Where to get broken/used amps?

[FireII]

I know no one wants to give up their secrets, but I'd like to atleast ask to see if anyone can point me in a good direction. So far, ebay, craigslist, and pawn shops have been my areas of interest but they haven't been all that productive, so.... anyone out there care to suggest anything?

[Perry Babin]

You can try posting an ad in one of the free papers (free to readers, it will cost to place the ad) in your area.

[FireII]

Originally Posted by Perry Babin

You can try posting an ad in one of the free papers (free to readers, it will cost to place the ad) in your area.

Good idea!

I tried puting an add like that on craigslist, i got a lot of action from it, but no deals.

I'll try that though, thanks Perry.

[dangus]

Try car audio dealers/installers for broken amps.

And look out for shiny metal in gravel pits... I found a car amp that had taken a bullet or maybe rifled slug through the middle.

Yard sales, thrift stores, old car enthusiast swap meets. Try auto wrecking yards, too. Some cars come in with aftermarket stereos still installed which get salvaged before the car is parted out or crushed.

Persistence pays off... good stuff at pawns and thrifts sells quickly, and the overpriced or junk items hang around. And if you strike out someplace like a wrecking yard or autosound store, ask if they can suggest someone else. You may get a lead to a motherlode, or you may just end up talking with a string of "interesting" strangers.

[spooney]

i have had ok luck at best with craigslist. I offer people 5 to 10 dollars for most amps and more in some cases if its an amp I really want. For the most part though people seem to want almost as much as a working amplifier for their blown one. By the time you work on the amp its a wash basically which is fine if you are just doing it to learn. It seems like I have gotten most of my blown amps through friends or friends of friends.

[jol50]

Seems I had to keep a lookout and would find them here and there, but not one place. Took awhile and then I was swimming in amps and asking myself why I had so many. Sometimes I don't have time to do a lot so if you don't, be careful you don't overload. I found a lot of them from a source that is gone now and bought, and now I still have a pile I wish was not there. Yeah ok, I do like having a pile of amps but its not good business lol. Had to repair other stuff and can't get back to them.

Police auctions can be a source too, online ones as well. Some of it depends on what you do with them. For example I have a guy I can sell to but he only wants certain types of amps. So I have to actively look for those, but I can sell all kinds of them to him if I can find them. Naturally that pile I have is not what he wants.

I was going to try Craigslist once and there were two ads on there already. Be careful on auctions, I have seen them sell for more than working ones many times. I don't understand it, but whatever. If you know what you are doing you can make more on big expensive amps, but you pay more and can get burned. I got fried on one, lol, I bet Perry remembers that one. Was a huge repair and I gave up and sold it for much less than I paid broken. Lot of shill bidding goes on too.

I guess in the end I'd say be persistent and keep looking, don't get wound up or pay too much. Realize it kind of comes and goes. Odds are spring is near and as people buy new they will dump some old stuff one way or another.

[event horizon]

Garage sales or car boot sales as they are known in the UK, not sure what a boot sale would be stateside sorry

[jol50]

Originally Posted by event horizon

Garage sales or car boot sales as they are known in the UK, not sure what a boot sale would be stateside sorry

Trunk sale? lol, people only have garage sales here that I know of. There are fleamarkets though, a friend of mine found an old orion at one he is bringing to me likely to fix. Paid $10 or something but not seen it yet.

[event horizon]

Perhaps i ought to explain what a car boot sale is a little more clearly.

What happens is someone rents a field or a big car park on a Sunday (when it's not being used generally). These people charge each stallholder (car or van - vans are more expensive) about £5 ($8 say) for the day & they can sell all there old junk

Effectively you need a few wallpaper pasting tables & stuff to sell & you are off, haggling is the name of the game...

I have picked up some very surprising stuff from boot sales, a lot of it working perfectly! Most people don't tend to take inverters or suchlike to show stuff working so it goes very cheap.

If it doesn't happen stateside you now have an ideal business opportunity

[FireII]

Thank you everyone for your posts. I too have found that some broken amps do go for more than a working one somtimes. I haven't figured it out yet Most of my amps come from ebay or other online classifieds, Ive gotten some pretty good deals but I can't get enough of them on a constant basis. Right now I'm selling about 2-4 amps every two weeks, not enough. I'm going to have to check out some of the suggested places. Thanks everyone!