Treasure! collectors. Flea Market And "In the Garage" sales

[Sparrow]

Anyone have any good stories about Finding Treasure!?

Flea market/ Garage sale/ Pawn shop/ Thrift store etc.
Gear related. collectables. Rare items you thought you'd never see?

Pictures make it more Exciting!

i've found a few okay guitars for cheap.
both at pawn shops.

the "standouts" would be:

80's/ 90's Hondo Fame Tele. $80



60's Teisco. $50 with the Genesis Amp.



Genesis R10 Amp ?


I've found some Great NES scores.
at the Flea market.

190 in 1 for cheap. $20


Nintendo Powers !!



Arkanoid Complete!


Really Rare NES Hot Seat


Ok. so .. maybe this is not a Great example of Treasure.
Most of my good finds were NES related.
some items i no longer have - as searching is half the Fun

What are your Stories and Finds?

[hbombgraphics]

I will have to post pics later
My best recent was my 90s alvarez artist series acoustic that I found for 85bucks a few years ago
it is still my main acoustic probably always will be
came with a hardshell and everything

[colin]

I've never had an absolute steal, but I've got a few good deals over the years.

I bought this MIJ Dan Armstrong copy for $200 in a pawn shop a couple of years ago, flipped it for $600.


I've also got a couple of MIJ acoustics from the 70's for next to nothing, in one case literally nothing. The one of the left was free, the one on the right was $90. You can't tell in that photo, but the one on the right has some absolutely gorgeous rosewood sides and back.



I've got some good deals on video game stuff too, best example I can think of was Earthbound for the SNES which I got for $20 about ten years ago. It wasn't as crazy expensive then as it is now, but it was already selling for at least $60 or so back then. Weird part about that is that I got in a used video game store that was known for being way overpriced, I think $20 was their 'cheap' price for common SNES games, so they fucked up on that one.

[tremolo3]

I bought a dbx parametric EQ for $10 in a swap meet, tried at home, didn't work, replaced 2 pots, sold it for $300 on ebay.

[Pepe]

Whoah, what a great profit margin!

[Psyre]

My girlfriend and I go flea marketing almost every other weekend. I wish there were more garage sales around where I am right now.

Most all of our finds are vinyl related, haven't really found any good music equipment, although there is an old Shure 8 line mixer by her house I am trying to think of an application for.

[Sparrow]

cool stuff guys

maybe this can inspire some Future Finds!

[trace]

A friend of mine found the preamp/tuner section of a Sansui G-22000 stereo at a thrift shop for like $20, gave it to me when he found out it didn't work without the power amp section, I kept it for like 8 years hoping to find a power amp section for sale but eventually sold it on ebay for almost $700.


Also got a TRS-80 model 4D for free from a computer place a buddy worked at in high school, put it on eBay after a few days of trying to figure out what to do with it. Ended up selling it on eBay and it went for over $400 to a guy in Australia who paid nearly $200 on top of that to get it shipped over. Apparently it was a rare model and the last one he needed to have every TRS-80 ever made.


No really great finds on music gear yet, but i'm always looking!

[jrmy]

Man, I found a great old Harmony offset at a flea market years ago for 40-ish dollars. I wish I had kept that thing.

Then there was the Green Russian Small Stone I bought off a roommate for $30 back in 1997. He was having a surprise "raise money for rent" sale in our front yard that he threw without telling anyone else in the house - I also bought the microwave that had been in our kitchen for $20, and promptly re-installed it in our kitchen.

You know, now that I think about it, I left that microwave in the apartment when I left. Huh.

[xrleroyx]

I once bought a late 50's/early 60's Gibson ES125-T for $100. No case. Fingerboard was lifting from the neck. Got it from a guy who "needed the money" in Detroit. Ended up cleaning the guitar and selling it for $500. Got a quote on the fingerboard fix and couldn't afford it at the time. Nice profit, and really cool MM pickup.

[Achtane]

1967 Harmony Archtone: 20bux
1948 Olds Special tenor trombone: 40bux
70s(?) Multivox amp, GLORIOUSLY shitty solid state distortion through a 6" speaker: 10bux

[Schlatte]

1948 Olds Special tenor trombone: 40bux

jelly.

Ibanez Artcore - free.
Green Russian Small stone: 60€

[UglyCasanova]

Jesus! You guys have some kick ass flea markets. It's all porcelain and pre-war furniture here.

[Jeff-7]

'64 Gibson LG1 I rescued from the back room of a pawn shop a few years ago. Scored it for $100, spent around 450 on getting the bracings reglued, hand carved rosewood bridge and a few other fixes from a luthier in Lawrence KS.

[rustywire]

Too much to remember/list. First thing that comes to mind, on 2 separate occasions I found the Califone 1x12" and Wollensak reel2reel seen here:

They were put out at the curb on trash day sometime around 2005.

Also have a Webcor reel2reel w/mic from an estate sale for $30. Full track 1/4" and fully tubed. Excellent shape inside out, sounds killer when driven hard.