Hey there. My name is David and I’m from upstate New York, where we are currently getting hammered by a Christmas blizzard. Perhaps Rudolph and his buddies will save the day again this weekend1 I am here to try and find an old Pioneer SK 650 portable cassette player from the early 1980. Like many others on this forum, I find that re-discovering artifacts from my childhood is both comforting and exciting and I hope I’m able to find what I’m looking for.
Welcome to the forum, did you build that star destroyer? Every once in awhile I go to the model builder forums and read about the latest and great scratch builds, some of those are incredible and labor of loves. I hate to break it to you but I don't think I've ever seen an SK-650 come up for sale in the USA, you might have to search the Japanese Websites and be prepared to pay as much for shipping as the auction price. Here's a listing, I didn't translate it (google) so it might not be current. Most people use yahoo.jp and then you'll see a "proxy service" at the top of the listing that will ship the unit to you. https://aucfree.com/items/f248205717 If you look closely, there's a lot of corrosion on this one, very common with electronics coming over from Japan. I use 5000 Yen = $50 USD as a rough figure.
Hey there, Mister X! Thanks for your friendly message and advice! After just a few months of looking, I got the impression that there are very few of the SK-650s here in the USA, so what you’ve said affirms my limited observations. I signed up for a Japanese auction-buying service called Aleado yesterday, I hope it’s legit. I ‘m pretty sure I’ll need to buy a fixer-upper and use parts from the more readily-available SK 606/600/404/400s out there. I bought some service manuals for all those models so I can confirm which parts might be swappable…. I have zero knowledge and experience with repairing vintage audio equipment, but I am brave and patient and I am willing to pretend that I might be able to “Frankenstein” a nice SK-650 out of the stuff I can find on the internet. And if I can’t do it myself, maybe I can find someone who knows how to do it… Yes, I did build that Star Destroyer from scratch… back in 1984 when I was a teenager (right around the time I bought my *new* SK-650). It’s made from breakfast cereal boxes, pasta noodles, Christmas tree lights, toothpicks etc. I’ve graduated to much better tools and materials since then! Haha! I love building miniatures and creating cool stuff and am hoping that might help with this 650 project! I thought I’d use that Star Destroyer I build as my avatar here since it reminds me of the period of tike I had that awesome Pioneer boombox. Thanks again for your welcome and advice!
I think a lot of members use Buyee as well. My buddy lives in Tokyo and he'd come visit me and drop stuff off, with covid there's been a long pause and they changed flight routes. Keep watching, when you least expect it something will turn up, ebay Germany also seems to have a ton of rare ones but again shipping will be around $100 USD.
Thanks to the both of you guys I now have a Buyee and a Jauce account. The Jauce system seemed to connect with my PayPal account really easily and functions *much* better than the Aleado account I was using (that system seemed kinda sketchy). And happy holidays to both of you guys… and thanks again for helping me. I feel like I have a better shot at making this happen now.
Just be aware it's not as easy as they claim. Many radios end up getting broken during shipping, there are translation problems, and Japanese sellers often take very poor photos that don't show the saltwater corrosion on the chrome surfaces. Good luck and always use a credit card linked to your paypal if you're going to use paypal at all.
The Anabas record player http://www.stereo2go.com/forums/thr...ntage-electronic-entry.8010/page-7#post-65648 came via JAUCE with payments made using Paypal. No complaints about their service or packaging but don't underestimate various fees. I have just been adding up and the total delivered cost was 21000 Yen for an item where my winning bid was 7777 Yen. And that was for a relatively small, lightweight (2.1KG, 4.6lb) package. I didn't really save much compared to buying a new one on eBay or Amazon. Of course that wouldn't be possible with a true vintage item. p.s. The other ting I just remembered is some people having problems getting items with large speakers in them being sent airmail.
Yes you are definitely paying a premium for doing business there. I think the only justifiable reason I would have to purchase there is if it was a specialty item on available anywhere else. On eBay the Japanese sellers get a premium for their gear from Japan, but looks like it still might be cheaper than purchasing on this site. I have bought several pieces from Japan, and one turntable came damaged, the seller actually had taped the entire deck together, without any plastic over it. Yes they had the dustcover tape to the plinth, but ended up giving me my money back. One thing about eBay, the buyer always gets his money back as long as you're making a valid claim. That happened to me with a cassette deck recently also on eBay, I purchased it and there was an extreme amount of wow and flutter, eBay got me my money back. Anyway it was a nice purchase, and thanks for letting us know about all the fees.
Welcome to the forum, I'm a relatively new member also. You are only a couple of hours north of me, and we were largely spared that storm, although we had a great deal of wind up to 50 miles an hour. I think if your patient, you'll find the right price and the right portable for you to purchase. Good luck and let us know.
You realise eBay doesn't really operate in Japan because Yahoo Auctions dominates. The https://www.ebay.co.jp/ site basically just advises Japanese how to sell on the foreign sites. A casual seller trying to sell of their Aunts old radio cassette will only list it on Yahoo.
I meant the Japanese selling on American eBay, and I'm assuming they do on UK eBay also. I do see a lot of activity on the Japan yahoo site. That's all I need is more audio gear lol!
Rochester was deprived of the snow and ice that Buffalo got — those poor folks always get hit harder by the Lake Effect snow than we do here in Rochester — but we did share in the wind and cold as you did as well! Isn’t it a crazy and wild world we live in where we we’re able to buy old electronics junk from from far away countries? It sounds like there’s a good chance I’ll end up buying a box with rust and Japanese dust bunnies. I’ve seen a couple of Yahoo Japan auction offerings where the seller decorated the boombox with silk flowers on a clean white background and it occurred to me that: the more silk flowers that appear in the auction posting, the more likely the boombox housing with be completely filled with sand and Japanese dust bunnies… I am very much appreciating how you all are sharing your insights with making an overseas auction purchase. It helps quite a bit, that’s for sure!
Very helpful, and you’ve given me a much better idea of where my expectations should be going into this process!
The Japanese who sell on US Ebay don't answer questions (possibly because of mistranslation fears), and they provide very poor descriptions like "sold as junk" or "powers on but no other information" (probably because they don't want to risk mistranslating one of the radio's features). And they never upload high-rez photos capable of revealing the scratches on the radio (maybe because they're using an app that doesn't allow uploads over a certain size?) What's worse is, they often create duplicate listings with different user accounts, using the SAME photos. Which makes me wonder if I'll receive the exact radio shown in the pics, or one in worse condition.
Yes that happens probably more times than I'd like to see, but I've dealt with a few of them that answer questions and have decent pictures up. I've also seen multiple listings for multiple prices quite a bit, but we can't throw them all in the same category, there are some honest sellers on there. I combat that by not buying from sellers that don't answer questions, or won't send me extra pictures. There was a deck on there from a seller in the US, and I tried four times to get them to answer my question, although I wanted the deck I passed. That's just not the kind of seller I want to deal with, and there are many others that will quickly answer questions. Although I find it a trend to not answer, or answer as little as possible. I think we can break that trend if we stop buying from these types of sellers.
