Audio equipment that appreciated in value?

[RobL]

Most audio gear depreciates pretty quickly but I’ve owned a few pieces that I actually sold for more than I paid. A few Marantz receivers (2385, 2230, 2220), a McIntosh amp and preamp (MC2125 and C28), and a guitar amp (Valco Supro 16T) are the ones I remember.
I am seriously considering making the 7 hour drive to take a look at this piece - Clairtone Project G. Not because of it’s performance (almost certainly sounds wretched) but it’s a Canadian mid-century design masterpiece that will almost certainly appreciate in value.
Anyone else have any great audio investments they’ve made?

 

[Philbo King]

Studio microphones of certain types can appreciate dramatically

 

[levimax]

Any obsolete tube amp or obsolete LP I have purchased has gone up in value. SOTA may be engineered well and sound good but if you want appreciation you need to buy old and obsolete..... and of course something with some type of "collectors" appeal.

 

[AudioExplorer]

The Oppo UDP-205 player. Has appreciated significantly since Oppo stopped making these a few years ago.

 

[Oldac3]

I bought a McIntosh MC7106 and a McIntosh MX-119 HT controller just in the last 4 years. Both have risen in value quite a bit. The HT unit is especially interesting because those have been trending downwards until COVID. Also snagged a VPI Cliffwood turntable which has risen in value.
That console you are eying is gorgeous! The seller has to be on the high end of retail insofar as what he’s asking, though. Have you been able to get comparables to ascertain value?

 

[anmpr1]

Most audio gear depreciates pretty quickly but I’ve owned a few pieces that I actually sold for more than I paid.

Whenever you think in 'investment' terms, you have to consider inflation. Some gear 'appreciates' due to it's historical value. Old Mac, old Marantz, some old Mark Levinson. Dollar for dollars, has it kept up with inflation? Probably not.

No audio gear, as far as I know, will match, say, a late '50s Gibson Les Paul guitar, in terms of price appreciation v inflation. The last thing I would want, would be an old audio amplifier. However, I'd like a 1959 LP Standard.

On the other hand, if 'old' gear is selling for higher prices, it is because new gear has no real aesthetic appeal. I'd much rather have a 1977 monster Pioneer receiver than a brand new Topping whatever.

 

[pablolie]

You won't know until you try to sell it. If there was anything that consistently gains value, there'd be many millionaires in this forum

If you want to make money, invest it in other stuff.

PS: There are Cds and LPs I have sold at a gain... a few times here and there. But the market corrects such transactions and suddenly prices go down bcause everybody that sees that tries to sell theirs. Plus selling an LP or CD that cost me $10 at the time for $45 ain't gonna make me a millionaire and is a lot of work (listing, shipping etc) for little gain. I do have a dayjob...

PS2: Just one example here https://www.newaudiovideo.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=10109 - I own 3 of these I bought used for $400 at most (each). I am sure if I list one on Ebay there is no way in hell I'd get that. *Thinking* your audio stuff appreciated just because some seller out there tries to scr*w some uneducated buyers doesn't mean you'll ever get that deal yourself... and in even this case, selling them for a few extra bucks doesn't have any impact on my bottom line...

PS3: Recalling some of my audio sales history:
Accuphase E-306v... new ~$7k, offered $2k - passed & kept in storage
Accuphase D-65v... new $6.5k, sold for $2k
Benchmark DAC1... new $1.5k, sold for $600
TEAC 8030S cassette player... new... a thou or two? Now it'd sell for $600 or so to some silly millenial, but sold for $50 in a garage sale in early 2000s
...oh and cables... :-D
Esoteric XLR super linear copper blabla cable... new $800, was offered $75 on Facebook marketplace *if* I delivered 75 miles away.. waste of time still have it...
...

 

[fpitas]

My horn drivers have doubled in price, and the SEAS drivers are about 70% up.

 

[Plcamp]

I bought a used pair of Paradigm 11seMk3 speakers from a retail shop for $500 and sold them 20 years later for $750.

Everything else depreciated lots.

 

[DVDdoug]

I am seriously considering making the 7 hour drive to take a look at this piece - Clairtone Project G.

Do you know what it's worth now? Have you seen any bought/sold? It seems way overpriced to me...

 

[RobL]

That console you are eying is gorgeous! The seller has to be on the high end of retail insofar as what he’s asking, though. Have you been able to get comparables to ascertain value?

Do you know what it's worth now? Have you seen any bought/sold? It seems way overpriced to me...

There were very few made and I wasn’t even actually aware of them until I went to the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) last month and they had a Clairtone G2 on display with several other mid century pieces. I was so facinated with it that I bought the book they were selling in their gift shop about the history of these pieces and started looking around to see if any were for sale in Ontario. Oscar Peterson was used in the company’s advertising and he apparently owned one. Frank Sinatra owned a Project G. A G2 makes an appearance in “The Graduate”. Sean Connery owned a G2, as did Dean Martin and Buddy Hacket. They originally sold in the early 60’s for about the equivalent of $20k in todays dollars. I’ve seen them advertised for as much as US$50k+, no idea if they ever fetch that though. I think this seller is in the ballpark actually.

Edit: this is the book about them:

 

[TimF]

The Clairtone Project G is surely a piece of audio gear that most if not all wives will appreciate.

