Greetings,
I feel like I just hit the ground from a 2009 time machine. I can't believe how much the hobby of collecting boomboxes has changed and grown.
I started around 2005 or so and by 2009 I had over 40 radios in my collection. I was a successful small business person and the money was good. I owned two Sharp GF-777's, a Panasonic RX-7200, Pioneer SK-900, and at least a dozen more Holy Grail units. My collection was extremely clean and well maintained. I was a member of stereo2go and everyone there was awesome.
Then the 2009 global financial crisis hit and I lost everything nearly overnight. By 2010 I had to mass liquidate my entire boombox collection for a criminally low price. I was able to keep my 5 favorite radios. Only two higher-end radios survived - my Sharp GF-515 and my Realistic SCR-8. The other 3 were plain Jane units that had emotional value.
For years, I couldn't even look at a radio without feeling sick. Year after year, I felt like I was on the outside looking in on the hobby. It felt far removed from my life.
In 2022, my buddy bought me a brand new $15 Retekess PR-15 pocket radio. I felt joy. Little Chinese radios were dirt cheap and took up little space in my very tiny home. I started collecting them and within a year I had a small box full of Christmas cracker radios. Those cheap little radios made me so happy. In short, those pocket radios were the gateway to getting back into the hobby.
A few weeks ago I went through storage boxes and dug out my GF-515, SCR-8, GE 3-5252A, Panasonic RX-F4, and my Realistic SCR-9 (the first boom box I bought in 1983). Also went on to eBay and bought a pristine Realistic Minisette 12 and a super clean Panasonic RX-5010 in need of belts.
Expensive radios like the GF-777 are out of reach but man am I glad to have fallen in love with boomboxes again.
Long story short, I am overjoyed to be here.
Jam_On_It
(Tom)
I feel like I just hit the ground from a 2009 time machine. I can't believe how much the hobby of collecting boomboxes has changed and grown.
I started around 2005 or so and by 2009 I had over 40 radios in my collection. I was a successful small business person and the money was good. I owned two Sharp GF-777's, a Panasonic RX-7200, Pioneer SK-900, and at least a dozen more Holy Grail units. My collection was extremely clean and well maintained. I was a member of stereo2go and everyone there was awesome.
Then the 2009 global financial crisis hit and I lost everything nearly overnight. By 2010 I had to mass liquidate my entire boombox collection for a criminally low price. I was able to keep my 5 favorite radios. Only two higher-end radios survived - my Sharp GF-515 and my Realistic SCR-8. The other 3 were plain Jane units that had emotional value.
For years, I couldn't even look at a radio without feeling sick. Year after year, I felt like I was on the outside looking in on the hobby. It felt far removed from my life.
In 2022, my buddy bought me a brand new $15 Retekess PR-15 pocket radio. I felt joy. Little Chinese radios were dirt cheap and took up little space in my very tiny home. I started collecting them and within a year I had a small box full of Christmas cracker radios. Those cheap little radios made me so happy. In short, those pocket radios were the gateway to getting back into the hobby.
A few weeks ago I went through storage boxes and dug out my GF-515, SCR-8, GE 3-5252A, Panasonic RX-F4, and my Realistic SCR-9 (the first boom box I bought in 1983). Also went on to eBay and bought a pristine Realistic Minisette 12 and a super clean Panasonic RX-5010 in need of belts.
Expensive radios like the GF-777 are out of reach but man am I glad to have fallen in love with boomboxes again.
Long story short, I am overjoyed to be here.
Jam_On_It
(Tom)
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