For Sale - $700.00 Pair of Klipschorns near Washington DC

[meagain]

Corvette - Not sure I buy your Ebay conspiracy theory, but just wanted to say that if you find something a tad over your limit and you're passing on them..... I'm here with my waiting van. []

[SilverSport]

Hey, Meagain...no cuts! [][]...

Bill

[codhead]

Was just curious if your strategy had yielded these beauties. I'm in

the market for some Khorns as well, so I'm willing to try anything that

might prove to be beneficial.

Interesting observation regarding eBay dropping the low-priced

completed items early. I'm still waiting for them to add auction

overtime for bids within the last 5 minutes. That would certainly

increase their revenue.

Last fall I spotted a pair of Decorator Heresy's on eBay from an

auction house in VA. With one ripped-up woofer, and ugly (but

physically undamaged) cabinets, I figured they would be easy pickings,

and could have my kid get them - eliminating the $80 shipping cost.

Some guy in FL that seems to make a living selling refinished Heresy's

on eBay ended up paying over $400 with shipping.

I'd love to find a pair of Khorns in the sub-2K range, but I'm talking

pretty ones. I might go a little higher for local mint Khorns - they

would still be a bargain compared to the new "III" series Heritage

prices. I've seen some cheap ones as well, but not in the condition I'm

looking for. The pair that you show here seems to be a nice exception -

I really feel for you on these, as that would have been a killer deal.

I'd have hired Mayflower to go get 'em for that kind of money!

I really doubt I'd walk away from a $20 pair, but the odds of finding

something like that are only slightly better than finding a ZL1 crate

motor in an abandoned storage auction.

Back in 2001, I managed to snag 4 of Sun Microsystems best video boards

on eBay for $120 - which I flipped for $3,600. Think I used up most of

my good eBay kharma on that one.

[Corvette6769]

Corvette - Not sure I buy your Ebay conspiracy theory, but just wanted to say that if you find something a tad over your limit and you're passing on them..... I'm here with my waiting van. []

As I did with this pair and others in the past, I will definitely share any leads I happen to turn up with everyone here. Illinois leads I will PM to you guys first.

[Corvette6769]

The rest of the story!

When I called yesterday morning to inquire about the pair of Klipschorns advertised in the Washington Post, the less than forthcoming seller was somewhat vague when asked the usual questions about their history condition, claiming to not know much about Klipsch speakers and being unable to give me specifics. In passing during the conversation, I mentioned that I had already purchased a pair of Birch Raw style C Klipschorns from his area and the transaction had failed to complete, so I knew the cost of shipping. He claimed to have owned these for some time now and was "upgrading" his system from Klipschorns to JBL L-300. Our initial conversation terminated when he indicated that he had a buyer in transit to come look at them, so I left it that he would contact me if the buyer passed.

I was out of my office when he called back about an hour later and left a voice mail message yesterday at 9:04 AM CST indicating that the other buyer had attempted to pay by check which he refused and that the serial numbers were 11R823 and 11R824. As you can imagine, alarms went off in my head when I heard the serial numbers in the voice message! So I returned his call and inquired further, during which he became even more covert and vague as to where and when he purchased these. When I informed him that from the serial numbers the pair he had was the same pair that I had already purchased once, and that is why I knew specifics about them that we had not discussed (like they the cane grills and etc) he then claimed to have two pair of these that he was running stacked and inverted and that the other pair was also 1977 KC-BR with cane grills (what are the odds of that!), and that all Klipschorns came with the same serial numbers 11R823 and 11R824 and that he had a local electronics store offering to pay him $2,000.00 wholesale for any pair of Klipschorns sight unseen, which I told him would be a remarkable price to pay for a pair of 1977 raw plywood C style cabinets that they planned to resell for a profit. I offered him $800.00 and left it at that.

Later last evening I spoke to him again and his story became even more bizarre as he now claims that he buys and sells Klipschorns on a regular basis and in the last few months he has had more than 20 pair of Klipschorn which he has purchased at pawn shops and local auctions and resold, which confirmed my suspicions that this person had been far less than truthful with me from the beginning. When I asked him how he came to learn about this pair, he refused to say other than "I have a lot of contacts", but we all know that it was through my post here since these were not advertised locally. My guess is that he never expected me to catch his classified ad in the Washington post.

Obviously if this guy had bought and sold 20 pair of Klipschorns recently, he would have come to the attention of forum members, long before now.

Listed in The Washington Post February 11, 2006.

$1,400.00

410-653-2498

SPEAKERS --Klipsch Corner Horn Spkrs. Birchwood. $1,400/obo or will accept trades. 410-653-2498.

