Best Find Ever???

A free pair of big ol' speakers taking up a relatives garage space. I wasn't into audio at the time but took them anyway. They are Yamaha NS1000 monitors.

At an estate sale where people were fighting over a Yamaha SS system in the living room, I found the old stereo in the bed room and got a mint matched pair of McIntosh MC-30 mono power amps for $1. The woman running the sale said that "That tube stuff isn't really worth anything anymore."

a Linn Sondek, grace tonearm, Ruby cartridge, rosewood option at the bottom of a stack of Garrard turntables.

$80

Was sitting at a big birthday party dinner gathering when one guy asked his brother if he wanted his old stereo as it was "too big" for the new house and his wife wanted a Bose. (Whatever!) Well, I hadn't gotten my girlfriend anything for Christmas yet and so, when brother 2 declined, told brother 1 I might be interested.
Went over to his house and he had these huge Cerwynn Vega sp? speakers, and Yamaha Tuner... and asked me for $75. As I carried them out to the jeep, his wife started loading the rest of the guy's stuff into my car (as it also didn't match the new decor)...so I got a tape deck, stereo rack and all the monster cable speaker wire, too. Well, my girlfriend loved Metallica, and this system was 'made' for Metallica. I set it up in her apartment and it sounded GREAT! (I got laid.)

Turns out, that damn tuner had more power than my system at home and somehow sounded better, hmmmmm....so, that's what started me out on this little audiophile upgrade journey.... ($75k later I'm still growin')

Did I get a good deal, or what!!?

Plus, now I live in fear that I'll die a premature death and one of my nieces will sell my stuff for nothing at a garage sale and you guys will get it!

This is really a 2 part story! About 12 years ago, I was visiting my mother when she lived in NM. I was bored and picked up a thrifty nickle newspaper. I saw an advertisement about a single JBL speaker with supertweeters that was about 4 feet tall for $100.00. The ad just didn't sound right, so I thought "what the hell" and called. What the guy said on the phone made no sense about the supertweeter, but he said the speaker was from about 1960. I had my mother take me to the guys house and we opened the door and saw a mint JBL Hartsfield! I gave the guy the $100.00 he wanted, and then had to ship it for $400.00 back to Chicago! The guy really was more concerned that someone buy it who appreciated it then the money.

I used that speaker for about 8 years until all my vintage audio collection was sold to pay lawyers fees during a nasty divorce. Who knows, maybe it was Kharma for only paying that guy $100.00 but maybe not. There were 2 assets that were being considered by the court to be immediately sold to pay off the attorneys. Those two assets were my vintage gear and some Panera Bread stock that I had been holding for a couple of years at a loss (while the rest of the market was steamrolling ahead). To make a long story short, the gear was sold at less than half its value by the court and I was crushed. Meanwhile, the Panera Bread stock went up 800% in the next 18 months. The moral of the story is be careful what you pray for!