eBay??, Reverb??, Shop Goodwill? Your finds... personally I noticed eBay is a sit and wait ..look for a lull and a mic off the radar..I've had 100% good luck with sellers but I ask a lot if questions before I buy..overpriced right now..Ev re 15's ..some of the less than stellar appearance bk5's out there now, Sennheiser 441's ...Beyer 160's ..good deals..shure 300,315 330 series mikes..altec 633a, re 666

If you're a flipper, LA and Craigslist were made for each other. Around the first of each month, people need fast cash. Probably not much supply in Philly, but NYC isn't all that far.

Yeah, but you have to factor in the cost of the 1 1/2 hour drive 5 miles away to pick up the screaming deal you just got.

Being Craigslist, you haven't just gotten it yet. You've only agreed to meet someone in a dark alley with a wad of cash. So besides the gas money, there's hired muscle.

If you are a flipper, buying from medium sized midwestern city Craigs List and selling on Reverb to LA/NYC/Nashville are a profitable combo.

A flipper story, quoted from my own Yelp review:

"Springfield's my hometown and I visit fairly often. I had been into the Rock Shop several times and bought picks, strings and so forth. So one day I'm there to pick up a capo and there's a nice, vintage Gibson archtop by itself in a glass case. Not cheap, but reasonable if it was in good shape and didn't need a lot of work. I asked one of the guys there if I could play it. He said, "It's not in tune." I said, "I can tune it." He stared at the ceiling. For a while. I took that to mean, "No, you can't play it." On my way out I left my business card with the other guy and asked him to ask the owner to give me a call.

On my way over to House of Music to buy the capo I didn't buy at The Rock Shop, my phone rang. It was the same fella I'd recently left staring at the ceiling, who as it turns out was also the owner of The Rock Shop.

I said something to the effect that I'd never been treated like that in my adult life, which was a bit of an exaggeration. He said I was an asshole and shouldn't think I'm some kind of big deal just because I'm from Los Angeles. I agree with that second part, actually. And I live there but, as I said, I'm not from there."

Craigslist has done me well (including a tip from Brent on an M88) for used mics. Though, here in Central Illinois they don't come up all that often.

There's a class of old school midwesterners who are classic horse traders and just can not be satisfied until they know they've got one over on you. Maybe he was the type? They are starting to age out. I worked with a vintage european motorcycle restorer for a bunch of years (BMW, Ducati, Moto-Guzzi, some Brit, etc.) who treated everyone like sh!t unless you happen to better him on a deal or kiss his ugly a$$. I took him twice and he sort of loved me like the son he never had. I still smile when I think about the day I pulled up in front of his shop to check out a '72 BMW R75 he had for sale on the sidewalk - he started it while it was on the kick stand, in gear and I was standing in front of it. It landed on me. (It's in the barn now.)

On the other hand, some people are just duchebags and lots of them own music stores.

Pawn shops have been a real treasure trove in the Tampa Bay Area of Florida for me. Got a Coles 4038 for $350, an RE20 for $90, matched pair of 414-buls for $650, 2x 421 for $75/ea, tons of 57/58s for $25-30 along with plenty of other scores on musical instruments. Most notably a ‘68 Fender Princeton for $7, ’72 Fender Pro Reverb for $250 and Acoustic 320 with 408 cab for $550.

i do better just holding out on ebay. half the asking prices are never relizrd and after several listing many folks will deal.

pawn shop pay pennies on the dollar and act like they are selling gold ingots around here.

seldon see anything but cheap just on craigs list.

never bought off reverb. evertime some i might want pops up if the price is fair its gone before i spot it.

I buy almost all my gear used and use EBay and Reverb. I check completed listings on EBay to see what’s possible price wise and then find what the average going rate is. Now with microphones I’m gonna start building from kits. I just don’t trust microphones used anymore except for dynamics and even they can be knock offs. There are some U87 and KM84 kits priced just right and while I know they won’t be geninuin they’ll be usable mics. With all the clone kits out there in all areas of recording gear being able to follow directions and use a soldering iron is a money saving way to acquire quality mics and other gear I’d never dream of owning otherwise. Intend to recap and swap opamps in all my gear anyways so paying vintage prices for something I’m just gonna mod doesn’t really make since.

Brian

Goodwill’s website can be decent... recently though I’ve been dragon slaying on all manner of studio stuff on offerup

guess i bought all my gear second hand for the last 35 years - sometimes directly from manufactures, more often from distributors, music stores, theaters/venues, rental companies, bands, but mostly through reverb, ebay, ebay-kleinanzeigen, gebrauchte-veranstaltungstechnik...

wow

Tony

those deals are so good I got a little angry lol

That’s an entirely different level of patience. Us onliners don’t want to do the ground work it takes to hit pawn shops. Craigslist can be good but they don’t deliver it to your front door. It has to be some major money savings. I do look for bass and guitar amps on Craigslist. You can save on shipping.

