Crown".

Really? A Crown amp sitting in Goodwill? And for ten dollars mind you. This thing was in excellent shape. I plugged it in, and it booted up (I say that for an amp because this one has an LCD). Great! Blinded by my thriftiness I just walked over to Rosey, told her what I found, and bolted for the register. I paid for it and put it in the trunk. We picked out baby clothing after that and left.

I didn't find much else, just some box called "Prozone". I'm guessing it's an ozone generator with a UV lamp inside. It now sits behind the kitty litter box.

Anyways we got home and I waited until the rain stopped to bring the amp insite. It really was in great shape as you can see from the picture above. Well I hooked it up, but realized this thing only takes balanced XLR plugs instead of the normal 1/4" Phono or RCA plug. The previous owner had ghetto-rigged a $.02 RCA cable into a cheapo XLR plug, but only did it with one. Well I guess I could test one channel at a time, which I did. I hooked it up to my B&W 2000's and well, it sounds pretty good. It's no NAD amp, but for how much power it puts out, it's certainly a clean one. The specs list .02% THD which is pretty good, with 275w per channel into 8ohms and 500w into 4 ohms, which is damn powerful. Price tag? $499, and it's still a current model!

Well now I'm on a quest for a decent set of XLR connectors, unless I use this with my new EMU 1212 sound card which has 1/4" TRS connectors. I'm positive they make TRS to XLR since they're both balanced.

But what about the black amp sitting underneath the Crown? That's a Behringer EP1500 amplifier that I picked up the day before, not knowing this Crown would come into my hands. I was going to use the Behringer with a passive subwoofer in my home theater, well I probably still will, unless the Crown does a better job. I've been eying this set of Polk Audio subwoofers that have their amplifiers removed but come with a beautiful ebony enclosure and dual 10" subwoofers with a power handling of 1000w rms. I'm thinking of getting two, wiring them to 2Ohms each, and driving 700w to each with the Crown, or the same with the Behringer.

I tested the Behringer the day before, it uses XLR and 1/4" inputs, which means I can use the 1/4" to RCA plugs I bought for my sound card. Sound quality? Great, along with punchy bass and tons of headroom. 260 watts per channel at 8 ohms, this amp is very similar to the Crown, at 1/3 the cost.

I like them both, we'll see if I flip them or not!

Crown Rating:

Price: $10

Status: Probably flip it

Condition: 5.00 Stars

Cost: .5 stars

Flippable: 4.5 Stars

Potential Income: $300-400

Behringer Rating:

Price: $100

Status: Keeper

Condition: 4.75 Stars

Cost: 2 Stars

Flippable: 3.00 Stars

Potential Income: $50

Polka Polka Polk! RT55s

Ah, some of my favorite speakers in the world. The venerable Polk Audio RT55. Similar (actually almost exactly the same) to the RT55i, except it has black cones, not blue, and the veneer is vinyl not real wood.

Otherwise the drivers are exactly the same, and the specs as well.

Dual 6.5" woofers, a 1" trilaminate dome tweeter. 35hz-26khz.

Up to 200watts each!

Why do I like them so much? Well my dad has a pair, and has had them for well over ten years now. They have always impressed me as a "bookshelf" speaker, as they give the fuller sound of floorstanders. At his house they were set up in his bedroom 5.1/7.2 system for a number of years, on stands for his Yamaha powered system. They're biampable/biwirable so you can hook them up with some serious power, yet choose the type of amplification for high and low if you want a preferred sound.

I drove all the way out to Blanchard, OK to get these. The crazy guy selling them only wanted $50 for the speakers, or $100 for the whole setup - a 5 disc Sony CD changer, some cheap Sony DE-197 receiver, and the RT55s of course. I thought about buying the whole setup but decided I already have like 5 cd changers and an equivalent amount of receivers so I just took the speakers.

Taking them home was exciting, as it was almost an hour drive from the middle of nowhere, and the weather turned bad. Well I got them home and hooked them up, oh boy do they sing. Currently they sit attached to my Sony 555ES receiver with a healthy 120watts per channel powering them. There's a matching Polk CS-250 as the center and a Klipsch KSW-10 to round it off. No 5.1 in this room, our bedroom is too small and I sure as hell am not climbing up in our attic to run rear speakers if not necessary. I had a pair of Polk RT25s in tow for that job but decided to give them to my dad instead since he wanted an all-Polk 7.1 system (with the same RT55s mentioned earlier).

