So how did you get your start collecting bbx's/walkmans !!!!

[baddboybill]

Not sure if this was ever a topic but I figured I would give it a try: so I was sitting bored because of being on workmans comp with an injury... Looking for something to do I took my Lasonic TRC975 from a shelf collecting dust and thought maybe I could add some speakers or something to make it cooler well I 1st tested her out and noticed the right channel breaking up so I opened it up to see what the problem could be. I narrowed it down to a loose rca input connection for cd. So I fired up soldering iron and checked to see about adding little mid range speakers. I then resoldered joints and tested and it worked 100%.... I then cleaned unit all up including deoxiting switches and pots. Got out all dead bugs and painted speakers because of yellow/ brown smoking stains. I shined it all up and got it working and looking beautiful again then I decided to go on eBay to check out if these things sold there. Wouldn't you know it but exact same Lasonic trc975 box that was clean just sold for $800... I nearly crapped my pants. Well then I started to look at others and had a tough time remembering my very 1st stereo bbx but then I found one on eBay for $40 shipped from Wisconsin. Very clean and 100% working Panasonic RX5010 so I had to have it so I bid. Few days later I won it well I knew my sons mom (wife at time) would not go for me buying a used bbx on eBay. So I said it came from a garage sale so that was the start of my collecting

 

[mellymelsr]

I got my start collecting kind of by accident. I was bored one day and searching ebay for all sorts of miscellaneous items and decided to type in boombox to see what turned up. I really didn't expect to see much as the type of boomboxes I remembered were 30 years old. To my surprise there were pages and pages of boomboxes available. I then started searching for my childhood dream box...the M70. There was very clean example for $99 bin and I was shocked to find a working one so I bought it without hesitation.

When it arrived I was so excited I couldn't wait to tear it open and see if it sounded the way I remembered. I didn't expect a fully functioning, perfect working machine. It was dusty and smelled funny, but other than that it sounded wonderful. To this day it is my most used M70 (I have 5) and still works 100%. I use it at the gym, at the park, in the garage, in the backyard...everywhere. I am amazed that a 30 year old electronic device still functions and performs like new. Once I had that M70 I had the bug really bad!! I now have all the personal grails from my childhood (M70, M90, and M9994k) and love my collection. These boomboxes take me back to some of my best childhood memories, so this accidental hobby was truly a great find.

 

[Zippy]

I don't know where exactly my passion for boomers started. Maybe even before I had my first boombox, 'cause I always hated stupid cellphone-sound although I liked the idea of being able to kick tunes where-ever you go. I remember that even as a child I always wanted to put batteries in a cassette player and take it outside in the garden. Of course back then I had no idea of boomboxes - wrong generation, and the village I grew up in was probably also the wrong place. What I had in mind later was hanging out with friends somewhere in the wild, enjoy the sun, drink beer, have a barbecue and listen to some tunes. I wanted something to plug my mp3-player into but I'm not a fan of Apple and definitely didn't want some stupid docking station. Wouldn't have been much better than a cellphone anyway. When I found out these old devices had line-in I just thought that's the way to go! So I bought my first one on ebay. Of course I had no clue so the first thing I bought was a big but rather cheap three-piecer. Despite not being of high quality it was great, just for the idea. After a while I figured it would be cool to have one with working tape decks, just for the fun of it. And maybe also something more comfortable to carry. And slightly cooler looks. So the next thing I got myself was a Clatronic Super Jumbo. No upgrade in sound quality, but definitely a step forward. Then it got a little out of control, I just bought whatever I could get for little money, which is a rather typical stage of boombox addiction I guess. Like getting to know the differences. Finding out what's good. And learning where to expect solid sound quality. Now I'm selling some of the cheaper stuff including most of my three-piecers to make place for future acquisitions

 

[stormsven]

Then it got a little out of control, I just bought whatever I could get for little money, which is a rather typical stage of boombox addiction I guess. Like getting to know the differences. Finding out what's good. And learning where to expect solid sound quality. Now I'm selling some of the cheaper stuff including most of my three-piecers to make place for future acquisitions

Same story here. But i was teenager during the 80s and i allways have some boombox with me all this years. Later start to buying JVC boomblasters and some Sony sports. But allways i was selling the older one. Never have more than 2 in one time.
So how ive started - it was last december. We are making party in my villa in regular basis. I have here a dj boot with pioneers and some actve speakers (with 2600 whats peak power ). Why im typing about peak power - im big fan of LED level indicators (even bought a Mackie mixer about cool lookin blue leds ) so you know when i was playing music i was kickin the butt of my active speakers to look how the red leds on the back were lid . It can sound strange but im fan of slightly distorted sound anyway (my type of music is tech and techno mostly) . So about new year eve party i was thinking how cool will be to hoock up some old blasters with leds just to add some to the atmosphere of the VJ ing work and blitz. Started to ask frends for help to find some old blasters.... So first few boomers arrived and i was bitten.... And just remembered the nice soft sound of this old wariors. Remembered the cardboard and drying fast batteries from boomin break and disco... Remembered how we use to spin cassettes whit a pencil to save some battery. And there is no turning back i think. Im collecting just 4 moths but thinking how to make more room for boomers. Already moved my dj boot (it was so much room eater ) . Im listening just boomboxes. My 4 active speakers are staying like some old guardians from the sides of the boomers. Have found some old disco ball as well. And im not goin total 80s but im goin to use 80s glory to have best of than and now. Never realized that i can find so many good boxes here. Already sold the first cheap boxes ive bought (around 17 are gone ) and now have 14 keepers (actually waiting for the next 15th - Crown 950 tomorrow). So thats so far. Im into cassettes as well. But unfortunately people was not saving lot of them . But have some nice scores too.
And i was loving boxes all this years. Its not something new to me. Just started to collect em now. And love em
The strange thing - even now im thinking to sell all good ones with VU's and keep buying just whit LEDs. But love all of them, so - no way Proabably DJ's LED sickness -but fighting with that . But any offer for trade - one of mine whit VU's for something with LED is goin to tempt me .
So thats my not so smart and not interesting (even little sick) story .

