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I was recently offered $700 for this lot of gear. What do you guys think? I don't want to get ripped off, but I also never use this gear anymore. It would be nice to get as much as I can for it to sink into a decent turntable.
McIntosh MC240 amp. Has the cage. It's a bit beat up and a bit rusty, lettering is mostly gone. I'd give it a 4/10 appearance wise. Sounds perfect. My father was original owner, I have photocopied manuals, all service records from the 60s on, and original sales receipt. Tubes have been replaced twice. The current one's are nothing special (or so says the guy wanting to buy it.) Has had main caps replaced by Brier Sound Center in San Diego (authorized Mcintosh center) and one of the output RCA jacks and thermistor was replaced also.
MR71 tuner that doesn't tune anything in, all controls work, light up, etc. It's a 6/10 cosmetically. Have receipts from original purchase.
C26 Preamp, that looks great 7/10 (new glass), but has 2 noisy pots and 1 static-ey pots. Also, headphone jack only works out of one channel. Everything else is nominal. Was serviced about 10 years ago (have receipts.)
MR71 and C26 have panlocs and are in cabinets I made myself. Not incredible looking but nice.
Am I getting ripped off? Any advice would be appreciated.
Follow Ups:
You've been around long enough to know how to do some research and set prices. Satisfaction is agreement between seller and buyer. If there is some some validated hardship for the seller then perhaps conscience may be a guide. Now, if you found a $1500 TT for the $700 is that a score or did you rip someone off? As for the "collector" on C/L I've seen the ads and if you think that it's upfront then I have some swampland in Arizona.
Thanks for all the input, you guys totally answered my questions. I think I'll get that tuner fixed and sell it along with the cleaned up amp on audiogon or ebay, maybe I'll keep that preamp and modify it. I've been building bottlehead stuff lately and like to tinker.
Any links to mods for the C26?
-P
watching ebay and AgoN for over 3 years. The MC 240 is the amp to keep, and maybe the 71. The C26, which some claim can sound good modded, would be less desirable.
Ask Mike Samra. He knows.
You are not only getting ripped off,you are getting screwed,blued,and tattoed while this ASS WIPE walks away as a criminal and there is no other way to put it..Shame on him..Its guys like him that give this hobby a bad name.
No matter how stir the pot,you only get out as good as what goes in.Power supplies matter most.
The potential seller did the right thing by asking the question and gaining knowledge - It's not the prospective buyer's responsibility to educate the seller about what they have. If that was the case, the USA would probably never have gotten to purchase Alaska :)
...selling the stuff they find from wherever on ebay and elsewhere.
Although we all like to grouse about the supposed unethical behavior of these persons, is is possible that part of the "responsibility" for fair pricing also lies with the seller? And isn't one of the favorite Vintage Inmate pastimes the posting of their latest super bargain score?
Just a thought.
what this guy is doing is paying wholesale. For some crusty/rusty MC gear I don't think the price is too low.
cheers,
Douglas
Friend, I would not hurt thee for the world...but thou art standing where I am about to shoot.
doug
After I realized that it didnt work,it was more in line with 700 dollar offer but that was still quite low so maybe I was a little strong but I have seen a lot of corruption thru the years and at one time I may done that..It needs work but its still worth a fair more than he offered just for the cage alone on the 240.
I got my mc240 from Ross but he had gone thru it and put it on ebay and he ended it on a wednsday which is a day to get the cheaper prices on ebay and he wouldnt ship out of the US and he was picky about packing it so I did very well I felt at 1450 and the chasis was very pretty.Thats just one item to and it was running well when I had got it.
No matter how stir the pot,you only get out as good as what goes in.Power supplies matter most.
you're just buying to resell, as in most retail a 100% markup is about average I guess. Now for something you're going to have to work on first!?!?!? That has got to go up substantially, specially for the time consuming work rebuilding an amp is. And it is rusty...
That was a fair offer. If you don't want to be the retailer, that is what you're going to have to live with. I wholesaled a nice pair of MC75's for $1k8. GE 6550A's, consec serial numbers and nice chrome.
cheers,
Douglas
Friend, I would not hurt thee for the world...but thou art standing where I am about to shoot.
That was to your friend tho..If its to a stranger it would be much more..I probably would have gone 1000 after reading the description but not much more because they all needed work.If any one of those pieces are reasonably clean,its worth 700 and you get the other two free.
No matter how stir the pot,you only get out as good as what goes in.Power supplies matter most.
And a Larry Niven fan!
So yes, the guy could have been trying to get himself a bargain, or he could have been totally on the up and up. The offer seemed a bit low is all, I know what *nice* examples of all of these go for on eBay and Audiogon. I was attempting to get a second opinion on his estimate of their condition. If I can get more, I will try. If a bunch of you had said "Rusty with replaced parts! Bah! He's being generous!" I would have went a different way.