[meagain]

Wow. So you're saying the $700 pair you almost had & shared to forum members, here - someone local snatched those for resale. Bonus points for the guy perhaps finding the score here. Ouch.

(I still say there should be a section here requireing membership/sign-in to view these deals forum members work so hard to find & share. So many lurkers finding these sales that probably pop up via Google search, etc. Bet they can even find them by not clicking on the link to get here). I'd personally rather see forum members who truely desire PWK's speakers get them over a mere profit-maker.

I still think my idea is a good one. Not fool-proof, but a good one.

[jpm]

Considering the price of Khorns new, a $700 pair must be garbage. Why bother?

[SilverSport]

Check the Birch Khorns in DC thread a bit down the page...same K'Horns I believe.

Bill

[JBryan]

And now - for the rest of the story...

Corvettte,

Bill just directed me to this thread and I must say, it is a very interesting read from my viewpoint. Lots of differing accounts going on here but I can fill in a few bits and bring the story up-to-date.

First, I didn't see the ad for $700 Khorns on Craigslist, the ad I saw was for "Clipshorns" and the asking price was $1500. The pictures you loaded are the same ones the gentleman sent me a couple of weeks ago so this is indeeed the guy. In fact, when I called him, he said that he did have someone who had bought the speakers and was "working out the shipping details".

That was fine with me since I had responded to his ad for a Marantz 10b tuner, amp and preamp and made the "Clipshorns" connection during our conversation when I asked him about the rest of his system. I did say that I had Khorns and knew a friend who buys and sells them in Baltimore. He also said that someone was coming over to buy the preamp and amp so I made arrangements to see the tuner - halfway thinking that once the buyer saw the tuner, that'd be gone too.

He called the next day and said that the fellow who was interested in his amp and pre hadn't bought them (turns out that the pieces were short a couple of fuse caps and that apparently queered the deal). He added that the Khorns were available again. I spoke with my friend, Bob and gave him Ross' phone#. Friday evening, Bob and I went to take a look at Ross' gear.

We spoke for a while and Ross and his wife, Joan seemed nice enough. He had purchased the gear a long time ago and said he hadn't used it in about 20 years. He had decided to sell everything because they were renovating the basement for his son and daughter-in-law to live in with their new baby (I met the happy couple as well - definitely expecting). There was all sorts of building material in the driveway and basement and Ross said that the work was starting the next day (Saturday).

Ross, Bob and I negotiated a price for the Khorns and tuner and Ross threw in the amp, preamp, a TEAC reel-to-reel as well as his record collection (turns out that might have been the real deal of the night!). I think he would've given us the pool table he also had listed in Craigslist just to clean out the basement but there was only so much we could fit in a RAV4. We got everything loaded (except the TEAC - had to leave that behind) and left.

Ross said that the other deal fell through because he didn't have the time and didn't want go build crates or find boxes which he said the buyer had asked him to do. I assume you were the buyer - right?

Now you have the rest of the story... I'm sorry as I can be that your deal fell through. I didn't know...I DIDN'T KNOW!

-Bryan

[Corvette6769]

Considering the price of Khorns new, a $700 pair must be garbage. Why bother?

If you were to view my original post in this thread including the pictures, you would see that these are not garbage.

[jpm]

Then I was wrong. I talk without thinking half the time. Where's the whiskey?

[JBryan]

Corvette,

I have known Bob for several years and while he isn't above a bit of wheeling/dealing with me, he seems to be a nice enough fellow. I should say that he is blind and may sound vague when someone asks a question like "what are the serial#'s?" He depends on his wife and folks like me to be his eyes on occasion. I can also vouch for the JBL L-300's as he needs to sell the Khorns to get the JBLs.

On the other hand, I helped him set these Khorns up when we got home and I did not see any other Khorns in the room. I'm not sure why he was being "less than truthful" and started throwing out the excuses. Unless Ross discussed it while we were at his place, I don't think Bob was aware that the deal had fallen through. Maybe when you confronted him with the facts and said that you had already purchased it, he became apprehensive or perhaps he thought you were working an angle on him to get the speakers. I don't know and I won't defend him. I just want to clear up a few things.

BTW, Bob sells lots of audio gear and like this Khorn (I've bought quite a bit myself), he turns most pieces over pretty quickly. I know of at least 5 prs of Khorns I've seen in his place and I only visit him a few times a year so its conceivable that he has turned a few Klipsch speakers over recently (although 20 pairs is a bit beyond believable in my book too). I told Bob about the Khorns and assisted him in quite a few deals of so I guess I must be one of his "contacts".

