Well, My first BIG craigslist haul came in yeterday, all the way from Hollywood, CA to Toledo OH. It's a Sharp HK9000 and it's titanic in proportions and equally as heavy! I found this on craigslist for $75 but had it talked down to $50. I happen to have a buddy that lives in Hollywood so he hooked me up. I knew he was comming home for the holidays so instead of shipping it via UPS or FedEx and risk it being thrashed by a overwhelmed package jockey, he brought it as a checked peice of luggage.
It arrived in great condition. Astetically it's a 8 out of 10 with some small scratches on top of one of the speaker cabinets. All buttons are accounted for and the antenna is intact.
The tunner pulls in stations very strong and the volume is insane, like PA system loud! I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that this is probably one of the most powerfull boxes made. I had it @ 75% and it was painfully loud with real clean sound and great deep bass response. At moderate levels it has a very nice warm quality sound. It's a performer no doubt. I tested the tape decks, deck A eats tapes,but I knew that going in so I'll address that soon. Deck B is in good shape, with all functions working. Sound is a little muted but im sure a demag, and cleaning will help square up that prob. Cd/Aux inputs works well and so does the Phono. The 10 band equalizer works well. but I do have a problem with the balance pot stays balanced if I turn it to the right channel but but works on the left. The volume slider is a little scratchy, but that will be fixed as soon as I have time to clean her up.
I still dont know if the tape pitch control is for Deck A, B or both. I'll have to play with it some more. I'm pretty stoked about this big bastard, it looks insane and at 50 bones it's not a bad deal.
Here are some shots with one of its cousins, again sorry about the lame cell phone pics.

Peace,
Paul Z.

SWASS!

That is a great score!!!!

EDIT: Wait... did you say 'checked luggage?!' I know its too big as a carry on!

It made it in that good of condition? Amazing! I travel for my career, and I have real horror stories of damaged luggage!

A Christmas blessing it looks like!

Whoa!!

You'll enjoy it! I had one and passed it on to our own Kittmaster. A beast for sure.

Congrats!! HK-9000 is pretty good - I enjoy mine as well!

Great looking box! I bet it's nice and loud with clear sound!

Congratulations.