Been looking out for vintage tube amps. Noticed they go for quite a bit on ebay, even when there fairly battered. Anyone had any luck finding any at thrift stores such as salvation army or goodwill? Or, know any other sources to score some vintage gear?
Most charity shops no longer take them due to insurance issues. My experience with second hand emporiums is that they know their stuff and don't tend to undersell anything.
Shoog
Shoog
back when I got into tube gear ('89) you could get a Dynaco 70 for ~$100. Integrateds were $75-$80 and Mac gear was pretty cheap. But I really have never come across anything uber-valuable while going to garage sales / flea markets / antique stores etc.
Most of the good vintage stuff that is out there has passed hands several times and people know their value. Of course there are exceptions - my friend picked up a mint Dynaco PAS at an estate sale for $60. There was also an EICO ST70 amplifier there but he got beat to it. I once picked up (and still use) a pair of Altec Model 15 speakers at a garage sale for $100. But that was a special sale by a retiring high school AV guy - the entire garage was packed with speakers... and a co-worker of mine got a MAC30 for $25 - it was stuck in a basement for 20 years and happened to notice it when he was visiting a friend.
I've pulled 6BQ5 / 6V6 amps out of consoles waiting to be trashed - those were fun to play with.
Best bet - scan the papers for estate sales and you may luck out.
Most of the good vintage stuff that is out there has passed hands several times and people know their value. Of course there are exceptions - my friend picked up a mint Dynaco PAS at an estate sale for $60. There was also an EICO ST70 amplifier there but he got beat to it. I once picked up (and still use) a pair of Altec Model 15 speakers at a garage sale for $100. But that was a special sale by a retiring high school AV guy - the entire garage was packed with speakers... and a co-worker of mine got a MAC30 for $25 - it was stuck in a basement for 20 years and happened to notice it when he was visiting a friend.
I've pulled 6BQ5 / 6V6 amps out of consoles waiting to be trashed - those were fun to play with.
Best bet - scan the papers for estate sales and you may luck out.
Aye, the heirs often dont care nearly so much about that old junk. The same phenomenon applies to collecting stuff out of curbside rubbish. The issue with trash often is beating everyone else to it.
A lot of the stuff is not operable without work, but will have plenty of salvageable parts. Ive quite a few 6SN7GTB from TV pulls etc. The question may be how much is your time worth?
Hamfests are great for all sorts of stuff. Prices tend to be in inverse proportion to weight.
A lot of the stuff is not operable without work, but will have plenty of salvageable parts. Ive quite a few 6SN7GTB from TV pulls etc. The question may be how much is your time worth?
Hamfests are great for all sorts of stuff. Prices tend to be in inverse proportion to weight.
Hi.
Try 'Freecycle'.
I recently was given an excellent Garrard 401, SME3009 and Ortofon cartridge!
Andy
Try 'Freecycle'.
I recently was given an excellent Garrard 401, SME3009 and Ortofon cartridge!
Andy
You have to keep your eyes open for those rare finds these days. Old tube gear has gotten quite scarce in recent years. Only a decade ago, I used to see Dyna, Scott, Heath and similar amps regularly at flea markets and garage sales, with the occasional Marantz or McIntosh unit (never cheap because they looked expensive). You could often buy a Dyna ST-70 or a PAS for $10 or $20. Occasionally you could find that $5 deal, which is what I paid for a Dyna SCA-35. Nowadays I figure that most of this stuff has either been discovered by tube enthusiasts, or has been thrown out in the trash by unsuspecting family members. I hate to think of all the tube equipment decaying under 20 feet of landfill, with cracked Telefunken tubes and rusting OPTs. The original owners are getting old, and sadly, many are dying off.
I take long bike rides through suburban neighborhoods for exercise. When I see a garage sale, I will usually slow down to take a quick look from the street. If I see children's toys, I ride on, knowing that the household is too young for tubes. If I see an older couple selling antiques or older items, I will sometimes ride in and ask of they have any old stereo equipment. Unless they're in their 70's or 80's, they will only offer you solid-state mass market stuff. In that case, I usually respond that they're just too young to have had tube gear.