Music is definitely punchy as these are renowned for their bass response from such a small cabinet. Treble is well rounded and not too harsh. You can set these as large speakers if you want, however I let the receiver do the bass management and set them to small. They do 80hz on up and the rest goes to the subwoofer.

Ever since my dad got a pair, I wanted one. They ran well over $700 a pair so I never had the opportunity to buy them myself. At $50 for the pair I didn't drive, I floored it to get them. It is doubtful I will get rid of these any time soon, and when we move into a new house they are definitely coming with.

Ratings:

Price: $50
Status: Keeper
Condition: 5.00 Stars
Cost: 1.0 Stars
Flippable: 3.5 Stars
Potential Income: Unknown

LOUD ASS MUSIC

So I was at Goodwill again two weeks ago, and did the 60 second tour. Nothing great, except this giant-ass black cabinet. Even larger than the Klipsch Forte II's, and covered in the same material as the Peavey gear from not too long ago.

What was it? A Yamaha S4115h speaker. I have no idea what type of speaker it is. I assume it's for live sound, or some PA equipment. It uses those 1/4" jacks which I still have, but unfortunately I have no amp. Also, there's only one speaker! What the hell is with people donating only one speaker! Oh well it's $10, so I decide to buy it. It's got a huge metal horn on top, and a 15" woofer below. I bet the efficiency on this thing is far north of 95db, meaning it will get loud, with almost no power.

I roll this outside and try to fit it in my car. No go. We wrestle for it a bit and somehow get it in the back seat. Well I get it home and it sits in the garage for two weeks. Rosey doesn't even notice it for most of that time. Meanwhile I'm looking for a way to power this thing. None of my amps or receivers output with a 1/4" phono plug. The Peavey PA-400 did, but that's long gone. I went to Guitar Center and picked up a 1/4" female to banana plug adapter (I have a 1/4" 6ft speaker cable at home from the PA-400). In addition I found an E-MU 1212m sound card that I'm going to try out. It was $40.

What's funny is the adapter for the speaker was $15!!! The damn speaker was only $10. Not the greatest investment ever. Well I was lazy for a week and never hooked it up, so on a subsequent visit to the Goodwill they apparently found some 20ft 1/4" to banana plug cables. They had two of them which lead me to believe there should be another speaker...somewhere. Anyways the cables were only $1 each so I bought them up and returned the adapter.

This weekend I pulled the Onkyo DS575 5.1 receiver out of the closet and dragged it to the garage with my laptop. I plugged it all up, and noticed there was something stuck in one of the inputs of the speaker. I grabbed it with my Gerber multi-tool (thanks Rosey!) and yanked it out. Well it was a broken off 1/4" phono that someone must have sheared off. Powered it on and turned up the volume slowly.

Test material? Journey Remastered in FLAC lossless through my USB Creative MP3+ adapter, using RCA interconnects to the receiver. I guess I could have used the optical out, oh well.

So I turned it up to 50, or half with the speaker facing away and I could hear it clearly reflecting off the building.... 200 feet away across the street. Wow this thing is loud. The sound quality? Well it IS a PA speaker, so it wasn't that great. That's not really what it was designed for anyways, so no big deal. This thing is a HUGE party speaker. Just one channel running not even close to a full 80 watts @ 8 ohms was breaking 100db easily. Rosey came running outside like something had blown up and told me she couldn't hear the TV inside the house because it was so loud. I only had it up half way! I cleaned it up a little, there was dust all over it and inside the horn, and it only got louder.

Rosey wants me to sell it. It was only $10... I wonder if I can get $200 out of it? I'm not sure. I'll test the waters. If not I'm going to Ace hardware, ordering some chains and hanging it from the garage ceiling.

Ratings:

Price: $10
Status: Stored
Condition: 3.00 Stars
Cost: .5 Stars
Flippable: 3.5 Stars
Potential Income: Unknown

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