Thanks again.
-P
gotten to the Flying Sorcerers?
I'd say his price was fair enough, given not seeing the amps.
cheers,
Douglas
Friend, I would not hurt thee for the world...but thou art standing where I am about to shoot.
Interesting tangent.
I enjoy talking about 'scores'. It's important to note that not all scores come at the expense of an unknowing individual who has been taken advantage of.
The scores I usually make are from things that were literally thrown away - I've honestly found most of my vintage gear in the scrap pile at the town dump during my weekly runs. I've also found some gear at the local Goodwill. I think and hope that most of us here 'score' our vintage gear legitimately and ethically.
I agree with Mike that knowingly ripping people off is just terrible.
As for the original post, I agree, you could probably fetch almost double the original offer and perhaps more depending on condition.
-Matt
Here is the thing
You know the deal I got 2 weeks ago on ebay thats loaded with tubes,the 12ax7 amperex D getters and the GZ34 metal base,I got the amp for 50 but once it got here I had sent him extra money and he was so appreciative of that.
The thing is if its on ebay and goes cheap as a rule,thats fair game but many times I have seen people take advantage of people that have lost loved ones in death and they try to bulldoze the estate and that goes thru me like a nail..You be fair and still make a nice profit but that man was being ridiculous.Hell I think a pawn shop would pay more than that these days possibly.
No matter how stir the pot,you only get out as good as what goes in.Power supplies matter most.
In a case like this it's possible we jump to incorrect conclusions about the potential buyer. How do we know his lowball offer isn't the beginning of a negotiation? The fact that the OP asked questions here and got some opinions of the value indicates to me that he now knows enough to counter-offer if that's his plan. You don't offer your final price when you begin bargaining with someone over an object of desire. I'm sure the potential buyer operates the same way. Hopefully both OP and buyer work things out to the satisfaction of each.BTW, you use the phrase "take advantage" when speaking of liquidating an estate. That's a very relative assessment IMO. Someone is going to really love my estate when I go but it won't be my immediate relatives. They consider all my tubes an' stuff as antique junk and will probably pay someone to haul it off. Lucky hauler...indeed.
$700 for that. Crazeee.
They are worth much, much more.
MC240 in that condition will get over $1200 to 1500.
C26 gets about $400 or more. Mods make it a decent preamp.
MR 71 gets over $400 and needs a tech--possibly alignment and tubes only.
Hi, Oltraver:
I simply had to comment here:
Any working MC-240 with a cage, even in the stated condition with the updates you mentioned, would bring $700 alone, if offered these days. I have found that if you are very careful, you can clean rust off an otherwise messy chassis with a product called TR-3 auto glaze. You should be able to find this product in most good Auto supply stores, though I have not purchased any in years now. This product is superb on chromed surface cleanings.
As for the rest of the gear, considering what you described, $700 for it all is NOTHING, as offers go these days.
I have seen beat up MC-240s show up in local flea markets whith asking prices of $1400 and those are without a cage and the lettering is usually damaged by deep cleaning with Windex, etc. These sellers simply get their pricing from eBay, of course, never mind whether the unit meets spec.
Mind you, without seeing their actual condition, it would be rather foolish to accept only $700 for them all.
Just check around and draw your own conclusions.
Incidentally, noisy pots on any McIntosh gear is usually remedied with proper cleaning with DeOxiT and/or other cleaners made by Caig Labs.
The good folks from McIntosh Labs used such products years ago at their dealer-sponsored Performance Clinics and I saw dozens of preamps and power amps having their controls routinely and thoroughly cleaned by the Mac Techs.
The rocker switches on the C-11 and C-22 and also on MX-110 tuner-preamps always needed intervention of that sort. Every Mac owner got to expect that they would need it sooner or later. Free service at these Performance Clinics was an absolute JOY in the good old days, you know!
Hey, they used to toss out your weak output tubes and slap in fresh factory ones for FREE in the good old days and this was long after they stopped manufacturing tube gear.
Ah, the days of the glorious past!
Richard Links
Berkeley, CA
I had a guy come by from a craigslist ad, saying he buys vintage gear. He offered me the $700.00. He says he's just a collector, but he might be into the flipping thing.
Yeah, I agree about getting it to someone who will appreciate it. Since I upgraded, it breaks my heart to see it sitting there, and I've come to terms with it being better to pass it on than to keep it in the closet because it was my father's.
Who came up with the $700?
The items could sell for quite a bit more on eBay, but if the buyer is going to refurb and KEEP them, then I say you both win.
If the buyer is going to "flip" them, then just put them up on eBay, one piece at a time, and sell them yourself.
I say if you are not using them, sell 'em to someone who would actually use them.
Just my two cents....
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