Two days ago, I wheeled into a garage sale. I asked the women, in her early 70's, if she had any vacuum tube stereo equipment. She didn't understand what I meant by "vacuum tube". As I was turning to go, she said "wait a minute" and she retrieved a mint Grundig tubed reel-to-reel tape recorder from inside the house. Although I have no use for a reel-to-reel, I told her I might be back for it (for the parts). You just never know what might pop up. The quest is part of the fun.
I take long bike rides through suburban neighborhoods for exercise. When I see a garage sale, I will usually slow down to take a quick look from the street. If I see children's toys, I ride on, knowing that the household is too young for tubes. If I see an older couple selling antiques or older items, I will sometimes ride in and ask of they have any old stereo equipment. Unless they're in their 70's or 80's, they will only offer you solid-state mass market stuff. In that case, I usually respond that they're just too young to have had tube gear.
Two days ago, I wheeled into a garage sale. I asked the women, in her early 70's, if she had any vacuum tube stereo equipment. She didn't understand what I meant by "vacuum tube". As I was turning to go, she said "wait a minute" and she retrieved a mint Grundig tubed reel-to-reel tape recorder from inside the house. Although I have no use for a reel-to-reel, I told her I might be back for it (for the parts). You just never know what might pop up. The quest is part of the fun.
I found an old 3M reel to reel tape deck at a yard sale a few weeks ago. The tape transport-part isnt much good but it had a pair mono amplifiers in the bottom that dont sound half bad. It uses 2 6EU7's and a 7591 as an output. All tubes test 90-95%! Not a killer find but worth 10 bucks.
I've picked up a few good finds at 'antique' stores. My first was a record player with a mono PP EL84 amp I picked up for about $25. I converted that one to a guitar amp. A couple weeks later at a different store I found a stereo console with SE amps for $35.
Each of those was worth much more for the iron alone. It does seem that the better deals have been on console-type units rather than components. I've still got my eye out for a Maggie PP EL84 stereo.
Each of those was worth much more for the iron alone. It does seem that the better deals have been on console-type units rather than components. I've still got my eye out for a Maggie PP EL84 stereo.
I go to the thrifts regularly because a friend collects Japanese toy robots. I've never seen a tubed piece of audio equipment, just solid state.
Since the advent of eBay people are much more aware of what's valuable and what's not in terms of older audio equipment. And worse, they think the stuff that's pure junk has a real value.
Estate sales sound like the only way to go these days.
Since the advent of eBay people are much more aware of what's valuable and what's not in terms of older audio equipment. And worse, they think the stuff that's pure junk has a real value.
Estate sales sound like the only way to go these days.
I found a 1959 Metz console with all original tubes el84's and ef86's at a flea market for $10 in January.
jduffy said:
A good thing about console equipment is that most people don't want to be bothered shipping it so a lot of that stuff seems to be sold locally, either at estate sales or to so-called 'antique' shops. I suppose that accounts, in part anyway, for the higher prices for component stuff- easier to ship and therefore sell on eBay.
I did hit an estate sale last year where there was some nice tube gear being sold (HK Citation!) but the amp was priced at $1600 and the preamp at $1000. I had to take a pass on that.
I think you've got to be persistent and just keep looking.
I've got a couple of little things cheap (Camberwell market is great, if you're in Melbourne, I got ex-CSIRO gear there once) but I've only got truly lucky once:
I came across a guy on ebay selling a couple of tubes with a note that he had a lot of this stuff and didn't want to deal with it... Myself and a mate ended up in his shed for an afternoon. We ended up with over 50 vintage bakelite and round meter movements of various kinds - many unused, about 1000 valve sockets - including 25 jumbo 4 pin, a bunch of 200W resistors (15ohm), a few valves, a few transformers and an enormous amount of other gear. AU$200 the lot.
Before we got there he had sold 1500 kg of transformers FOR SCRAP. I nearly strangled him, but he was happy because he got $750 for them. Never mind he would have got several times that at proper values.
