I've been on a search for a CD player for a long while now. My current player, a Sony CDP-C400, I got for $20 from another thrift store. It turns on and the drawer operates as it should, but the damn CD player can't play no damn CDs. Not even cleaning the laser helped, so it was just sitting as a decoration for a while. I just used my Xbox 360 to play CDs if I really wanted to listen to them at home. That visualizer stimulates my brain something fierce. 

However, I was watching my friends' pets as they were away at Bonaroo and went around to a bunch of thrift stores in the area. I wasn't really expecting much from City Thrift considering the last time I went there. They were selling a super nice Sony dual tape deck with a missing foot for forty bucks. BUT... I came across this beauty (and another surprise that I gave to my friends).

This behemoth of a Hi-Fi component is the Nakamichi CDC-300: a CD player with 200 free CD slots. Need I say more? It's gorgeous, and PHAT, good lord. (More pictures coming soon.) I thought that there's absolutely no way that this works with no issue. I lugged it over to the electronics testing station, plugged it in, and it turns on. Go figure. I imagine that they would just throw it out if it didn't turn on. Before I got my hopes up, I made sure to test all of the essential functions of the machine: the CD holder spins all the way around flawlessly in both directions, the drive picks up the disc and spins it, and the display shows that it's able to play the disc! As far as I know, this baby seems to be working as if it was brand new!

It was $13.

Now, it's sitting pretty alongside the rest of my Hi-Fi system. :) Dude, it is so fucking sick.

The other big find at the store was a Audio-Technica AT-LP60XBT: a $300 record player when brand new. I didn't need it myself since I already have a AT-LPGO-BT, so I almost looked over it assuming that they were gonna charge a ridiculous price. Curiosity got the best of me, so I went over to check it out. Five dollars??? FIVE DOLLARS??? Yeah, I gotta check this out.

The platter spins, nothing looks horribly damaged, the dust cover had a few blemishes on it, the stylus was broken off of the cartridge, but I couldn't pass this up for that cheap. I was originally going to sell it and get hella cash, but my friends have a couple records they'd like to play. Their current record player is one of those Victrola suitcase players that started scratching their records, so I just gave it to them. The only problem is that I wasn't able to check if it actually works. I was going to take my cartridge off of my record player and test if it makes sound, but I left the player with them. I'll give an update once they're able to order a cartridge.

Moral of the story: NEVER STOP THRIFTING.