Valentine I think you are wrong in your opinion. I sell serviced units for a lot of money, but if you think about the hours work I have put into it its a fair price. For example I sold last month a Aiwa HS-JX707 on eBay for 999 USD (https://www.ebay.com/itm/124708047771?hash=item1d092dcb9b:g:txcAAOSwDi5gkDdJ). It was a lot of work to get this thing in working condition. Cost where: - unit in not working condition $200 - spare unit for parts (included remote and power supply) $200 - Replacement battery pack $50 - other materials caps and belt... $20 - eBay fees 197 USD Makes a total of 667 USD. I have left 322 USD, it was 6 hours work to get this thing running. Where can you find a technician for $53 dollars a hour? Not every unit is 6 hours of work I understand. The generation that grew up with these devices are now running in there 50s and 60s, they have now the money to spend on things that the could not buy when they where young. There are many examples of this in the past. lionel trains - generation that grew up with this is becoming old result is prices are down over 60% of there all time highs pez dispensers - same song... tin toys of the 50s - peaked in the 90s prices are down over 50% since then western collectables - peaked in the 90s since then prices are down over 40 % What I can say that this market will peak in the coming 5 to 10 years, and then it will come down believe me! If you want some better insights on the market of antique's and collectables I think tis is a very good channel to follow own YouTube:
@tomtom87 Serviced units have a lot more value than just working units, it's something that I mentioned in my first post. I was actually complaining that some people sell working units at prices similar to fully serviced ones. I said "high prices of serviced walkmans are not always justified". To me, that means they are mostly fair, but there can be exceptions. For example if I were to buy a D6C at 200$, put a rubber set in it and a new pinch roller (20$) and sell it for $1500 that won't be justified even if I spent 8 hours working on it, disassemblying the mech, relubricating everything, doing all the electronic adjustements, etc. Even if I were to replace all 3 potted modules (which probably only few people do), I still think the $1500 will not be fair. Yes, I can try to sell it at that price, if I'm lucky maybe someone buys it and I make a lot of profit. That's good for me and I would like to do that, but I also think from a different persepctive: doing this will only drive market prices up, without an actual increase in value. If I could do this without changing the market dynamics, I'd buy 5 D6Cs each month and sell them at 10 times the price. But I shouldn't be surprised if, after 6 months, the market price of one is 6000$. Of course, the problem with this dynamic is it can't go on indefinetely, at some point people won't be willing to pay the price tag anymore. Even now there aren't that many people which spend thousands on walkmans. I bought from you before and your prices are fair, so please don't take my opinion personal, because it's not about you or anyone else servicing walkmans (I service walkmans as well). It's mostly about the prices of used units. Believe me when I tell you I'd rather want to see a market full of professionally serviced units at prices double or triple than what they are now than people selling junk pretending to be like new. And you're totally right about the generation that grew up with this devices and are now in their 50s or 60s. Those are vast majority of the market, because the young generation (as @Longman pointed out with the 18 year old which did not knew what a cassette was) has never heard about cassettes and will certainly never pay more than 50$ on a walkman even if they suddenly become interested. By the way, my name is Valentin, not Valentine.
The huge difference from most "collectables" is the ones listed above sit static on a shelf or in boxes while audio players will always have a dual purpose, they look good, a lot of people collect them for that, and they also play music. Just like vintage cars, this market will have long legs. The largest draw is that some of the equipment still puts out outstanding sonics, even with digital getting better some of the differences are minute. I love rotating my radios, I listen to them everyday, my static collectables get lucky once in a while and get a beauty shot with a boombox for the forum. Without a written description of what was done, I don't expect much from online units, I've always like the descripions these guys give with their 2nd hand equipment www.oaktreevintage.com Us contractors run into it all of the time, we get low-balled by the guy that doesn't list anything out and the customer wonders why the work was so shotty. I'm wondering about the WM-D6, I don't know how many were sold to normal users, I have a feeling these were used much more by radio/TV stations and musicians. I bet they got beat up on a lot, maybe more than a consumer Walkman.
