Note: Please excuse the length of this post but this story deserves the proper telling.
This past January I finally got a c-100. I'd been wanting this iconic boombox for a long time but every time I saw one up for sale it was out of my budget. I finally found one on sale locally off of Craigslist for a good price ($500) and in good condition. Although It wasn't anywhere near mint and the exterior was showing its age, it sounded absolutely great. Needless to say I was extremely happy.
Then one Friday night, about a week after getting my new prized possession, I was randomly searching Craigslist. Ever so often I run a search of all the major cities in the country to see what's out there. Well, as I was scrolling through the hundreds of listings, I saw this image attached to a sale out of Atlanta, GA with the asking price of $500.
I couldn't believe what I was looking at and I immediately assumed it was a joke. I emailed the seller and simply asked, "Is this still available?" Since I thought it was a joke, I really didn't think I would ever get a response. The next morning I got this email from a man named Bob:
I not only was shocked to get a response but based on the tone of the email, I really got the since that it was a legitimate listing being made by someone from a generation gone by. I responded by telling him that I was a boombox collector and was extremely interested in adding his boombox to my collection. I also attached pictures from last summer's Venice Beach boombox meet so he could see that I was a legit collector and not someone that was looking to flip it. I also asked him if he could send me more pictures of the radio. He sent me these:
I was speechless. This thing had literally sat in a box untouched by human hands or even the sunlight for 32 years. It's the closest thing to going back in time as you can get. I asked him how the radio survived so many years in this pristine condition, he told me that this radio was the floor model at his brother-in-law's electronics store and that the bottom tape deck stopped working so his brother-in-law packed it up and didn't try to sell it. When the store's lease was up he packed up shop and took somethings with him including the c-100. In 2009 his brother-in-law was diagnosed with terminal cancer and decided to leave the U.S. and return to Korea to be laid to rest. Before he left, he called Bob and asked him to clear out his belongings from his apartment in LA. At this point, Bob was living in Las Vegas. So Bob made the drive and picked up his belongings including a "big box" with a radio in it, which he stored away in a closet. In 2010, Bob and his wife moved to Atlanta, GA where the box continued to rest safely in a closet. This past January, Bob and his wife decided that by the end of the year they would to move to Korea and retire on the beach. So he began looking through their belongings and decide what they would keep and what needed to be sold. He came across that "big box" and thought he would sell it and take whatever money he made to his brother-in-law's widow in Korea. He figured she'd be happy with $500 so that's what he asked for. To his surprise, his listing garnered a lot of attention and multiple offers above his asking price. He thought the only fair thing to do was ask everyone to submit their one time best offer and sell it to the highest bidder. I asked if he would give me the opportunity to beat the highest offer but he said that wouldn't be fair to the others. So I had about 48 hours to come up with the right offer and more importantly, find a way to convince my wife not to leave me if I actually landed this deal.
So I immediately turned to my boys in the Westcoast crew for advice on what should my offer be. They all said that I needed to offer $1,500 if I wanted a realistic shot at landing this deal. I knew they were right but I had a hard time dealing with that number because that was three times more than I had spent on any box. So the weekend went by and the negotiations with my wife stalled at offering $800. An hour before Bob's 10:00 a.m. Monday morning offer deadline I was engaged in intense negotiations with my wife that got her up to $1,100. But because I only had one shot at an offer, I knew that I really needed to offer $1,500. So 30 minutes before his deadline my phone rings and it's an Atlanta number calling me. Since I had given my number to Bob in my initial email I new it was him calling. He asked me if I was still interested in the radio. I said yes but that my wife and I were having a difference of opinion on what to offer. He said he totally understood because he was married for over 40 years. We talked for about 20 minutes and he told me something that shocked me and convinced me that I needed to offer him my top offer. He said that he was not trying to take advantage of anybody and had decided to sell it on Craigslist and not eBay because he had a philosophical problem with eBay because that platform is structured to price out the common person and in the end only rich people can truly win. He said that if my offer was significantly higher then the second highest offer he received, he wouldn't take my full offer. He'd just take $100 over the second highest offer. At that point I knew what I had to do. I got off the phone with him, told my wife and sent in my offer of $1,500. He called me 10 minutes later and said, "Well Howard, congratulations, you got it!" I was jumping up and down. I was on a boombox high. Then he told me, "But I can't accept your full offer. The second highest offer was $1,000 so let's do the deal for $1,100." I was surprised and told him that I was a man of my word and that I was willing to pay the full amount I offered. He said no, he wouldn't feel right taking that much and that he was fine with $1,100. This seemed unreal to me. To say that Bob comes from a different generation with different values and principles than today's is an understatement. I even offered to send him some money as a deposit and he said, "You don't have to do that, I trust you." Unreal!
