Every now and then I buy and sell a turntable on Gumtree. If I buy a table for, say, R450 or R500, it gets a new stylus for R230, a new belt for R60~R150, new oil, and I spend 4 to 8 hours (sometimes a lot more) over a couple of days cleaning and using Mr Min, Kleen Green, IPA, Autosol, Plastax, tooth picks, ear buds, paper towel, cotton cloth and whatnot in the process. I often fit new rubber feet, repair a crack in the lid with chloroform, repair a hinge with Q-Bond, fit new RCA cables, a new earth wire, new RCA plugs, a new power lead and a new 3-prong mains plug. I use silicon paste and/or white grease to lubricate moving parts (usually on auto-return mechanisms, after many hours of cleaning off the old, hard grease) and sometimes replace a few (very basic) electronics. I clean the motor pulley and the platter belt surface with IPA and oil the motor spindle as well as the platter spindle. Almost never do I spend less than about R500 on parts and consumables. Then I sell this table for about R1,200 - R200 "profit" if you don't take into account my 8 hours of work, my petrol to go and buy the table and my petrol to drive around buying the spare parts. But it is a hobby, not a business, so I love doing it. And my real reward is the phone call the next day saying "Thank you - we stayed up very, very late just playing a few LPs over and over again!" And saving another human being from going to Crossley hell...
/cue small violins playing the self-pity lament/
Why my rant? Because I am, more and more, starting to see a POS TT on Gumtree for, say R150, and then it is gone - only be to be put back up by the new owner-entrepeneur, less than 1 hour later, at 6 to 8 times the price, and obviously without having done *anything* to it, except to say "the needle is still good." The poor kid who buys this thing - even a new Crossley may have been a better buy!
Maybe it is just me... :fuse:
/cue small violins playing the self-pity lament/
Why my rant? Because I am, more and more, starting to see a POS TT on Gumtree for, say R150, and then it is gone - only be to be put back up by the new owner-entrepeneur, less than 1 hour later, at 6 to 8 times the price, and obviously without having done *anything* to it, except to say "the needle is still good." The poor kid who buys this thing - even a new Crossley may have been a better buy!
Maybe it is just me... :fuse:
