I wore my mask at a socially distanced estate auction this morning.
This was actually a state run thing. Just a bunch of stuff that unknown dead people left behind, unclaimed by relatives and some tax involved bigger things.
I ended up with a vintage Kenwood eighty five watt receiver from the '70s, a Pioneer Dolby Pro Logic receiver (small, low power) from the early 2000s, a Yamaha stereo equalizer, SAE stereo receiver with parametric EQ (I used to have one just like it), a Sony turntable from late '90s (not one of the desirable ones), a pair of Advent bookshelf speakers (not sure of the age, but these are from a time, long ago, when they were still offering bookshelf/compact speakers with twelve inch woofers) and a pair of Pioneer floor standing speakers from the '80s (bad era for Pioneer speakers). Also, I got four big boxes of older rock LPs ( about three hundred and my style for most of them).
The turntable came with an alignment aid, a stylus brush and a stylus gauge, so I have high hopes for the condition of the album collection. The few I inspected, "Dark Side Of The Moon," "Sabbath, Bloody, Sabbath," an Alan Parson Project, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Journey (I am sure there plenty of duds included as well) were in excellent condition.
I had to bid on each item separately (except the four boxes of albums was all one lot) because the one and only "family member of the deceased" who was there had already split the estate into tiny lots. That actually worked in my favor. I did not have to bid on the skanky old carcass of a Maytag washer to get my hands on the Kenwood buried treasure.
Sounds like a bunch of cool stuff, but I dropped one hundred ten bucks for everything, and forty of that was just the records. I literally bought the classic Advent cabs for ten bucks for the pair. Hell, the damn name tag logo thingy is worth more than that to an Advent fan. Recreations of these tag/labels are selling for twenty bucks on ebay.
I haven't plugged in any of the electronics, yet. I intend to do so with great care using my ancient variac power supply. I am suspicious of all the caps inside these older consumer grade products of this age. Mainly worried about the Kenwood and how it has fared with old age. All the speaker make sound, so, a few fun projects to restore.
I had forgotten this auction was today. One of my fellow travelers who I first met at an auction several years ago, called me just as I was getting home from night watch patrol, EARLY in the morning.
I am usually looking for tools or iron cookware at these things, but the only tool I bought was at another area, not part of the state mess. I also got a large 1/2 HP pedestal mounted (with pedestal) grinder for a hundred bucks, but hey, the pedestal is cast iron.
A really good haul today.