Nice restore tomtom87, I use to have an Aiwa HS-JX707 in fact I had the HS-JX101, HS-JX303, HS-JX505 and the HS-JX707. They all cost £250 in the UK, I never had HS-JX909 I had moved on from Aiwa by then. They all sounded very good, the recording was terrible on all of them. P.S. Just one correction that is not the original case as described in your eBay listing.
Interesting video tomtom87 but I think he's a little too young to have a better perspective and some of his points don't jive with mine. During the 80's collecting became a very popular hobby for a lot of people, neighbors would have Franklin Mint Plates in the the living room, or Cabbage Patch Kids in the spare bed room and a garage full of Coke Cola Memorablia. Some driven by wild spectulation, some driven by a fun hobby. My batting average was pretty good, I never had any desire for Beanie Babys or any of the other crappy "collectables" that went up and then nose-dived.
yes great restore if it is legit trouble is most people claim this and it's usually bull not to worry though as i don't buy anymore toocool had all the aiwas with dolby c anyway some sounded better than any sony imho but the mechanics aren't a patch on sony....also the recording ones were terrible, the d6c was good at recording though i lent mine to a band member once for recording his music and it was superb indeed
This is true for all the portable recording units: TC-D5M, D6, D6C, D3. Most of these were used profesionally and have a lot of wear. I mentioned this in the common problems list: people want to buy the oldest D6C with amorphous heads (parabollic or 35711), but these are the ones with the most wear and tear. It's not uncommon at all to see wear in those amorphous heads and when you do it means a lot of hours (as amorphous head do not wear that easy). However the selling price is independent of head wear. Of course head can be lapped, but if the wear is significant the gap will increase by lapping and it will lose some treble response. Of course I do agree that a rarer unit has more value, but if the head had 0.1-0.2mm wear on it, the value should drop significantly. Also failed potted modules are common on the D6/D6C and you just don't know when it's going to fail as most of the times it's intermittent. Rubber just has to be replaced on all these units, maybe with the exception of the last generation ones, which are a lot newer and have seen less use. That's why I prefer to see serviced units at high prices than just people trying to sell more value than the unit has.
That would be interesting to read more about head wear, I don't think 95% of cassette owners even look for it but a silly money D6 in mint condition might have hundreds of hours of use with a nice groove in the head. What happened to toocool Radio? In the old days I was trollin in the Walkman Section, never had anything postable up top. Things have 180 degrees, now I find boomers all the time and rarely see Walkmans anymore. I'm a big lover of field recorders, I've posted several of mine, some still alude me (Nak & small Technics) and it might be too late to find any bargains but I remember when you'd see ebay ads with a stack of them, all roached out, selling as a lot. The thing about these players is they are a guy's gadget, all of the cool buttons and level meters will warm anyones cockles. I can see why these are wanted by collectors and users, they have excellent recording capability and they are some of the best designed players. Vintage audio prices in general are going through the roof, as a collector of boat anchors I've been surprised and rewarded with my stash. Personally I think the youngsters find vintage audio much more appealing then a phone and speaker dock, just like we were drawn into the mechanics of a good tape deck or really nice turntable, they are too. On top of that you have the guy that threw away his nice little Pioneer Stack in the 90's and now regrets that everyday, he found some albums and wants kick it old school. The albums and tapes with all the memories are very powerful, digital can't touch it. A lot of the new members say they "found their old Walkman" and want to re-live that experience, once they jump in, they can't help but want to upgrade. Is there an end? When we quit listening to Led Zepplin, Journey, AC/DC, etc, it will end, along with analog.