 

[Inner Space]

No audio gear, as far as I know, will match, say, a late '50s Gibson Les Paul guitar, in terms of price appreciation v inflation. The last thing I would want, would be an old audio amplifier. However, I'd like a 1959 LP Standard.

You bet. I started gigging in 1969 with borrowed instruments. I saved hard, and toward the end of that year went shopping in the used market. At the time there was a fashion drift away from Fender toward Gibson (probably influenced by the import UK rock scene) so secondhand Fenders were cheaper. I got a slightly worn 10-yr-old bass and a more worn 15-yr-old six-string. They were cheap and played great and I was very happy. I still have them - except in the intervening years they changed from "used" to "classic" - a 1959 P Bass and a 1954 Telecaster. Together they're worth more than my car.

 

[JeffS7444]

Think I got about $275 for a busted Fidelity Research MC201 phono cartridge, and $75 for an empty box which once contained a Mark Levinson ML-C1 cartridge. My cost was $0, because in the 1980s, this was all just scrap from my then-employer's junk box. Pity that I did not have the ML-C1 cartridge itself, but my boss at the time had a jeweler's saw, and wanted to see what was inside

 

[majingotan]

Those exclusive ones from Schiit such as the Magni Piety or Folkvangr currently have a higher resell value than MSRP. I would actually make money if I sell my Magni Piety, but I don’t intend to since I value that amp that aims to sound “broken”

 

[anmpr1]

To think of audio gear in terms of appreciation/investment is not as straightforward as, "How much did I pay and how much can I sell it for?" First, you have to take into account the initial purchase price, what you could have done with that money instead, and finally, inflation. Not to mention the cost of gear upkeep, and current cosmetic condition, which is an important factor when selling anything.

Let's look at a fairly desirable unit from the 'silver age'. Nothing special, but still fairly interesting. Something hi-fi nerds might not mind owning. A Pioneer SA-9500 integrated amplifier from 1977. I'm familiar with that unit since I've owned a couple. In 1977 I bought new, mail order, for about $450.00 (I think that price included the walnut sleeve).

According to Inflation Calculator, that is $2,225.00 in today's funny money.

Looking at the on-line marketplace, the highest asking price for an SA-9500 is $2000.00. Most are around the one thousand to fifteen hundred dollar range. This particular unit is said to have been completely overhauled. New capacitors, transistors, protection circuitry rebuilt, and so on. Cosmetically it looks pretty good. Not new, but better than you might expect. It is 'naked' but someone is selling a walnut sleeve for several hundred dollars.

So, has this piece appreciated? No. Not really. You could say it has at best maintained its initial dollar cost. You could also say that over the years it has provided the owner with good service, so that is something. You might even argue that for the price, it is in many ways more desirable that what you can buy, new, today. YMMV in that aspect.

Apart from some unusual 'historical' gear--Saul Marantz' personal amp, certain Mac items, and maybe (but questionable) something like an LNP-2 or Cello Palate, there's not much hi-fi out there that is selling for more than it was new, all things considered.

It would be interesting, perhaps, if someone had a list of items sold for more than they were originally offered, taking inflation into account.

 

[henologist]

I got a turntable as a gift from a friend, with a Shure M44-7 cartridge, a few years before Shure stopped producing it. They seem to have sold for about $80 USD near the end of production, now they go for about $120 USD used without box, $200+ USD with the box. You can probably do better nowadays (see: Jico's J44A-7), but the Technics SL-1200 + Shure M44-7 combo is iconic to a lot of DJs, especially scratchers/turntablists, so they both go for a lot more than they're actually worth. It's not a huge amount of appreciation, but you could've made a pretty penny if you stocked up on sealed M44-7s and slowly leaked them out onto the market.

 

[Digby]

not reproduction equipment, but some old synthesizers seem to go for crazy money, many of which weren't exactly cheap the first time round.

 

[JeffS7444]

Really am astounded by some of the asking prices that I'm seeing for early Mark Levinson preamplifiers including the JC-2 and ML-1: Up to 7500 USD for the latter! Just as I was feeling deep regrets about selling mine, I then looked at units which had actually sold, and found just one ML-1 with an electrical problem (probably minor) sold for <1400. Selling mine for around $1K circa ~1984 was probably not a bad move! I doubt that measured performance of this, or the ML10 which took it's place, would impress anyone today.

 

[henologist]

not reproduction equipment, but some old synthesizers seem to go for crazy money, many of which weren't exactly chap the first time round.

Roland's TB-303 is probably the most infamous of these, at least relative to its original price. Released in 1981, it was supposed to be paired with the TR-606 drum machine as simple sequenced accompaniment, but they both sounded nothing like acoustic instruments and the sequencers were unintuitive. They stopped production in 1984, and they went from costing a bit over 200 pounds in the UK to less than 100. Then Chicago house came around, driven by cheap drum machines and synthesizers, a few people in the scene grab a 303 and start experimenting, and eventually we get "Acid Tracks" in '87. Chicago house records start getting brought over the pond, "Acid Tracks" blows up, and then everyone starts snatching up TR-606s, TR-808s, and TB-303s. Nowadays a TB-303 will run you at least $2,500 USD, before you get into even rarer modded versions like Devil Fish.

I wonder if Oscar Peterson ever heard acid house.