Tools of a gentleman

[spc]

OK, so I may not be a gentleman 100% of the time, but I know how to put on a pretty good act...
Anyway, a few tools of the trade that I've recently acquired:

A Pfeilring 3-way cigar cutter, with Solingen blade.  The fixed blade is a Raleigh Tabor custom.

This is a serious big boy toy.  A 14k gold plated Dunhill Rollagas lighter.  Retail is ~$650, I paid $50. 

[bill14224]

Very nice, but I wonder why this is on a motorcycle forum.  Something tells me your lighter is a knock-off.  That's too cheap for something that retails for six bills.  If you paid three hundred I'd be inclined to believe it's the real thing, but not for fifty bucks.

[tt_four]

It's not in a motorcycle forum, it's in an Odds and Ends forums. That's fair game. I've gotten some pretty nice stuff for cheap, and I've sold nice stuff for cheap just because someone was a friend, or I didn't feel like dealing with it. I've also sold plenty of junk on ebay for 99cents that I wanted a LOT more money for, but if no one bids, that's what I end up with.

[spc]

You're obviously not familiar with Dunhill.  There are no respectable knock offs.  It is quite real.
It was a thrift shop find, just like my Hugh Mesibov one-off etching for which a gallery offered me $2000.  I assume you'll think that the etching is fake as well since I paid $5??  You would, again, be quite wrong.  Actually, the artist was rather excited to see that this piece was still alive when I contacted him for authentication.

[spc]

Evening refreshments

[The Buddha]

GW, thrift, flea and CL is full of clueless morons. Sadly this can work both in your favor, or completely against you.

You can pick up seriously cool stuff for dirt cheap, better yet, they cannot tell when its working and not working. I bought a "dead onkyo integra tx sv 909pro" for cheap with original remote etc etc ... it is a 262 watt a channel home theater amp that will blow away 5g stuff made today. Its a 01-02 make super cool, and it was dead, cos in 1 of the surround modes it didn't send sound to the rear channels that the genius connected hin speakers to. Yes, in "live" mode, it doesn't send sound to rear. Gee ... maybe its meant to make you think you're standing @ a "live" concert where all the music is in front of you. Oh, yea, the guy never tested it in any other mode. I fixed it in his driveway with his little speakers still connected by pressing a button, the right arrow button. I then left it sitting there while the fool cranked it to 8 and had his speakers decimated.

I got those free ... guess what they were ... bang and olufsen. I come home and remove the covers and ruin the glue on the cover ... they look fine. I open them - fuse - blown. I go huh ... sure enough put the right 7.5 amp one in, and it works perfect. Metal cabinet little guys that really sound great albeit handle less than 50-60W.

Of course for every one of those, there is 10 clowns selling white van garbage for 1500 bucks cos the cover says retail of 3500. Better yet is the fool that says, man this thing sells on fleabay for 1000's, and he has the printout. Except he's missed the model and the thing is sitting there asking 1000's ... completed auctions barely break a few 100. I know one guy who's selling a pioneer sx-890 with a printout from a SX-1980. Not even close, 1980 is 260 watt a channel 6 speaker output made in very small numbers and an 890 is a 40 watt POS. Yea, the "pichuuurrr loook jus liek dat" yea ... sure. 1000 bucks @ your podunk town flea market ... aint happenin even if you did have a 1980.

Anyway I navigate around the greedy fools, and buy from the clueless.

Old electronics is where there is a lot of ignorance, and I can easily see how it translates to art/accessories like these. Some GW and thrifts set a policy - if it doesn't sell in 2 weeks price gets 1/2 ed. Sorta find its market if you will.

Anyway getting educated is the key. You like somehting, better bone up on it. The pretty stuff may be over produced and worth a lot less than something that was not that common but uglier.

Cool.
Buddha.

[Firewalker]

I too have found some great deals on used electroics.  Recently had my crappy sub blow in my home surround system.  It was a pawn shop find that was crap when it was made but gave some low end.....very little. 

Anyway, cruising CL for more stuff I don't really need....

Found a velodyne 12" powered sub.  The guy said he wanted $100 which was fair enough.  Went to see it and he was an audiophile since way back when.  We shot the breeze about electronics and the progress made from pro logic to AC3 to 7.2.  Anyway, The guy was cool as a fan and had serious coin.  The sub that replaced this one was $3000.

He sold me that sub for $75 cuz it was going to a good home.....and gave me a TV stand to get it out of his office.

Good stuff!