Anyway, I'm going to talk with Bob and take him to task on some of these fictions of his.

-Bryan

[Corvette6769]

The pictures I posted in this thread on Thursday, 2-2-06 were taken at my request and to my specifications by Ross on Sunday 1-29-06.

he said that he did have someone who had bought the speakers and was "working out the shipping details".

He did and I did! ....As I originally posted in: Anyone traveling to Illinois from the Washington DC area? and as I posted in this thread on Thursday, 2-2-06, I had succeeded in making independent arrangements for shipping the speakers and only needed to schedule a 5-minute appointment to have the speakers picked up from Joan and Ross.

Friday evening, Bob and I went to take a look at Ross' gear.

The day AFTER I started this thread.

Ross said that the other deal fell through because he didn't have the time and didn't want go build crates or find boxes which he said the buyer had asked him to do.

Ross was willing to ship these until suddenly and without warning he decided that packaging was beyond his means (now I know why) and that I would need to arrange shipping, which is why I posted on Wednesday, 2-1-06 in: Anyone traveling to Illinois from the Washington DC area? "I made a purchase, paid via PayPal including shipping, then yesterday the seller decided he didn't want to package them for shipment so refunded my payment, so I now back to a purchase pending status again until I find a way to get them home." Which I successfully accomplished after I spent several hours with emails and phone calls to put this purchase together and after another 4 hours on the telephone with various moving and storage companies on Thursday 2-2-06, to successfully set up shipping arrangements.

I assume you were the buyer - right?

Yes, I purchased these from Ross as was confirmed in my PayPal receipt showing I paid Ross and Joan via PayPal direct instant transfer from my bank account dated Tuesday, January 31, 2006 6:49 AM CST.

Now I know why Ross failed to return my telephone calls and email to coordinate the shipping arrangements I had made.

When I decided to "pay it forward" and turn these loose to the members here in hopes someone close to Washington DC can take advantage of my geographic disability, it was not my intent that someone would see these simply as a commodity to profit on.

As a result, I will discontinue my practice of sharing leads openly as I have in the past, but rather communicate with other forum members who I believe are going to be the end user, rather than have someone else profit through my hard work and time spent tracking down Klipsch loudspeakers for sale, just to turn a profit by someone with such a low appreciation for Klipsch speakers as Robert expressly stated to me.

What possible reason would your friend Robert have to pay to advertise these in the Washington Post, rather than a free post offering these to the membership here first?

[garymd]

I hate seeing this kind of stuff happen. I know Bryan and I know he would never intentionally do this to another forum member. I can't defend anyone else involved because I don't know them. I just know this smells really bad and I'd be majorly PO'd too. To me, a deal is a deal, especially if money has already exchanged hands. Still, I believe Bryan when he says he didn't know.

The seller of the CBRs that I looked at for a friend and then for Jay turned out to be a scammer who lied about the speakers (along with a few other things). Money can be really evil if in the hands of a greedy person.

I truly hope this works out with no hard feelings among the forum members involved. I only read this last page and haven't been following the thread but I certainly read enough to figure out what's going on.

Good luck guys.

[fini]

I've just emailed my senator to see if a sub-committee can be set up to look into this whole mess. I've alerted the Dept. of Homeland Security, as well.

[garymd]

A lurker snatched a $500 pair of cornwalls out from under me about 2 years ago. He came on to brag about it the next day (when I was scheduled to pick them up) and hasn't been back since.

Maybe Meagain's idea is worth pursuing.

[meagain]

Ya think? Should I ask one of the mods about it? Like a 'trading post' section?

Or, if that didn't work (or wasn't good enough), maybe there could be a 'sticky' post or a section listing wants & what state we are in so those who find these scores & are willing to pass them on, can go thru the list and PM privately? IDK.

[jpm]

You guys should probably handle these sales privately through email and PMs.

[Duke Spinner]

The pictures I posted in this thread on Thursday, 2-2-06 were taken at my request and to my specifications by Ross on Sunday 1-29-06.

he said that he did have someone who had bought the speakers and was "working out the shipping details".

He did and I did! ....As I originally posted in: Anyone traveling to Illinois from the Washington DC area? and as I posted in this thread on Thursday, 2-2-06, I had succeeded in making independent arrangements for shipping the speakers and only needed to schedule a 5-minute appointment to have the speakers picked up from Joan and Ross.

Friday evening, Bob and I went to take a look at Ross' gear.

The day AFTER I started this thread.

