Cool stuff for sale mega-thread.

This is not actually arcade era.

This looks just like DK, but just the DK that appears in Donkey Kong Country on the SNES onward. 1995 would be the right year too. Also Donkey Kong Land on the OG gameboy.

I'm sure this cassette player sounds awful. It was only a gimme merchandise play for fans of the game released a year earlier. That speaker on his belly button is disturbing to say the VERY least.

If you are on a budget, perhaps consider:

1997 STAR WARS R2-D2 Data Droid Cassette Player Tiger Electronics Music NRFB NEW | eBay

It's an R2D2 portable cassette player from 1997. 97 was a HUGE year for Star Wars. I'd love to say it sounds good, but I have personally auditioned one of these buggers, and I can honestly attest to its horribleness in sound quality. All of that aside, its an awesome novelty by Tiger toys, and It's only like what, $30 round about?

 

I was watching 1995 TV comedy "Game On" and the character Matthew was messing around in the middle of the night with one of these keeping his flatmates awake.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224444909748?_trkparms=aid=111001&algo=REC.SEED&ao=1&asc=20160908105057&meid=6183d199380549839f580488efc2d1ff&pid=100675&rk=1&rkt=15&mehot=none&sd=224444909748&itm=224444909748&pmt=0&noa=1&pg=2380057&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci:ecd35465-aead-11eb-9e03-2a2b3c150c4f|parentrq:437a4c821790a7b0e2073150fff403aa|iid:1
Now I know what it is. Judging from the size of the speakers I'm not sure if it would wake anyone up.
Teac made some similar mains only CD Radio units that looked and probably sounded far better.

 

AUDIOLOGIC by Randix - RARE - LX-52A, MG52E, LX-52T, TCD-25, 2 x 3-way Speakers | eBay

 

I think the seller has provided too many photos to tempt me to bid but this is cool.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124727332829?hash=item1d0a540fdd:g:390AAOSw1PdgoT6x

At £179.90 back in 1986 the Sharp QT90 was expensive.

Interestingly, given the bidding war on this, the same seller has a boxed Matchbox Model of Yesteryear car at 99p with no bids. I suspect the reason is that 99.9% of these free leaflets were binned as soon as they were out of date while 99% of Models of Yesteryear were put away in a cabinet with the idea that in the future one BNIB would be worth a lot of money.

That sent me off looking at Saisho Radios and I found
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133711072489?hash=item1f21cd0ce9:g:jkAAAOSwg7VgZayn
I'm not sure if I would pay £5 for the player at a car boot sale but the tape collection caught my eye.

I would be happy to listen to any of those. I have said several times how I think streaming has completely devalued music. You know that with a collection like that, which probably cost £10 or more a tape adjusted for inflation, each tape was either carefully chosen and then cherished for years.

I would be interested to know if all the albums on the tapes are actually available on a streaming service, but I am not going to subscribe to one to find out.

 

This is cool, I haven't seen one of these before. According to wikipedia, it uses helical scan like DAT and it appeared around 1992. Probably SONY tried to make a dictaphone with a technology similar to DAT, but in a more compact form-factor.
But I have a feeling it wasn't very popular. If someone has more info about this, I'm curious to know.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NT_(cassette)

 

Here is a rather short demo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXo3_wmqtEQ
Techmoan questions why Sony made the format stereo with Bass Boost etc if they weren't also hoping it would get used for music.
Look out for the gapless auto-reverse which is impressive.

 

All these Digital Formats, including MiniDisc date back to the days when a decent size memory card cost $100 or more.

For a non working unit that price is highly optimistic.
This unit looks more interesting and works

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/19417931...a=1&pg=2506613&_trksid=p2506613.c100290.m3507

If you can settle for mono this is more realistic (although the postage is high)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/19416833...a=1&pg=2506613&_trksid=p2506613.c100290.m3507
I have a similar unit awaiting restoration that I bought for a couple of £s, mainly because it was "Made in Great Britain" Northern Ireland to be precise.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/19416833...a=1&pg=2506613&_trksid=p2506613.c100290.m3507


To answer the question about the symbol it denotes a long life head like on this Grundig deck

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12463003...&brand=Grundig&_trksid=p2506613.c100290.m3507
I have no idea what the VAT means. Since the 1970s VAT has been a purchase tax we have to pay in the U.K.

 

this aiwa I did not know
AIWA DATA RECORDER DR-2 Energization OK Cassetta Operazione controllata / 8 | EBay