I used to go to the pawn shop and see the clearance table of "broken-as is" stuff.  Bought 4 car amps that were "damaged".  No fried smell....took them apart and it was fuses inside (tube type)  One was DOA......but 3 good amps for 12 bucks is not bad.  I like messing with the stuff even if I can't fix em all.  The success rate is pretty high considering my minimal test equipment.  Multi meter and a soldering iron....magnifying glass at times...

Anyway, had to throw my $.02 in there.

Congrats on the Dunhill.....

[The Buddha]

Oh Firewalker you're gonna cry ...

I too have a velo - SC1250i is the name 12inch active front firing woofer and a down firing 15 passive, watch the July 4th fireworks in it and it will change your life ... well you need a good amp like my oink or the dsp 3090 yammie I am currently using.

Here is why you're gonna cry.
I got that in close to good shape ... but rear legs missing, esle perfect, a 4 pack of linaeum optimus'es, 2 floor standers wiht 2 8's and top firing linaeum tweeter, in perfect shape wth 1 edge broken on 1 top cover - that's it and a set of the 12 X 12 X 16 size with 10 inch kevlar woofer top firing linaeum in perfect shape and all this cost me the healthy amount of 50 bones. GW clowns ... BTW I snagged them 5 mins after they put em out. The guy in back as he was loading said, "oh man I just sit these out front".

It replaced the Polk psw 50 sub which frankly was out classed by the 20 buck 1958 Electrovoice sp12's ... so bad that I had to swap the EV's for an ess tempest pair just so it will have crappy bass, so the polk sub wont feel rattly ...
Now I had to pull the sub deeper into the room, sitting the thing closer to the fronts made it feel like the house was going to fall down.

I love buying audio that "dont work" and fixing it in front of them. I bought an onkyo tx3000 for $5 that wasn't making sound ... and fixed it ... by pressing the Tape/monitor button. I also fixed another by pressing the "fm mute" button and a third by pressing the "mute" button. That guy said, man at full volume it make very little sound, you barely hear it. I said OK sure 5 bucks its worth it in parts. Mute is 20 db down, not shut off in most amps. My kenny was full shut off though ... most of the rest is -20db.

Your dead sub - was it a KLH ? I had one of those sizzle upon plug in. What a POS. Suposedly it can catch fire @ operation. WTF if you were out, and left it powered on like people mostly do ... you could come back to see a burnt down house.

Cool.
Buddha.

[The Buddha]

Oh test equipment ... I bought a oscilloscope, a cap/resistor machine, a transistor tester ... all for 5 bucks with user manual, never mind I cant use a scope yet. The guy I bought it from says when I ask him how to use the scope ... you want me to show you how this big thing works - I say yes, he says, so you knwo what the little ones do ... I said yea ... he says teach me man, I dunno, I got all this crap from my old room mate who skip town. I went ... "dude you do electrical work" he said ... hell no. I said, dont worry about it then it take me too long to explain it.
Cool.
Buddha.

[Firewalker]

all this cost me the healthy amount of 50 bones.
Cool.
Buddha.

Wow!!!

Love that.

This sub that krapped on me was a Phillips or Magnavox that would have been included in a cheap theater package.  About the only sound you heard was "thump on" when you powered it up.  Picked it up for maybe $5 .... many years ago.

I think the velo I have may have the passive driver in it as well....not sure.  Even at 1/3 volume it's more bass then I would ever need.  Amazing!!!  She's a pig too....weighs around 80#.

Man, the scope and all the other test equipment would be cool to learn how to use.  I am setting up my barn to have a few different areas of work.  My main hobby is building furniture out of wood.  My woodshop has been in storage for 6 years so I am pretty jazzed about getting it out.  The main section will be for mechanics...wanting to restore an old muscle car with each of my sons....the other section will be straight up man cave/sports bar/grill.  It's a 40x40 barn so it should be plenty of space.

We totally hijacked this thread BTW.  Not very gentlemen of us?  Sorry OP

[The Buddha]

There is a audio meetup group in charlotte.
That velodyne seriously has handed me bragging rights on a platter.

However cool the heil's are, there is another guy who has a much much nicer set. Except he has 5-600 bones in it, including the cost of mailing the damn things to CA to get them all "factory right". Fine ... except the idiotic 12 woofer they put in it was crappy by 1977 standards, and today's 40 buck dayton dc300/315 will bury it.

The coolest crap I got is the velo, the oink 909, and the grommes g75. Cos no one has nothing even close. Home theater receivers, I got #1, #2 and #3 in our little group. No one knows what to buy, what to look for, and what to avoid. They cannot understand how a marantz 580 sounds better than the dsp 3090 for music, but gets killed in a HT setup by the yammie.