Now the issue I had was, "How was I going to get it to me?" There is no way I was going to use conventional shipping methods. This radio was too precious and there's no way this thing survived 32 years just to be smashed by some 20 year old UPS worker. Chris (Lasonic TRC-920) gave me the idea of contacting a shipping company to double box it and build a wooden crate for it. I found a company in Atlanta that would do that for $400. Shortly after getting this shipping quote, Bob contacting me and said that if I could wait 5 months he was traveling to Colorado in June for his nephew's wedding and he'd be willing to meet me somewhere in the southwest. I told my wife and she suggested that we'd plan a summer trip to the Grand Canyon and meet him somewhere nearby. I told Bob and he suggested we meet in Albuquerque, New Mexico which was only a 4 hour drive from Flagstaff, AZ. A big part of me didn't want to wait 5 months but another part of me wanted this story to end with a picture of me and Bob and the minty c-100. So I decided to wait and on this past Father's Day June 19th, here is the end result.
Truly a once in a lifetime story. The boombox gods were looking down on me. This just shows you that these relics are still out there. With a little luck, an understanding wife and an amazing guy like Bob, boombox dreams do come true.
Needless to say, I had a good night sleep on Father's Day 2016!
This past January I finally got a c-100. I'd been wanting this iconic boombox for a long time but every time I saw one up for sale it was out of my budget. I finally found one on sale locally off of Craigslist for a good price ($500) and in good condition. Although It wasn't anywhere near mint and the exterior was showing its age, it sounded absolutely great. Needless to say I was extremely happy.
Then one Friday night, about a week after getting my new prized possession, I was randomly searching Craigslist. Ever so often I run a search of all the major cities in the country to see what's out there. Well, as I was scrolling through the hundreds of listings, I saw this image attached to a sale out of Atlanta, GA with the asking price of $500.
I couldn't believe what I was looking at and I immediately assumed it was a joke. I emailed the seller and simply asked, "Is this still available?" Since I thought it was a joke, I really didn't think I would ever get a response. The next morning I got this email from a man named Bob:
I not only was shocked to get a response but based on the tone of the email, I really got the since that it was a legitimate listing being made by someone from a generation gone by. I responded by telling him that I was a boombox collector and was extremely interested in adding his boombox to my collection. I also attached pictures from last summer's Venice Beach boombox meet so he could see that I was a legit collector and not someone that was looking to flip it. I also asked him if he could send me more pictures of the radio. He sent me these:
I was speechless. This thing had literally sat in a box untouched by human hands or even the sunlight for 32 years. It's the closest thing to going back in time as you can get. I asked him how the radio survived so many years in this pristine condition, he told me that this radio was the floor model at his brother-in-law's electronics store and that the bottom tape deck stopped working so his brother-in-law packed it up and didn't try to sell it. When the store's lease was up he packed up shop and took somethings with him including the c-100. In 2009 his brother-in-law was diagnosed with terminal cancer and decided to leave the U.S. and return to Korea to be laid to rest. Before he left, he called Bob and asked him to clear out his belongings from his apartment in LA. At this point, Bob was living in Las Vegas. So Bob made the drive and picked up his belongings including a "big box" with a radio in it, which he stored away in a closet. In 2010, Bob and his wife moved to Atlanta, GA where the box continued to rest safely in a closet. This past January, Bob and his wife decided that by the end of the year they would to move to Korea and retire on the beach. So he began looking through their belongings and decide what they would keep and what needed to be sold. He came across that "big box" and thought he would sell it and take whatever money he made to his brother-in-law's widow in Korea. He figured she'd be happy with $500 so that's what he asked for. To his surprise, his listing garnered a lot of attention and multiple offers above his asking price. He thought the only fair thing to do was ask everyone to submit their one time best offer and sell it to the highest bidder. I asked if he would give me the opportunity to beat the highest offer but he said that wouldn't be fair to the others. So I had about 48 hours to come up with the right offer and more importantly, find a way to convince my wife not to leave me if I actually landed this deal.