The D6C is nice, but I don't want it: it is bulky and has features that I don't need like Dolby C or recording function. If I need a field recorder I can use my digital Zoom recorder - much smaller and better audio quality. 15 KHz frequency response is fine by me. To me, the most critical parameter is W&F, everything else is secondary to it. The 19-minute collector video was a drag, but I let the guy talk as I was cleaning my fireplace. He did not say anything new. All he said can fit in 30 seconds. Yes, we live in the world of mass produced stuff, we want more and more, we buy more and more stuff that we do not really need. Yes, boomers are dying off, so the boomer stuff drops in price. VW New Beetle was produced for 20 years since 1998, finally its production has run its course because no one wants the car anymore, the market has gone. Now it is the Gen-X market, so the sellers are milking my generation. I try to withstand the urge to buy stuff that I don't really need. The artificially instituted scarcity of some items is not new. I am not a collector anyway, and I do not plan to make money of the things I buy. He forgot to talk about NFT, although in 2020 there were not pushed as hard as in 2021 (again, manufactured collectability and scarcity). P.S. If anyone has a DD30 fully overhauled, with all the parts that broke or that usually break replaced, I would be interested But I am not paying $1K, and for the price I am willing to pay, I don't think I can find one. That's ok, I have a cheap plastic one, it works.
I was unloading the dishwasher. I was wondering how much longer he would spend explaining when the Victorian era was. Something I have just posted in his comments was that it is important to distinguish between items made as collectables and those that have become collectable. I have commented before that items sold as collectables tend to be bad investments. I have sat next to me a set of Limited Edition Britain's Toy Soldiers which was part of my late Fathers collection. Having looked on Ebay it isn't worth listing them today as 14 of the 5000 sets sold are already there and the only ones selling are for less than they cost new. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393456391818?hash=item5b9bd4168a:g:IgkAAOSwHiNg7GQg Has any piece of Audio Equipment ever been made as a limited edition collectable ? Maybe something like the Tiffany Walkmans https://danielmarshallshop.com/prod...ase-by-daniel-marshall?variant=31714880749679 but not anything mainstream like the D6C, or anything that offered improved sound quality. Of course there have been many pieces of equipment that weren't on the market for long, but that would have been down to the manufacturer thinking they could be improved, having difficulty in getting parts to make them, or them simply being a flop like Elcassette.
@Mister X In my view, the head wear thing is similar to an old car (an analogy I made before): being in mint condition means it is less likely to have wear, however it's not a guarantee. Many wear elements like steering wheel, gear shifter, pedals, door handles can be refurbished (like wrapped in new leather) or replaced to make the car look much newer than it is, but it may still have 400K miles. Other times it just depends on the driver, as one with a lot of care will not create significant damage on aforementioned items, but another can even if mileage is low. The fact is most of the DD series that are for sale are at least in good cosmetic condition (this is by far the most valued attribute). However, I've seen a lot of them with significant head wear. And the unfortunate part is the wear is usually in the form of pittings, not a flat nice groove which would be less of a problem. I've seen the new memebers which say they found their old walkman and want to relive the experience, but I also noticed something else: many of these members are not willing to spend too much on repairing those walkmans. Some are coming here on the forum exactly because they want free advice and won't spend more than 20$ on repairing a unit. What I'm trying to saying with this is: people who are not willing to spend on servicing their walkman are unlikely to spend $1000 or more on a refurbished one. Yes, there is a small market which is spending thousands on these devices, but the time it takes for those listings to sell indicates these people are not a majority. Certainly, there's not an end, especially because there are still a lot of units and cassettes that will be available for sale in the foreseeable future. There are also new releases on cassettes sold on bandcamp. It's just that the prices will start to drop at some point, after the hype fades. @CDV How much are you willing to pay for a refurbished DD30 ? This information would be helpful to this thread. The refurbished prices are high mostly because the buying price of a non-working unit is high. I don't sell many refurbished units, because non-working ones at decent prices are pretty hard to find. That's where the problem is: sellers which own these old units put unreasonable price tags on them, driving the prices up. You can imagine what the price of a refurbished unit would be if a non-working DD could be bought at 100-150USD.
