Dawn of the dead...1977 bless george a romero

the way i see it is that boomers are antique`s and as a general rule of thumb, antiques go up in value........

If there was a box for sale and i couldnt afford it, i wouldnt buy it..............simple

I also check ebay on a very regular basis .........

I think we can all asume that this business is not a closed book...........unless your selling to a friend or collector, you would probably like to get he most money out of it......therefore ebay is a tool to do exactly that.........

point taken but as probably 99% of the population dont know the value of these things and take them to landfill......plus..........more people starting to collect due to the availability of them through sites like graiglist and ebay, there will be some sort of a shortage so i would asume the harder they are to get, the more valuable they will become

Any collectible '79-'82 boombox listed for sale in 2012 is nothing more than like visiting a junk yard for a vehicle of a simular year.All collectible ebay boxes have been flipped dozens of times and all valuable parts have been robbed by collectors long ago,making them sucker bait.Most forums hype them so noobs fall into the trap to buy worthless garbage.If your want to collect vintage boomboxes you are 20 years too late,all the top shelf boxes are long gone and in the hands of collectors who will only sell for mega profit to fools dumb enough to buy them.

i have bought/won a few hundred boxes over the past 10 years.

NONE had any valuable parts robbed-

most all were bought at prices consistent with what they could be sold

for -- break even - today.

Most of the AS-IS ones are like that, as some will pull the good parts and install bad parts, or a failed repair attempt and then sell it as a AS-IS unit, or damage and worn out to the point of not being worth the time to restore. I stop buying these for that very reason.

Only way you are going to get a deal on these if you buy them local and happen to find in a trade meet, garage sale, or thriftstore by chance. As I find them from time to time, but is getting harder, as more people know what they are worth. 

The only thing I don't agree with you on is the "Most forums hype them", as the forums have nothing to do with the transaction and don't promote them in anyway, it's the sellers themseft that do.

Just have to be smart in what you buy and have alot of patient, I found NIB's for cheap, most of the time locally and recently, due to I wait, best one I found were local. Just last week at a pawnshop found one JVC m70 sitting on a high shelf next to some tube radios and a Panasonic 7400 boombox with 8 track stereo recorder, pretty much in great condition, but dusty, due to noone clean them for years for $100 bucks for both, as I ask the owner and he said they use to be for display, but if you have a 100 bucks you can get them. What funny is never notice them as they were far back and high up. Pretty much on eBay you are going to get junk, unless you are willing to pay a collectors price for a restored one, not going to give you the cheap price after restoring it, as most are going to need, as belts, capacitors go bad and various other parts, plus the time and effort to clean them and align tuner, as they drift, check playback speed and align head azimuth and cost of parts. What am I going to do give it to you at cost? Then what would be the point?

Yes their are some sellers that will try to rip people off and try to sell a broken box for top dollar. Have a simple solution to problem? Don't buy it!! Most those auctions are fake as sellers bid on their own stuff to bid up the prices, to make it look as it was going for that price, when it not. Or worst one is the dishonest buyer as I had people bid up stuff on purpose so their item sells, this happen for a walkman I sold but had to list twice, due to buyer never paided and notice he sold one of that same model. Well his account is history now also.

I think you're right, but those sellers will defend themselves

There are true collectors on boombox forums, and of course those - so called "collectors", but in fact they are plain investors/sellers, all they do - collect, then hype on the forums, then sell their beauties. They usually speak a lot just to make their items more desirable and valuable, for those not too smart buyers.

Even it's getting harder to find boxes in the wild - it's the best solution, and fun

You're right Metad. Finding "in the wild" is the best. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. That's how I found my M90 index.php?board_oid=193392314111653483&content_oid=258979670055329176

It's rare I admit, but I'll give my friends here another little tip. Senior's homes. A lot of seniors group homes have garage sales to raise money for trips etc. Some gem boxes can be found (along with many stinkers)

Most of the residents still use tapes and some have boomboxes because you can't keep stereo's. Also the staff use these boxes for activities, but periodically they sell them looking for an upgrade.

The best one I ever saw was a JVC 838 at one of these sales...but it was in ROUGH condition (no door, knobs missing, paint drips..)

The best advice is stick to these forums, and the reputable members when dealing with Ebay.

Yes Brutus, finding in the wild is a great excitement and fun, especially the days, when you didn't expect to find, nothing compares to it

Hmm, I guess that explains the mint M9994 I purchased last November on Ebay, with its original microphones still wrapped.  Bought it for 275 shipped from a guy in Florida, because I called him within hours of his listing it and agreed upon a B.I.N. price.  OK, so 275 is more than you would pay in the wild, but I'm happy with it because if I were to put it back on Ebay I'm pretty sure I could get 800 or more for it.  You would think it's new.  No scratches, dents, stains, or operational faults.

And I'm not sure why you think most boxes have parts stripped out of them.  That doesn't happen very often.  Most people don't have a duplicate box which would motivate them to steal parts for it.  And most people don't take apart electronics.  They just don't care enough to spend time doing that.

And for you guys dissing on Ebay because you supposedly get all your boxes cheaply at pawn shops or yard sales.......That's fine if it works for you, but it doesn't for everyone.  I personally don't feel like driving to a bunch of shops and sales just in case they happen to have a boombox (most of which would be eggs anyway).   OK, maybe once in awhile I might find an M70 or Lasonic since those were manufactured in great quantities, but I am more interested in rare boxes. 

You don't just drive around, you make friends in other area and look out for them, I have people in different states that watch out for the stuff, that have no interest in boxes or walkmans, but may collect video games, or other items, so I help them get rare games, consoles, or what ever else they want, that I have no interest or have one already and in return they look for rare boxes and walkmans, cctv, IT equipments, or highend audio found a nakamichi dragon from newyork for only $40 buck plus shipping and found and sold so many other 3 head decks that way, it well worth it. One of the better find was a NIB Conion C-F100 from a random member on youtube and he email me, never knew about it, as he saw I fix and deal with retro electronics and wonder if I was interested in buying it. So took the risk and paid $450 cashier check and actually received the box. Most of the stuff I don't even find in my area.

I have better luck with youtube and friends, or just plain asking people and craigslist then eBay, especially when it come to prices, not to say you won't get lucky with eBay ethier, as I found some of my NIB's over the years from eBay. But then again go to auctions, lot auctions and bank liquidation auctions, all the time for other stuff and companies, so is no big deal to me, it what I do. But then again I don't just collect boxes, or walkmans, but also collect 70's Pioneer receivers,  rare formats, laserdiscs players, micromv camcorder, spy Nagra reel to reel recorder, ultra small microcassette recorders or stereo recorders and portable tv's, like the Panasonic CT-101 NIB, also from a youtube member.

AS-IS boomboxes not so much a issue have been burned once or so on a box, mostly due to poor shipping, but no big deal. But walkmans almost every AS-IS is junk, people crap repair attempts mostly, even had some were parts were completely missing not once but a few times. Most regular, or local people don't care enough to take them apart, but these bigger sellers do, then sell when they screw up the repair. Had to open up cases and left 5 negative in one month alone for this issue. 

I think that's because the percentage of walkman sellers who are collectors is higher than the percentage of boombox sellers who are collectors.  Therefore, a lot of the walkman guys attempt repairs, because they know there are other walkman collectors who will pay good money for a walkman.  In fact I recall one walkman seller Mediterrano71, who was unmasked on this forum for being a liar and selling walkmans that had been damaged or bad repair attempts.  He changed his ebay username many times, so I'm sure he is still out there.

James is the guy who made the website.