Look under the velo, 15 inch passive. Y'know you could put a high compliance 12 passive in front, and a high spl 15 in place of that passive. Or find a high spl, high Qts passive and put it in, and seal the front with a bar stool seat. Sealed cabinets sound waaaaay better if you have the woofer that is built for it. Qts of near about 1 should be a good starting point.

Y'know speakers are all about moving air. Much like a motor/carb/pipe combo. No wonder these things seel to speak to me ... oh wait a sec, that's zepellin saying "buying a stairway to heaven". Oh ... OK.

Spc we oughta thank him and apologise for the hijack ... we're talking man toys still.

Cool.
Buddha.

[spc]

I just sold 5 pressurized security camera housings for $500 that I paid $15 for at an auction.

[Firewalker]

Good flip Holmes!

[The Buddha]

Good flip Holmes!

Its not a flip. In fact I hate the word flip. Flip is when you buy something and sell it hoping to make $ at the time of sale mainly cos the market has changed not at the time you bought it cos you bought a under valued item.

Spc made his $ when he bought it. Its hard to describe it any better, but its totally counter intuitive. I have tried to explain it to my friend who seriously seems to get stupider by the minute. He also finds "water wetter" funny and a scam. Water is already wet ... how does this make it wetter. same clown also thinks "Pakisthan is in India".

Anyway, knowing what you're looking at is the key. Spc did in this case, several times what the seller knew.

BTW spc I thought you were all about drinking and chasing russian chicks. WTF happened to you.

Cool.
Buddha.

[spc]

I still enjoy a few drinks and a fine Russian specimen, I just enjoy some of the finer things as well these days

[The Buddha]

I still enjoy a few drinks and a fine Russian specimen, I just enjoy some of the finer things as well these days

Good to know you do count those 2 as 2 separate 1/2's of your preferences.

Cool.
Buddha.

[Firewalker]

Good flip Holmes!

Its not a flip. In fact I hate the word flip. Flip is when you buy something and sell it hoping to make $ at the time of sale mainly cos the market has changed not at the time you bought it cos you bought a under valued item.

Spc made his $ when he bought it. Its hard to describe it any better, but its totally counter intuitive. I have tried to explain it to my friend who seriously seems to get stupider by the minute. He also finds "water wetter" funny and a scam. Water is already wet ... how does this make it wetter. same clown also thinks "Pakisthan is in India".

Anyway, knowing what you're looking at is the key. Spc did in this case, several times what the seller knew.

BTW spc I thought you were all about drinking and chasing russian chicks. WTF happened to you.

Cool.
Buddha.

I think it is your right to hate the term flip.......but it is the same concept as turning...... such as I am going to buy these rifles to turn.  Same exact thing but different wording.  I see it as buying something that is undervalued with no other intent but to sell it for a quick profit.  He gained the potential for making money when he bought them...but he certainly spent money at that moment.  As you said, we look at it differently and that is why the world is not so boring of a place.

As far as water wetter, I am not sure how it actually gets wetter but there are products that decrease surface tension that help water to be more effective at what is is supposed to do.  Surfactant is one that comes to mind.  It is used by farmers as well as in the medical industry for treatment of premature neonates to get their lungs working.

I can't believe we are talking about this......!  Tired/worn out/gonna "flip" off the lights and go to bed.  Later man....

[spc]

Good to know you do count those 2 as 2 separate 1/2's of your preferences.

Cool.
Buddha.

Gotta keep em pretty separate, those Russky's will drink you under the table and if you're not on your guard, they'll handcuff you to their bed and leave you there for a day with a note about hoping they got pregnant so they can stay in the country...
Actually, it was recently pointed out, that based off my last several lady friends, I might have a death wish.
The current is an 18 year old with a Ranger, SGM father 
The one before that I broke things off with pretty quick, 17 (she lied about her age, I don't go below 18) and her dad was a SEAL 
The one before that was a shrink and I'm almost positive that her dad was a spook

[The Buddha]

Oh Fluck spc - now imagine what are the various other things that would fit in that cigar cutter you just bought for 5 bones. Now It dont seem like such a bargain now would it.

Firewalker: I wont say it was undervalued that was the whole point. In the situation it was in or owned or sold by the guy that it was currently owned by it was undervalued maybe. I just say, it was owned by someone who was clueless.

Cool.
Buddha.

[spc]

This one told me that Ranger/Dad smokes cigars as well.  Think that when I finally have to meet him, I'm gonna bring one the Cohibas made in Havana that I've been stashing in my humidor for an emergency.  That should be a decent peace offering.


Goin to the auction tonight.  Hopefully, I'll score more shaZam! to turn over for $$$$$