Enjoyed reading all of these posts and I'm also a collector of the high end Sony Walkman and Aiwa's but not every model is worth having. As they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder but often the poorer models get reputations based on their placement in a cult film like Back to the Future. Often sellers ask ridiculous prices for what is a quite ordinary Aiwa player. In fact most don't even know which model is placed in the film. It's a silver HS-P02 Mk II. Not red or grey or some other non US market model or a HS-T07. Having restored a silver HS-P07 the exact European equivalent I'd say its worth $250 not $1250 as a "Marty McFly" model. Alas that Aiwa model has become one you go for because of its connection with a film and all that goes with that film and the 80's in general. So for me I never bother with my HS-P07 as a player but always prefer DDII through Koss PortaPro phones because together they give me the sound with the right preset EQ for music out of the 80's recorded on a D6C on a great type IV cassette. It all just sounds right to me. I have no interest in spending a mint to collect all 6 DD's as others have just to say I have them all. To me the DD does not sound as good as the DDII and that's what is important. So price is a mix of many factors discussed in this thread and most of us when we sell to other collectors have a good idea of what is a reasonable price to ask. Too many opportunistic sellers acquire our valued Sony and Aiwas looking to onsell for a quick profit. They have no appreciation of the build quality or sound quality of the items they sell. I take little notice of these on sellers and the Japanese "junk" sellers with the terrible feedback scores and over the top prices.
I have bought a red DD30 from another collector in the past 2 years. It was €200 plus shipping but it was in great condition and red seems to command higher prices than silver or black. I had to do the CG of course but I thought that's a fair price for a good example with the usual issue to fix.
Prices of Walkamns has gone up as more people want to buy and from my buys I can say for sure that even great looking on outside walkamans need more that changing a belt. Those which worked ok after a while, that was maybe 5-6 out of about 30. 3 of them were serviced, and works well. You really pay a lot more for Walkmans if they aren't fully serviced. I would understand buying them new, but especially with audio equipment, not used isn't new. More like looking new but needing a lot of work. I bought D6C last year for 180 euro with charger (no battery box). I've recorded voices once, and that's probably all the recording it will do. As nice as a player, it bulky and not really meant for everyday listening. I've bought more useful players for a lot less. What would I do now? I would buy walkamans cheap and send for service.
Many retailers don't even know why it's worth so much ... they just adjust to the prices they see ... They find the walkman or stereo in a cellar ... they do a little google search and put it on ebay it's useless to think that the price is fair or not ... there are those who are willing to pay 1000 and who 500 ... I only know that these are riding the wave of nostalgia and as soon as it starts to drop ... the prices also go down ... guys today they would not spend that amount for something that is not digital .... even broken to tidy up ... we are those of our age who spend ... personally I have two d6c, one working (repaired) the other not .. I got them when they were not yet at these prices (4 years ago) ..... but I don't have for example a DC2..because taking it for repair now is too much for me ... the only DD walkman that I have is part of the sky line .. and given the prices I do not think I will take one at the moment ... I am waiting for an opportunity as it has happened to me several times
Well i have never paid £1000 for anything and never will, my whole hifi did not cost £1500 and it's worth thousands just one pair of speakers were 3 grand new you guys must have major incomes to be able to spend a grand on a Walkman lol
There is nothing in my house that cost me £1000. With the exception of cars I don't like to spend more than my disposable income each month. Unless you just want an ornament, I think the car analogy several people have used is a good one. In 2002 I spent £11000 on a car and thirteen years and 90000 miles later sold it as scrap for £170. If I think of it as £70 a month then that sounds much more reasonable. Whether it is a car or a piece of audio gear a major breakdown can turn your item into a far less valuable doorstop.
I would not pay over £1000 for a personal stereo, but I have paid many times that for other things. The last major thing I bought was a new motor + power supply for my turntable, that was over £4000. No I am not rich, but when something is important to me and gives me a lot of pleasure then I don’t mind spending the money.
in my opinion everything should be free and it would actually work but people can't think outside of the box and this would never happen anyway longman i think a car is well justified as it's actually something needed , so you are excused lol there is another debate on boomboxery about m90's, it's my favourite long standing boombox but again i wouldn't pay a grand for one, my 2 cost way less for each i actually gave away 2 of them to members on boomboxery so yea these debates will go on forever and I'm not sure they will achieve anything if I'm honest
i was actually looking at million pound speakers last year, they looked like something made on playschool lol....i wouldn't have been remotely interested even if i had spades of money, as long as you're happy my man that is all that counts in the end