 

[blu_fuz]

My post from "box history" thread:

I bought my BBX from the original owner almost 2 years ago. Though he had passed away, he did take care of his electronics because the house was full of them.

After he passed away his sister was supposed to sell everything off that was in the house. She had listed some snow blowers on craigslist and we made the 2hr trip to the house to check them out.

This was in the dead of winter on a super cold and windy day. We arrived and were given a flashlight and directed to the basement where the snowblowers lay in pieces. These hadn't been touched in years and were very old. I told her that they just weren't what we were looking for. I thought it was going to be a wasted trip because we were already on our way out after just a minute or two.

There was no electricity on in the house and no heat! As we are walking out with the flashlight I can see that there are about 6-8 more people walking around the house picking through things. I asked the lady what was going on and she informed us about her brother passing and that everything was for sale. She told us to walk around and if we found anything we wanted to just make an offer on it.

After walking through everything I saw the Dynasty HT-959 sitting in the middle of the upstairs living room. I remember thinking "that looks cool" and "there are some buttons missing". I wanted to plug it in, but like I said, no power and no heat were in the house. I picked it up and grabbed the power cord that was sitting next to it on the floor knowing I might buy it and it probably wouldn't work.

My wife says "what are you going to do with that?" I told her I didn't know but it was neat so I was going to see how much the lady wanted for it.

On the way back downstairs I saw a trickle charger for car batteries and I grabbed that too. There was a lot of cassette tapes, recievers, speakers, and just random electronics stacked everywhere up stairs. No other boomboxes that I remember, but again, I wasn't looking for any because I didn't know how awesome this find would turn out to be.

We made it downstairs, stopped by the lady, and told here we were ready to make a deal. Mind you, I really didn't want the boombox unless the price was CHEAP, more curious to see how much she wanted. I offered her $10 for both items and she counter offered at $15.

Walked out with it giggling like a 10yr old school girl saying "what am I going to do with this thing?!" haha - Now a couple years later, I am here fixing it up instead of having it as a paper weight. If I only would have known then what I know now, there probably was a lot of other very rare or very valuable electronics in that house. Long gone now, but I saved a piece of history.

 

[ahardb0dy]

I don't really collect them. I bought my 880 brand new and never got rid of it, than after finding stereo2go and not wanting to have only one, LOL I bought a Aiwa 600 from E-bay, only reason I bought it was it is mint and it cost me $26 !, the rest of the boxes I have now were given to me by great friends on here. Thanks Ira & Freddie !!

 

[teamstress]

Funny it's hard to pinpoint. I've had three since 98, Pana 1234, Magna 8443, Kaboom rbv90; so that sorta started it.
Then surfing eBay in '08-ish, found my personal grail GE 3-6000, and it's mushroomed from there.

 

[baddboybill]

These are some cool stories thanks guys for the great stories but I am sure there are more out there who else can tell us how you got your start collecting these wonderful pieces of history And yes these bbx's are our history as most of us has already shared

 

[Radio 80's FM]

My mum, bless he heart used to turn us loose at flea markets with $5 and we had to learn to BARGAIN to get what we want.
This put me in good stead for my "teenage" years.
When I was not even a teenager (Primary school) I lived in "the bush" and we were not millionaires. So to get all the things the "rich" kids had, I had to trade.
I sometimes traded something for another thing and that for someting else and so on. Basically brokering the "swaps" to eventually get what I wanted.
Well a kid I knew had a Boomer. I know it was a huge silver sharp, probably a GF-767 (did they sell them in Aus? - his folks moved hear from overseas so maybe brought it with them). To cut a long story short, I traded him a land yacht for it (yeah, that took a few swaps!!!).
I LOVED THAT BOX! It was HEAVY but I'd tie it to my bike and take it everwhere. Olds used to get pissed when I wanted to take it on family trips (we could take it but would probably have to leave one of my sisters at home - no loss in my eyes). I used to love the SW bands, esp the scrambed burst comms (sounded like Star wars droid talk).I also used to fix radios I found at the dump (remember, I was about 10-12 years old) and sell / swap them. Used to spin my teachers out as they couldn't even put batteries in them without a 10 page instruction book.
Well, eventually we moved back to the big smoke BUT my box never made it back!!! My dear ole mum gave it away with 90% of my other "junk" to my friends.
There was a hole in my heart. All the CD players and stereos I owned since then never gave me the joy my boomer did!
Sooooooo.......I recently started to search for a boomer. Saw a Discolite on ebay and the bug bit!!!
I remebered that while I lived in Japan there were 80's electronics getting thrown out every gommi day!
Looked on the web and found the first of my new collection my EA-900 (GF-909).
MORE ARE COMING!

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

Much like most, I had blasters as a teen back in the 80's but I think the real reason I started collecting in the last few years is....

I really wanted a bunch of weirdo's on this website to think I was cool

The real question is....how am I doing?

 

[baddboybill]

Much like most, I had blasters as a teen back in the 80's but I think the real reason I started collecting in the last few years is....

I really wanted a bunch of weirdo's on this website to think I was cool

The real question is....how am I doing?

Apparently not so good if ya gotta ask JK Chris

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

Much like most, I had blasters as a teen back in the 80's but I think the real reason I started collecting in the last few years is....

I really wanted a bunch of weirdo's on this website to think I was cool

The real question is....how am I doing?

Apparently not so good if ya gotta ask JK Chris

Wow, I was expecting much worse!