Best Deal You Ever Got

Not me, but a friend helped somebody move their father for a couple hours just last year, the dad asked him if he "wanted this amp?", the amp was a black face vibro champ, it had a slip cover on it and is nothing short of brand spanking new, it sounds absolutely divine after it warms up, what a ridiculous score, my friend is a heck of a give you the shirt off his back kinda dude, couldn't have happened to a nicer guy

I scored a 421 and an RE20 for a good deal up here in Sonoma County years ago. Dan Alexander had already emailed but it was first come first serve and he apparently didn’t want to drive out to the sticks.

Fun fact: the guy I bought the mics from had played on Nicky Hopkins solo stuff.

Now I remember.  Mother-in-law moved into a house and when they looked in the attic, they found a Framus hollow-body (I think it was the Atlantic model but not 100% sure) and a Gibson  GA-45 (like this one -- jakewildwood.blogspot.com/2023/01/1960-maestro-gibson-ga-45rv-45w-4x8.html).  She said, "do you want these"?  Why yes, yes, I would, thank you.  Of course being the dumb ass I am, I eventually decided that I wanted something else (probably drums) and I sold off both.  Definitely did not get collector $$ for them, but I got something.  But I could start a whole thread of "shit I sold that I regret selling".  maybe I will...

Oh - you know what - my best deal was my baby grand. $250. Although, it’s got a hairline crack in the soundboard.

Someone once gave me an Altec 436c.
Not a great all-arounder but still gets used now and again.

I haven't really done a great deal from the perspective that it was cheap to buy heh.. but more from what I've earned when I sold the unit. A few top deals:

Neumann U47
Neumann Km86 pair
Neumann KM56
Neumann U67
Neumann SM69 tub

Honourable mentions: I found a Sony 800G for 5000$. I "gave" away that deal to my brother. That is probably the best find, easy peasy X2 the money. Peak COVID, probably X3.

Fun for someone else:

A friend of mine bought 5 Km84s for 2000$ this week. Absuuurd deal haha!

Brand new BAE 1073D pre/EQ …. $900!

Now that was definitely my best bargain to date.

Best deal I ever got wasn't music related. I was given a John Deere 60" commercial Zero Turn lawnmower because it didn't run. I saw it sitting under a lean-to next to a guy's barn and asked him how much he wanted for it. He told me that if I could fix it I could have it. Duh! I spent about $500 on parts and a couple hours of time and drove it away. The most expensive parts were battery and new tires. A $10k mower for $500 is a deal. I still have it and use it all the time to mow my 3 acre yard.

Don't now about best, but some good ones:

6 Piece Tama Starclassic Maple w/ cases - $750
Soyuz 017 FET- $900
Warm WA-2A- Free!

You possibly do not want to hear about the night when the former G+L distributor of Germany sent a fax. They called it quits, said sorry and offered their remaining stock. They listed two dozend of instruments (USA made), insane, completely insane prices - a fraction of what they did cost. As the music shop of my friend half a mile away had no second telephone line his fax number was my fax number. So every other music shop in Germany was closed when that fax arrived - i phoned my friend, we agreed on what we would take and 10 minutes later i faxed it back... a few hours ahead of everybody else. If i'd tell you the prices we paid, you'd slit your wrists .. or come and kill me.

Vintage 1932-1938 RCA 44A. Backstory: Was at a funeral about almost exactly a year ago and started visiting with the guy who was the church's sound engineer for 40+ years. I haven't seen him in years, and he's in his 80's. He was the engineer for a local radio station most of his career. One thing led to another and he told me he still had the ribbon mic that hung from the rafters over the sanctuary choir loft from the early 50's until the church built a new building in 1976. Couldn't remember if he bought it new, nor what brand/model of mic it was. I asked him if he'd be willing to sell it (I figured any older ribbon mic would be cool) and he said he'd look at it and let me know. He called and told me what it was, and that in his mind it still belonged to the church so any payment would go there. After learning what it was, I knew I had to do the right thing and tell him what it was worth. He responded that if I wanted to come take it and just make a donation to the church, that would work for him...he didn't want to know the donation dollars.

So that's what I did. I made a decent donation to the church, but nowhere near what the Reverb pricing would be. The church had long since lost interest in the mic, and had no use for it. It was working, so I sent it off to have it serviced and a new ribbon installed for nominal cost. There's some personal history here as well. The church it hung in was the church I grew up in (as did my dad and mom), and the mic was used to record the choir for radio broadcasts, of which my mom was certainly a part. So I'm never selling it.

An aside: Once I looked the mic over I noticed it has a "77" in red block lettering on the top band, and also 'NBC 55' etched on the outside and the inside. Would love to know the history of it prior to the church procuring it, but that's probably lost forever.