Pawn Shop/Ebay Finds

[tttomas]

I had a search and couldn't find of these, but please delete/merge if it already exists!

I thought it could be fun to have a thread where you can show off your best second hand shop/ebay finds.
I just picked up a nice Tascam 4 track tape recorder for £60 in Cash Converters, a few years ago this wouldn't have been that much of a bargain but now they seem to be selling for quite a bit on eBay. I'm mainly planning to use it to dirty stuff up a little; running outputs from my interface into it then back into the computer.

On a more impressive note a friend just bought an SP-808 from gumtree for £50 The guy he bought it from said it was broken, but he just hadn't loaded any sounds into it...

Anyone else have any good stories?

[surface]

...
On a more impressive note a friend just bought an SP-808 from gumtree for £50 The guy he bought it from said it was broken, but he just hadn't loaded any sounds into it...

Haha, that's brilliant!

I once picked up an MPC and the guy was pretty honest. I asked him if everything was working ok and he told me that the screen was too dim.
A quick google search and all that was needed was to turn a screw to adjust it.
Similarly, I maxed the ram for a tenner or something even though the "official" RAM chip cost way more.
Gotta love these little victories. Wish it happened more often!
A few years back picked up a nice old stereo amp for next to nothing where the right channel wasn't working. All it needed was a new fuse ..

[Revaron]

I've never had the luck some people seem to have, but I did pick up a Roland DEP-5 on ebay for £15, and think it's brilliant.

But if we're talking purely pawn shop, I did manage to flog a unit to one for well over the odds which I was pretty pleased with. I had an Alesis 3630 sitting around that I never used and needed some money asap so took it in, convinced them it was worth £150, and got £80 for it. I had paid in the region of £30 or £40 for it.

[mr.chielos]

Bought a juno 6 for 140 euro but at the time I only worked with midi so I sold half a year later for the same price.
Wish I kept it though, sound was quite nice and prices have gone berzerk nowadays

[WOLF!]

Bought a lot of records for 50 euro on a flea market.
Inside where 9 network23 records (price range50 to 125 euro for 1 record).

[Barfunkel]

Got a pair of Bowers & Wilkins speakers for 7€ (that said, they ain't those really expensive models, just their cheapies from the 80's or the 90's. But, they work flawlessly, look about mint and sound great to my ears!)

A Pioneer amp, also for 7€. Not the greatest amp I've ever had, but obviously great for the money.

Revox 3100 headphones for 5€. More or less the 80's version of Beyerdynamic DT-880's. Sound amazing and you can play these LOUD without distortion or other nasties. Goodbye hearing!

All from the local recycling center.

[Críoch]

Space echo for 100 was the best.

A fucked up microkorg with a can of coke spilled in it was the worst junk that was actually junk story.. but still worth the punt. Didn't know about the coke until I opened it up to investigate why there were so many dead controls.

Most of the stuff I have is 2nd hand. Been lucky to get decent condition, genuine stuff.. but every now & then you have time expect a burnnnnn.

[Lost to the Void]

Loads of stuff. I go to a lot of industry auctions, production studios, tv studios, recording studios. So I have got lots and lots of bargains.
Best deals were some of my guitars, got them for silly money. Got a really nice yamaha bass guitar with active electronics, paid 50 quid for it, just needed some pots tightening, and replaced the battery connector with a new one, for the preamp, so like, a £2 repair and some solder, a general set up (I restringed with the heaviest gauge strings you can get, so I had to file the nut anyway), ie sorting out action, neck tension, intonation adjustments etc, and it`s perfect. They sell for 400-500 quid second hand. Got that on ebay. Got loads of good bargains on ebay actually.

[mr.chielos]

Just saw somebody selling a machinedrum with a memory problem for 175. Don't know wat the problem was... Maybe just a dead battery but I was too late anyway. Already sold

[Críoch]

In regards to pots etc... & minor, basic stuff that possibly in all probability needs attention, I've picked up equipment & synths for a song that needed a fuse, dry joint on output fixed or some jiggery pokery on the keyboard membrane to get the dead / double hitting keys sorted etc.. etc..

Kinda worth a punt when you reckon it's mechanical in a way.