So I immediately turned to my boys in the Westcoast crew for advice on what should my offer be. They all said that I needed to offer $1,500 if I wanted a realistic shot at landing this deal. I knew they were right but I had a hard time dealing with that number because that was three times more than I had spent on any box. So the weekend went by and the negotiations with my wife stalled at offering $800. An hour before Bob's 10:00 a.m. Monday morning offer deadline I was engaged in intense negotiations with my wife that got her up to $1,100. But because I only had one shot at an offer, I knew that I really needed to offer $1,500. So 30 minutes before his deadline my phone rings and it's an Atlanta number calling me. Since I had given my number to Bob in my initial email I new it was him calling. He asked me if I was still interested in the radio. I said yes but that my wife and I were having a difference of opinion on what to offer. He said he totally understood because he was married for over 40 years. We talked for about 20 minutes and he told me something that shocked me and convinced me that I needed to offer him my top offer. He said that he was not trying to take advantage of anybody and had decided to sell it on Craigslist and not eBay because he had a philosophical problem with eBay because that platform is structured to price out the common person and in the end only rich people can truly win. He said that if my offer was significantly higher then the second highest offer he received, he wouldn't take my full offer. He'd just take $100 over the second highest offer. At that point I knew what I had to do. I got off the phone with him, told my wife and sent in my offer of $1,500. He called me 10 minutes later and said, "Well Howard, congratulations, you got it!" I was jumping up and down. I was on a boombox high. Then he told me, "But I can't accept your full offer. The second highest offer was $1,000 so let's do the deal for $1,100." I was surprised and told him that I was a man of my word and that I was willing to pay the full amount I offered. He said no, he wouldn't feel right taking that much and that he was fine with $1,100. This seemed unreal to me. To say that Bob comes from a different generation with different values and principles than today's is an understatement. I even offered to send him some money as a deposit and he said, "You don't have to do that, I trust you." Unreal!
Now the issue I had was, "How was I going to get it to me?" There is no way I was going to use conventional shipping methods. This radio was too precious and there's no way this thing survived 32 years just to be smashed by some 20 year old UPS worker. Chris (Lasonic TRC-920) gave me the idea of contacting a shipping company to double box it and build a wooden crate for it. I found a company in Atlanta that would do that for $400. Shortly after getting this shipping quote, Bob contacting me and said that if I could wait 5 months he was traveling to Colorado in June for his nephew's wedding and he'd be willing to meet me somewhere in the southwest. I told my wife and she suggested that we'd plan a summer trip to the Grand Canyon and meet him somewhere nearby. I told Bob and he suggested we meet in Albuquerque, New Mexico which was only a 4 hour drive from Flagstaff, AZ. A big part of me didn't want to wait 5 months but another part of me wanted this story to end with a picture of me and Bob and the minty c-100. So I decided to wait and on this past Father's Day June 19th, here is the end result.
Truly a once in a lifetime story. The boombox gods were looking down on me. This just shows you that these relics are still out there. With a little luck, an understanding wife and an amazing guy like Bob, boombox dreams do come true.
Needless to say, I had a good night sleep on Father's Day 2016!
