Broken Stuff on Ebay

[saxmonster]

Hi Guys,
I am interested in a non powering TC reverb unit on ebay.  He says it stop working a few months ago and has never been wet and is missing a few buttons / knob.  New units sell for $1500  and used on ebay around 6-7 hundred.  He wants 350 for this non working unit.  I would like to mess around and see why it won't power up and If by chance figure it out maybe the transformer is back etc but how much should I offer him.  I don't want to get it and open it up and start throwing parts at it and never have it work.  I really want one of these unit but can't afford one right now so I was thinking if I can get this cheap and poke around inside and spend some time figuring out what wrong with it maybe I can get it to work and have a functioning unit.  What would you guys spend?



-Scott

 

[Piedwagtail]

Time is the most expensive commodity on earth.
What's $1500 of your time? Unknown repair is runaway dollars.

I'd buy if

• I had the service manual already and understood I could repair it ; in my case custom chips/ micros/programming is out of the question
• I had done a search for common problems; thriving owner's forum; that the thing is a POS worth avoiding.
• The item was in perfect cosmetic condition which is pleasing to bring up to scratch again and also signifies the previous owner looked after it
• I had space to work on it with tools, psu, meters and oscilloscope.
• There was an arbitrage opportunity to repair/ break for parts and I could do with the business.
  

So I wouldn't spend , I'd buy a 2nd hand mint condition at $700 and a bottle of something to celebrate not sinking my life into an abyss, whilst getting on with something I know I have a chance of being good at.
R

 

[Gustav]

Hi Guys,
I am interested in a non powering TC reverb unit on ebay.  He says it stop working a few months ago and has never been wet and is missing a few buttons / knob.  New units sell for $1500  and used on ebay around 6-7 hundred.  He wants 350 for this non working unit.  I would like to mess around and see why it won't power up and If by chance figure it out maybe the transformer is back etc but how much should I offer him.  I don't want to get it and open it up and start throwing parts at it and never have it work.  I really want one of these unit but can't afford one right now so I was thinking if I can get this cheap and poke around inside and spend some time figuring out what wrong with it maybe I can get it to work and have a functioning unit.  What would you guys spend?



-Scott

You dont state which unit, but it may be an easy fix. The modern TC units are known to fail in the PSU (some conspiracies that this has been intentional has also been aired online).

Gustav

 

[emrr]

I'd buy it if I knew what TC would charge to repair it in advance, as worst case cost, and it added up favorably. 

 

[pvision]

You don't say where you are or what the item is, but PSUs for TC products are easily available and are plug-and-play

I bought one for an M3000 - it was around £70 delivered in the UK from realelectronics.co.uk

Nick Froome

 

[saxmonster]

Sorry guys its a tc m3000,  i'm hoping its just a PSU transformer or a bad cap or something simple.  So what would be a fair price to be on the safe side and yet not waste my money.  $50, $100, $200?  Is $75 too low? hahahah I guess I can just ask him.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Do you feel lucky... ?

If it doesn't work it is worth $0

JR