Brian

The key is patience for a really good deal and watching listings like a hawk if you want something. I've gotten screamin' good deals from Craigslist, eBay and Reverb. One of the oddest was a fellow offering a microphone in a 24 hr eBay auction. Said he needed a little cash quick as in 24 hrs. No one else noticed (how could they there was no time). He had a starting bid of $75 for an item you'd expect to bring $300 or $350. No one else bid. I thought no way is this for real. I paid up the minute the auction ended. He shipped the next day and everything was as described. Nothing other than luck as I was searching for just that mike when the listing went live.

Guitar Center used is another good source.

When exactly? 1993? All the pawnshops around here Google it, find it listed by Flower Pot Guy on eBay with inflated prices and mark theirs up even more

E-Bay IMO, IF you do your homework, purchase only through PayPal, don't try to screw E-Bay by communicating or buying outside of E-Bay, and trust your gut----if it sounds too good to be true or they ask you to wire the money---RUN.

I had one scammer send me an e-mail directly that looked very EBay legit. Fortunately I'm old and paranoid so I smelled a rat, but there are some real crooks out there.

I scroll listing till I hit flower pot guy and then stop. Whatever he’s listed at I know I can get it for 1/2 as much at least and if I’m patient much less than that. He is good source for scrolling his listing and googling unknown gear from the past and finding gems. I’ve got some inductor based Klark Teknik EQ’s that I like despite being graphics because of him. Didn’t buy from him of course. Two I bought broken and recapped and swapped opamps and problems solved.

Brian

All those deals have been in roughly the last 5 years or so. The RE20, 4038, Pro Reverb and Acoustic 320/408 were in the last 6 months.

I hit pawn shops almost daily. It’s 90% luck and 10% haggling ability.

There’s tons of deals out there if you’re actively looking.

Maybe you can get those kind of deals on your side of the Gandy, but over here on the Tampa side the pawn shops sell junk for more than eBay pricing. Granted I don't spend much time in pawn shops, but I do pop in from time to time and never see anything worth buying over here.

Isn't that the truth!

I used to love pawn shops way back when. Now they pull out blue book values and will typically price them in the mint condition category. That's been my experience anyway.

The last great deal I got was several Telefunken VF14 tubes that were sitting among a bunch of other old tubes. The guy told me to take them. He didn't know what they were for, and that they were junk

Had them tested, and confirmed by a very reputable mic builder. They meet the requirements to use in a U47. I am sitting on them waiting for the right buyer(s) to come along.

Unfortunately I can't afford an original U47 so it's kind of a catch 22. One of my goals is to build a U47 clone around on eof these.

Nice.

Yeah, I remember growing up, this old guy who ran a pawn shop notoriously jacked his prices up on everything (this was pre-Internet), just to be jerk we thought.

Us high schoolers who were in bands together would go there at lunch all the time and joke around and give him a hard time about it.

One day I got to actually talking to him when nobody else was there and told him I had a Yamaha 4-track and asked him what a condenser was and what phantom power was (I was all Radio Shack Hi-Z mics at that time) and he let me buy a Unidyne 57 for $15 and a cool old Sony electret pencil condenser for $25, that was so sensitive, blew my mind at the time... somebody stole it and I remember being so pissed about it.

I laugh thinking about it now because that Sony was garbage compared to even a cheap MXL condenser that kids starting off can buy for pretty close to that price nowadays.

I remember behind the counter he had reel to reels, Telefunken mics, Neumann... if only I would've stuck around town long enough to make enough to buy the top shelf stuff he had.

Most of my used mics and some other gear has come from eBay and B&H Used Wired Microphones

I pretty much browse B&H's used section every morning. Once every so often something I'm looking for will pop up. Their rating system is fairly accurate and a few items I've got there looked like repacks of new, possibly demos.

You'd think something like craigslist here in Nashville would be a goldmine of stuff, but everyone seems to want top dollar for everything, to the point where I don't even bother anymore. It's easier to set up alerts on eBay and Reverb and do it all from the comfort of my couch.

Pawn shops around here are generally pretty savvy about that kind of thing now, as well. I'd have to go hunting on a daily basis to have any kind of shot at a legit deal.

The only time I even try to buy locally is if it's something big enough that shipping it would be prohibitively expensive.

Of all things used Im most skeptical about microphones "used"....the spittle, dropped, smoked, abused, corroded, etc... is the reason.
With brand new SM57 at $99 and SM7b at $399 with warranty and brand new....did I say brand new capsules?


For Used, I prefer Reverb these days.
Numerous well done transactions with them and the chat help has been great with all questions and issues.

Ive done all the online and local shops, and still surf them from time to time.

Microphones though...hmmm? Ive bought them used but it has to be a 60% or more cut, like a Shure KSM 44 for $375 or a KSM27 for $80.
I got my first tube mic, Rode NTV with Jensen, Wima..etc..for $275 with case, all papers and holders. I also got a AKG used cheap.
Imo, its just high risk on used mics. Didn't someone get burnt on a Neumann a few years ago that had a Chinese capsule in it?

I've had to send back a few "used" mics but I've also got quite a few that worked out fine. I guess I have no real hangups about buying used mics in general. Every mic is a used mic after the first time you plug it in.