And you tossed your old Walkman away

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Ghostworld, Mar 4, 2015.

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  1. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    US
    Guardians of the Galaxy was such a hit that people are paying stupid/crazy money for the TPS-L2. Prior to the movie, I'm sure these sold for no more than $5 and nobody probably bought them. Now searching at your local thrift store...


    https://stackstreet.com/price-guardians-galaxy-walkman-skyrockets-ebay/

    A 1979 Sony TPS-L2 Walkman cassette player recently sold for $613 on virtual auction site eBay.com, and many more are currently listed. Another sold prior to that for $820 on eBay. Other bidders obtained less mint versions of the cassette player for $80 to $300.

    http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=SONY WALKMAN CASSETTE TPS-L2&_from=R40&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR3.TRC1.A0.H0.XSONY WALKMAN TPS-L2.TRS0&_nkw=SONY WALKMAN TPS-L2&ghostText=&_sacat=0
     
  2. dcottrell6

    dcottrell6 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Eastampton, NJ
    Not sure what's worse, the people who are selling them at ridiculous prices or the idiots paying the prices.:confused:
     
  3. BrewCrew82

    BrewCrew82 The Most Notable Member

    Location:
    Wisconsin
    Didn't they release a cassette version on Black Friday RSD?
     
    Master_It_Right likes this.
  4. telemike

    telemike Forum Resident

    Location:
    Greensboro, NC
    omg! $1200!!!!!!!!! FOR A WALKMAN!
     
  5. telemike

    telemike Forum Resident

    Location:
    Greensboro, NC
  6. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    FWIW, Walkman cassette players weren't that easy to find/cheap before "Guardians". I use one and when my old one died last May, I scoured eBay, Craigslist and thrift stores to find another - came up empty!

    You can still get cheapo cassette players easily, but good ones have been scarce/costly for a while...
     
  7. Jim T

    Jim T Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mars
    Why would you not buy a Tascam DR-07 II ($99) that records at 2496 and even fool with that. Step into the 21st century. Of course the guys selling only need 1 buyer.
     
    Drifter likes this.
  8. erniebert

    erniebert Shoe-string audiophile

    Location:
    Toronto area
    I had an original Sony Walkman. Sounded good. I also had a nice Aiwa. It had an EQ!
     
    2xUeL and thesisinbold like this.
  9. jjjos

    jjjos Forum Resident

    Location:
    Virginia
    Ha!! I have a TPS-L2 at home somewhere. Emphasis on "somewhere"...
     
  10. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    Good high end Walkmans particularly with boxes and accessories have never been either cheap or easy to find, I think there are quite a few people collecting them, low end ones are a different story, but even those aren't as common as they used to be, I probably see more mini disc ones than cassette these days.
     
  11. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    When my old player broke last year, I petitioned friends on Facebook to get a new one and landed a nice Aiwa! :)
     
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  12. russk

    russk Forum Resident

    Location:
    Syracuse NY
    Why not lol. I bought the LP
     
  13. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    US
    Yeah, the tape sold on RSD for I think $14 and were soon going on ebay for $50. I wanted one and dug around and found a statement by the company that they were still producing them per studio instructions, so that limited RSD version is not going to stay limited for long.
     
  14. Parkertown

    Parkertown Tawny Port

    Still rockin' the Maxell XL-II 90's...eh? :)
     
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  15. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Damn right! :righton:

    I still use cassettes for DVD audio commentaries - I tape 'em and listen to 'em in the car. Works for me! :)
     
    dartira, Shak Cohen and Parkertown like this.
  16. Master_It_Right

    Master_It_Right Forum Resident

    I still have my old AIWA portable cassette deck that was stored away in our basement for years. I got a tape for $0.25 with some old 60s songs on it and dug out the deck to listen to the tape. I didn't think it sounded terrible, but nowhere near as good as my TT. I'll have to start buying cassettes again if they're cheaper than vinyl or sound better than the CD.

    I still don't miss when tapes would come unwound and I would have to sit there and wind them all back up.


    Wow just noticed the tape of Guardians Of The Galaxy soundtrack is $60 on Amazon. WTH???
     
  17. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    Given that these are auctions, you need more than one interested party.

    As for you question, why would anyone by a VW Bug when you can buy a modern car for the same amount that is far more reliable, efficient and green? Answer? Because a Bug is cool.
     
    The Trinity, Dino and 56GoldTop like this.
  18. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    US
    Jim, the reason they're paying so much is the movie tie-in to Guardians of the Galaxy. It has nothing to do with sound quality or music. It's more a prop collector thing for fanboys of the film. There are old car engine parts that guys pay hundreds for because they were the parts used to build the original Star Wars lightsabers!
     
    nbakid2000 and Dino like this.
  19. dividebytube

    dividebytube Forum Resident

    Location:
    Grand Rapids, MI
    That brings back the memories - my dad bought me the original Walkman when I was ten.
     
    2xUeL likes this.
  20. Clipper Sylvania

    Clipper Sylvania L'écharpe d'abricot

    I never threw my Walkmans away!

    I'm terrified of putting any cassettes that I still have in them because neither have been used since roughly 1996, but the capacity has been retained. What warning signs should I be looking out for if I choose to resurrect my old Walkman?
     
    Vinyl Addict likes this.
  21. 2xUeL

    2xUeL Forum Philosopher

    Location:
    Albany, NY
    My friend had an Aiwa walkman, this is circa 1995, with a 3-band EQ and a really nice sounding bass boost. With these certain $40 headphones they sold at Radio Shack, I think they were Realistic or Koss, anyway they sounded really good and all my friends had them at the time and with this Aiwa walkman the bass was crazy for headphones.
     
    erniebert likes this.
  22. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    US
    I sold stereos back in the 80s and 90s and we all really liked Aiwa portables.
     
    erniebert likes this.
  23. TarnishedEars

    TarnishedEars Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Seattle area
    Way back then I had (and still have somewhere) an old JVC unit which even featured both 70us eq, and dolby B. It was a very nice unit in its day.
     
  24. Donniej

    Donniej Senior Member

    Yikes. I had a early Walkman like this when I was little and took it apart to play with the motor and stuff inside.
     
  25. 500Homeruns

    500Homeruns Peaceful Punk

    Location:
    Lehigh Valley, PA
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