I fully expect to never get that lucky again.
I've got a couple of little things cheap (Camberwell market is great, if you're in Melbourne, I got ex-CSIRO gear there once) but I've only got truly lucky once:
I came across a guy on ebay selling a couple of tubes with a note that he had a lot of this stuff and didn't want to deal with it... Myself and a mate ended up in his shed for an afternoon. We ended up with over 50 vintage bakelite and round meter movements of various kinds - many unused, about 1000 valve sockets - including 25 jumbo 4 pin, a bunch of 200W resistors (15ohm), a few valves, a few transformers and an enormous amount of other gear. AU$200 the lot.
Before we got there he had sold 1500 kg of transformers FOR SCRAP. I nearly strangled him, but he was happy because he got $750 for them. Never mind he would have got several times that at proper values.
I fully expect to never get that lucky again.
TheVoice - how is your flea market hunting going in Dublin?
As I have posted before - rescued the following equipment from the recyling centre:
Rogers Cadet III fully working amp - 3*ECC807 tubes & 4 ECL86 tubes
Rega Planar 2 - glass platter turntable with S shaped R200 arm needed (namufactured by Acos)
3 Samson Servo 150W studio amplifiers - fully working
Good finds - has kept me busy for a while & saved me a fortune in heatsinks alone.
John
As I have posted before - rescued the following equipment from the recyling centre:
Rogers Cadet III fully working amp - 3*ECC807 tubes & 4 ECL86 tubes
Rega Planar 2 - glass platter turntable with S shaped R200 arm needed (namufactured by Acos)
3 Samson Servo 150W studio amplifiers - fully working
Good finds - has kept me busy for a while & saved me a fortune in heatsinks alone.
John
jkeny said:
I found a car boot sale a couple of weeks ago, that made me happy. But its a sad state of affairs when a teeny car boot sale has to feed my junk shopping habit, erm, addiction...😉
I live in hope.
So my first post on this site and wouldn't you now that is is in the divers' thread! Hello there everyone, now... I feel compelled to add a response to 'the voice'...
As finds' get fewer it sometimes helps to follow the trail you have found - ask him where he sold the scrap and/or who collected it and there is your next destination. Here in Toronto there are a couple of scrap yards that I regularly visit and have found the most amazing things! Often working audio stuff but also many other things that would never even make it to a boot sale or the Sally Ann.
A good junkyard is a place of glory and, I must add, horror... the things I have seen!
Indeed as I collect information on my first valve preamp project - I am organizing and configuring collections of parts snatched from the shores of Hades locally known as Rotblott's and Solway's.
Normally you pay the value of weight alone and glass (tubes) are considered value-less and quality, if you find it, carries no premium. It is a great source for both old and new - teflon(tm) wire as well as braided for example.
As finds' get fewer it sometimes helps to follow the trail you have found - ask him where he sold the scrap and/or who collected it and there is your next destination. Here in Toronto there are a couple of scrap yards that I regularly visit and have found the most amazing things! Often working audio stuff but also many other things that would never even make it to a boot sale or the Sally Ann.
A good junkyard is a place of glory and, I must add, horror... the things I have seen!
Indeed as I collect information on my first valve preamp project - I am organizing and configuring collections of parts snatched from the shores of Hades locally known as Rotblott's and Solway's.
Normally you pay the value of weight alone and glass (tubes) are considered value-less and quality, if you find it, carries no premium. It is a great source for both old and new - teflon(tm) wire as well as braided for example.
ecoda said:
Oh, I followed that up alright. Long gone to the great copper and iron heaven in the sky.
I wonder if there are any great burried treasure stories/myths floating around for intrepid hunters to follow.
Like the 1989 story of Apple Computer burrying 2700 unsold Lisa computers in a Utah landfill. The same ones selling for hundreds or thousands on Ebay.
Like the 1989 story of Apple Computer burrying 2700 unsold Lisa computers in a Utah landfill. The same ones selling for hundreds or thousands on Ebay.
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