Yea, he sold it all, there's videos of that on there, he's throwing boxes out the window, maybe the door was blocked?
Wondering how many bbx's he got back in his prime? I mean his collection.. One of guys, collectors, real BBX punks I know not far from me has over 500 now. In my radios' prime I had.. maybe 30 or so but now..maybe 6 or so. Even this # is more than I need now.
I remember someone on a Shortwave Radio Forum saying "How many radios do you need ? Always one more than you've got".
Always gotta be wary of anyone claiming their collection is the largest. Did they conduct a survey or something?
I think he was on here and maybe the big guys at the time gave him the title. We used to have a radio talk show here called Garage Logic and they had a "cylinder index" basically you called in and started the conversation with the number of combustion chambers (cylinder's) you had counting everything, cars, mowers, weed-wackers, etc). Some guys had a very large number, maybe we should do that with cassette heads? I started counting one shelf in my office and stopped at 16.
Love this, great idea! Although people with the really huge collections may want to fly under the radar. I saw this collection in person in Chicago; it was colossal. Really nice guy, and super knowledgeable. I was sorry to see it go...but it was the sale of the century!
Great point; I haven't seen too many collections, but this was at least as big as the one that was listed for sale in New Zealand a few years ago, and smaller than the one in that famous picture of the boombox rental place in Germany (although I wonder if that photo is real: https://www.reddit.com/r/HumanPorn/comments/3jqxl0/a_family_and_their_boombox_wall_xpost/). I saw this collection in person and spent about 6 hours with it; the owner was very knowledgeable and a great artist, and a surprising number of the boxes had been found in the wild by him, as opposed to buying online. There used to be even more but a ton were sold to a movie set. He had radios I haven't seen before or since, even online. What are some of the biggest collections around? And if we rank collections, does the absolute number of units make the most sense, or should we also factor in price/rarity/size, etc? For example: largest total number of cassette heads, as Mr. X suggested, and then a separate category for most grails...or maybe a collection by watts!
Cassette2go has a lot of really rare ones but he also sells them, Deech, Hisrudeness, Clairtone Weltron Bruan, and a few other have massive collections. http://www.stereo2go.com/topic/index.php?content_oid=446596045171085652&board_oid=193392314111653326 The smart guys were snapping up the monster boxes in the 90's and early 2000's when they randomly popped up, sometimes they'd be on Ebay as BIN or .99 cent opening bid, with no bidders. They, for the most part, were still not cheap but in hindsight some were bargains. Radioheir (the boombox wall) used to post on here all of the time in the mid-2000's, I think he was renting out his boxes for movies and ads. He visited monster collector ARKAY in Hong Kong and they scored some rare units. ARKAY used to have an amazing collection and seemed to find grails everyday on his walk home from work. One day he said he was out of room, quit posting and moved over to Audio Karma to post about component stereo. There used to be a prop rental in Toronto that had an amazing selection of boxes but I don't know it it's still around, there's one in NYC and a smaller one in LA. While I don't ever see boombox or Walkman Collections, my job gets me out and every once in awhile I see some monster stereo equipment collections. A lot of the guys are chasing the perfect sound so equipment gets bought, used, then moved on to find the perfect sound. I can't afford the big rare units unless I find a bargain and space is also a factor. I'm happy hunting for the smaller equipment which can be much more advanced then some of the big ones and the tiny size is common for most people.
So true about the smart people buying early, they saw what was to come! It is so hard to predicts; that would be like today...what? Buying blenders? There are occasionally some great bargains on OfferUp, etc, but most people know the value by now. The rental collection in Canada was spectacular; the owner was selling many of them but not for cheap!
Talking of collecting I saw this article today about someone who had 3000 cameras https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-53821146 Of course unlike Boomboxes or Walkmans many would be unusable (due to a lack of film) even if they worked.
Haha I have a few of those too...I guess you never know what will get people's attention, from boomboxes to cameras to teaspoons! What do you think drives that behavior in us? Also, this is a great article and very touching; I hope all of our stuff gets that level of care after we're all gone. Thank you for posting!
In my experience maybe 30% of people understand collecting and 30% find it very strange. Something that has stuck in my mind was on The Antiques Roadshow where someone brought in a huge collection of Ceramic Frogs. The antiques expert commented that as a collector he understood the desire to collect before talking to the owner about their unusual collection which he concluded was unusual but unlikely to be of much value to many other people. Of course collecting is nothing new. In Victorian times it was fashionable to have a Cabinet of Curiosities. It also marked the beginning of mass produced collectables like the teaspoons you mention, if you mean the one with the name of a town on them. Robert Opie, who owns and exhibits the UK's largest collecting of packaging https://www.museumofbrands.com started as a child when the packet of some sweets he regularly bought was changed and he realised that if he didn't save one of the old packets he might never see one again. However, he also said that because his parents were collectors it seemed a normal thing to do. That comment has inspired me to set up my first survey here. http://www.stereo2go.com/forums/threads/collecting.6003/
I love collectors because they're interesting, Mike Wolf (American Pickers USA TV) says it best, the guys with the junk are interesting, love the stuff and have a ton of stories. There's a passion and enthusiasm when they talk about their stuff. Sure some of it is kind of odd but cassette tape guys were at the bottom of the barrel 20 years ago, and sometimes it wasn't fun but over the last few years, people actually like this stuff again and it's nice knowing you saved some from deletion. Sure it will taper off again but there will always be some amazement with our little music players. WheelyPanamax2, I've also got some old cameras, nothing special, just the Nikons and Canons that were super popular back then but looking at them now, the build quality is so nice and the features and movement of the parts are something that's gone from today's culture. Most were saved from the trash pile but even today I love to see how much love was put into making them. This is the kind of stuff I love displaying on my walls.
Spot on with the 30%/30% I bet! I do love Antiques Roadshow (but I balance it with a bit of Hoarders to be safe, haha). I didn't know about the Museum of Brands, so cool! When I see a collection that comprehensive I'm blown away by the possibilities.
This is well-said; the Pickers get to meet some great people, and I love seeing all of the things that remain. I also agree with the cameras; I don't know why I am always so impressed with the build quality of old things, but they certainly have a different heft or something. I also agree about displaying it; when I go antique shopping I am always amazed at how many people prefer newer things that I would classify as junk, when some of the older things are more solid and even contemporary, especially furniture.
I seem to be accumulating Digital Cameras now. The most recent is a working 14MPixel Olympus u Tough that was on Ebay used but in full working order for £14 Buy it now. I have an earlier model which I bought not realising it takes XD cards. This one takes SD cards but the same battery which will be convenient. I bought both to use. If I take it to the beach I won't get upset if it gets broken, which is actually unlikely as it is supposed to be waterproof to 3m depth. Something that appeals to me is the way something that was once a major investment can now be picked up for next to nothing. My first Digital Camera was a 3MPixel Canon that cost me £400, after many month of research into the different models on the market. The last three cameras are all better specified yet have cost less than £20 each. One, also a Canon, which just needed a new coin cell for the clock to get it fully working, cost me 50p at a car boot sale last year.
I've kept my old digital cameras going back to one of the first Casio's with the rotating lens. Luckily I have a very high end old Dell Laptop with every kind of port on it, I can still load up the old software and the old funky cables always fit. It's been a life-saver several times, and the laptop was only $20 hardly used.
