I didn’t buy anything, but I appreciated the treatment. The establishment’s owner actually moved a pair of very heavy speakers into his main listening room and let me listen to them on modern-day equipment - some pieces costing $10,000 or more. There was a giant room with shelves jammed full of interesting stereo gear. Luckily, a few weeks later, on a business trip to Seattle, I walked into Hawthorne Stereo. The Internet killed that business.” I walked out nearly in tears. “We don’t deal with used equipment anymore. I got some really classic stuff there.Ī few years ago I went back to try to find a particular pair of speakers and the owner looked at me as if I was speaking a foreign language. Here in New York, I used to do a lot of bartering at Stereo Exchange. It was likely a place you could hear what something sounded like before buying it. Most of the time, gear was traded-in when it was time to buy new and improved stuff.Įvery big city probably had at least one store that had a booming business in used hi-fi. But first, let me offer some background.īefore the Internet, classified ads in local newspapers and local neighborhood hi-fi shops were the main outlets for buying and selling older equipment. It depends on many factors - especially how good it was when it was brand new.

But some pieces are nearly worth their weight in gold. Not all older hi-fi is worth a lot of money. Hi-fi gear is a hot commodity these days.

There’s a possibility that the old stereo gear you bought or acquired from the 80’s - or 70’s, or possibly even the 50’s or 60’s - may be back in style with a vengeance.įorget about old TVs.

Record players for sale on ebay