Ross said that the other deal fell through because he didn't have the time and didn't want go build crates or find boxes which he said the buyer had asked him to do.

Ross was willing to ship these until suddenly and without warning he decided that packaging was beyond his means (now I know why) and that I would need to arrange shipping, which is why I posted on Wednesday, 2-1-06 in: Anyone traveling to Illinois from the Washington DC area? "I made a purchase, paid via PayPal including shipping, then yesterday the seller decided he didn't want to package them for shipment so refunded my payment, so I now back to a purchase pending status again until I find a way to get them home." Which I successfully accomplished after I spent several hours with emails and phone calls to put this purchase together and after another 4 hours on the telephone with various moving and storage companies on Thursday 2-2-06, to successfully set up shipping arrangements.

I assume you were the buyer - right?

Yes, I purchased these from Ross as was confirmed in my PayPal receipt showing I paid Ross and Joan via PayPal direct instant transfer from my bank account dated Tuesday, January 31, 2006 6:49 AM CST.

Now I know why Ross failed to return my telephone calls and email to coordinate the shipping arrangements I had made.

When I decided to "pay it forward" and turn these loose to the members here in hopes someone close to Washington DC can take advantage of my geographic disability, it was not my intent that someone would see these simply as a commodity to profit on.

As a result, I will discontinue my practice of sharing leads openly as I have in the past, but rather communicate with other forum members who I believe are going to be the end user, rather than have someone else profit through my hard work and time spent tracking down Klipsch loudspeakers for sale, just to turn a profit by someone with such a low appreciation for Klipsch speakers as Robert expressly stated to me.

What possible reason would your friend Robert have to pay to advertise these in the Washington Post, rather than a free post offering these to the membership here first?

quitcher Complainin'

ya got my nieghbor to sell you 2 Cornwalls, including shipping...

for $500

it probably cost him $250 ..

to ship em.....

[JBryan]

Steve,

First, I apologize for any inconvenience and loss you may have incurred as a result of this transaction. I've certainly been in your situation before - it's quite irritating.

Second, I responded to an ad in Craigslist on the afternoon of Jan 30th. I emailed again on the 31st and received a reply that evening from Joan...

"On Jan 31, 2006, at 10:32 PM, Joan Lxxxxx wrote:

"...The tuner and preamp are still available. I'm not sure about the speakers. If you would like to call my husband tomorrow morning before 10:30, the number is 301-XXX-XXXX. We will be home tomorrow evening if that is more convenient."

To which I responded...

"Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 11:30 PM

To: Joan Lxxxxx

Subject: Re: Marantz 10B tube tuner, 7t preamp, speakers

Ms. Lxxxxx,

Thank you for your reply. As it is, I have a pair of Klipschorn speakers but I have a friend who I was hoping to find a pair but there will be others if yours aren't available. I will call you in the morning to arrange a time to meet with you.

Thank you again for the opportunity and I will talk with you soon,

Bryan 410.XXX.XXXX"

The next day, I received this this note...

"On Feb 1, 2006, at 6:51 PM, Joan Lxxxxx wrote:

The Klipschorn speakers are still available. They are Model KC-BR style "C" Birch Raw plywood. I've attached some photographs."

At this point, I called Bob and said that there was a pair of Khorns available in DC. I spoke with Ross that evening and put him and Bob together. I also passed the info and pics along to a couple of other folks who had an interest.

The last few sentences of your post above sound a bit accusatory. I assure you that I didn't see your thread and move in on your deal. As I said earlier, I saw an ad in Craigslist listing "Clipshorn Speakers" for $1500 and responded to the seller's ad for Marantz gear. What transpired between you and Ross was unfortunate but it shouldn't sour your enthusiasm for helping your fellow Forum members when you come upon an opportunity. If you are trying to prevent me from taking advantage of your "finds" - please don't worry. I have all the Klipsch gear I want and my wife will not let me bring anymore speakers into the house. Besides in your posts, you didn't mention how or where you found the speakers - just directed any interested members to email you for the contact info.

Bob is blind and he has no particular interest in Klipsch products or in these Forums. Its much easier for him to call a newspaper, like the Post or Sun and recite an ad as opposed to writing one. I consider myself a friend of his but I don't call or visit as much as I should so he can't depend on me to post his ads (not that he would) on the net or particularly this forum. His hobby is listening to music and trying out gear. He has a great ear and knows the sound he's trying to get so its not difficult to imagine that he goes through a lot of gear.

Like I said earlier, I'm not defending Bob - just thought I'd add a bit of balance to this thread. Thanks for your attention and I apologize for your trouble. -Bryan