Memory problems are a whole different universe lol.. I'd stay well away from anything like that tbh. There's a fairly good chance it's been examined a fucking lot before it went online.

And if THEY can't do anything with it..

Just my opinion

[Lost to the Void]

Could be as simple as a new chip. I've bought synths for a song that just a needed a new voice chip or something and made made a good profit reselling.

You need to have reasonable soldering skills to start taking those kind of punts though.

[WOLF!]

I guess in case of the machinedrum you need expert soldering skills because of the smd components.

[lampmeister]

Boss PS-2 mini percussion synth for £10 from an old secondhand shop in Bath, late '80s.
Used to work in a music shop and had the chance to buy a TB-303 for £60, a Yamaha CS30 for £30, and a Fender Rhodes for circa £200. D'Oh!

[avmilli]

Loadsamoney to be made on ebay. You could try buying motorcycles to decorate the inside of the bauhaus. Check out the new French Microcar for fuel tank ideas - http://www.micro-car.co.uk/press.php. Non-recondite styles to please even the most conservative. Try revvvving the engines into an Akai1000 and twist over a 909. Keep windows open to avoid fumes.

[SFBM]

Loads of stuff. I go to a lot of industry auctions, production studios, tv studios, recording studios. So I have got lots and lots of bargains.
Best deals were some of my guitars, got them for silly money. Got a really nice yamaha bass guitar with active electronics, paid 50 quid for it, just needed some pots tightening, and replaced the battery connector with a new one, for the preamp, so like, a £2 repair and some solder, a general set up (I restringed with the heaviest gauge strings you can get, so I had to file the nut anyway), ie sorting out action, neck tension, intonation adjustments etc, and it`s perfect. They sell for 400-500 quid second hand. Got that on ebay. Got loads of good bargains on ebay actually.

Nice finds! One of the many reasons I'm jealous that I don't like in the UK or Europe..as I see so many good/useful bits of studio gear go very cheap 2nd hand over there. Have spotted 1 or 2 good bargains here in Australia in the past, but no where near as many, and often not in my state. For example my Akai S3000XL was a pretty reasonable price 2nd hand here for what they've gone for in Australia ($300), but I have friends in Holland the UK who've nabbed S950's and S3000's for like 50 quid or 100 quid. One of the many prices to pay for kangaroos, I guess

[Lost to the Void]

Well, you still get overpriced stuff on ebay here.
I've bought and sold so much stuff over the years on ebay, you start to get an idea for the auctions that will end up deals. Wording, photos, description, what time it ends etc...
I always have a watch list going on stuff.

[Hades]

One of the many prices to pay for kangaroos, I guess

I thought it was all about the dingo's.
Like, if you were a certain producer and you lived in Australia, and you'd have to prove that you didn't just steal an entire track, pitched it up and added a kick,
you could say "this dingo here just brought me a wav file from youtube and left it on my doorstep !"
Or "the dingo ate my original project file, otherwise I could show it to you"

Can you eat dingo's btw ?

[SFBM]

One of the many prices to pay for kangaroos, I guess

I thought it was all about the dingo's.
Like, if you were a certain producer and you lived in Australia, and you'd have to prove that you didn't just steal an entire track, pitched it up and added a kick,
you could say "this dingo here just brought me a wav file from youtube and left it on my doorstep !"
Or "the dingo ate my original project file, otherwise I could show it to you"

Can you eat dingo's btw ?

Hahahaha.
I don't know about dingos, they're pretty wild and I think they might be a protected species (like everything here..) but I've eaten Kangaroo here and it's really good. It's like Venison a bit I think? Quite gamey, bit tougher than steak but real nice texture. I wonder how many people outside Aus know that we eat (not frequently) one of our famous and well known furry cuddly creatures hahah. Although If you've seen videos of kangaroos on youtube, they can get super aggressive. They use their hind tails to boost themselves up and kick with a HUGE force.

[Barfunkel]

I've eaten kangaroo several times here in Finland. Good stuff!

[Críoch]

Really didn't like kangaroo.

Looked like steak on the BBq & tasted like fucking liver. I was really jumpy afterwards too.

Yuk.