1 /5 David Guthrie: I had an interesting* experience at this place when I stopped in to look around. I asked about a vintage Tascam 122 cassette deck on the shelf and the large man behind the counter told me to bring it over so he could plug it in to test it. He said that it was marked down—50% off—and the asking price was $150. When he plugged it in, neither the power indicator lamp or VU meter lights were working and he couldn’t find a cassette to test any of the functions. The thing had definitely seen better days and I expressed that buying it would be a big risk without testing it first. Most vintage gear needs expensive repair work, especially cassette decks. So I said “How about $100?”. Nope. $150 plus tax. “How about $150 including tax?” As I spoke he was looking down at his phone. He quickly said. “No. I’ll just put it on eBay.” So I said, ok, I’ll do $150 plus tax.” But he flat refused and that was the end of any discussion. He said he just looked it up and one was listed for parts at over $200. He said “I offered it for $150 and you didn’t take it so now I’m selling it on eBay.” To be clear, I never said no to his offer. I just asked if he would accept a lower price. There is a big difference. It was really weird. Our exchange had been friendly and pleasant right up until he suddenly became hostile, as if I had offended him just by trying to negotiate. Anyway, that was that. End of conversation. He didn’t offer it to me for a higher price and instead just acted like it had never been for sale. There wasn’t much to do but turn around and walk out. I have zero regrets. It would have been foolish to pay that price for a beat up old cassette deck without testing its functionality first. It’s certainly not the way I want to be treated as a customer but in this case the a-hole behind the counter did me a favor! But I certainly won’t be setting foot in that place again.
