Calavera's Goodwill/Flea Market Finds 2: Resurrection

[Calavera]

I was going to make a new thread for this but figured eh it'd be fine just to post it here. Not a goodwill find obviously but got a new motor vehicle.

2006 Cadillac DTS





With gas prices soaring to their highest ever it was the perfect time to buy a 275HP V8 Cadillac!

[ian]

Depending on the weight of that thing 275HP is pretty good.
Enjoy your big American V8s now. During the first year of pandemic there was never a better time for big honking V8s, and if you do a lot of highway driving, MASSIVE overkill engines are actually surprisingly efficient because you don't need to rev the tits off them to move, they basically idle and you're at the speed limit.

I've been mostly plodding around in a medium Japanese econobox, but occasionally have been cruising in a car the same year as yours.. But it has a 6 litre 348HP engine. Foot down and it fucks off...

I will really miss big American V8s, even though low end electric motors are much faster, the noise and the vibrations and the response of a big fuck off V8 can never be matched.

Id take 50 miles in a good car with a good engine over 5000 miles in an appliance any and every time.

[Calavera]

Depending on the weight of that thing 275HP is pretty good.
Enjoy your big American V8s now. During the first year of pandemic there was never a better time for big honking V8s, and if you do a lot of highway driving, MASSIVE overkill engines are actually surprisingly efficient because you don't need to rev the tits off them to move, they basically idle and you're at the speed limit.

On the highway it does pretty decent. In town the mileage is pretty low even when you're easy on it. Luckily the majority of my driving is highway. Right now the average economy is around 23-24mpg which isn't fantastic but really not that bad for what it is. Of course it depends on how you drive it. If you're putting your foot down all the time you could probably average about 15mpg or less.

For example it only gets 5mpg at 155mph

[Calavera]

Picked up an Ion Compact LP USB turntable yesterday for $6. (Golden disco record not included. Just added to look cool. )




For only $6 there was no way I could pass it up. I figured it would be a cheap crappy sounding turntable. It doesn't sound as good as my Panasonic SG-D16 from around 1985 that I use as my primary player. But after adjusting the bass and treble levels on the Sherwood RD-6106 I had it plugged into it really didn't sound that bad. It looks like it originally sold for $50 when it came out. I wouldn't have paid $50 for it but it is well worth $6!

I like the compact size of it. It can easily be hooked up to listen to some records then put out of the way until next time. As long as you're not an audiophile it is a pretty serviceable unit. I also like that in addition to playing 33s and 45s it also plays 78s. I actually do have quite a few 78s but most players from the 80s and onward only play 33 and 45. You can also convert your records to digital using the USB connection. I haven't bothered trying this as I have no reason to do so and I doubt it would sound all that great. If I want a digital version of a song I have on record I'll just get a high quality MP3 or FLAC version of it!


I also picked up this very handy Logitech K400r keyboard trackpad combo for $3.



It didn't come with the receiver (rarely do wireless devices at Goodwill have their receiver) But the great thing about modern Logitech wireless devices is that you only need one receiver to use up to six different devices. I have a Logitech trackball mouse which uses the Logitech unifying receiver so that also works fine for this keyboard/trackpad. I didn't get this to use as my everyday keyboard. I have a Saitek Eclipse II that I've been using for some time now that I really like. This keyboard/trackpad will be great for using in bed. My computer and bed are in the same room and usually when I get into bed I bring the Logitech trackball with me and if I need to type anything in I use the on-screen keyboard. It will be much nicer to have a compact keyboard mouse combo. A great buy for $3!

[ian]

With that record player, was the only light in the house a yellow lava lamp?

Also. the k400 (and r) is Fantastic, I've had mine for years now and absolutely adore it.
The best feature is the left mouse click button on the top left. So you can hold it comfortably and browse stuff so easy.

[melancholy]

I used to use the K400 keyboard as my exclusive keyboard for years until I upgraded to the K830. I’ve had the K830 for over 10 years now, and I hope it never dies because Logitech doesn’t make it anymore.

[Calavera]

I used to use the K400 keyboard as my exclusive keyboard for years until I upgraded to the K830. I’ve had the K830 for over 10 years now, and I hope it never dies because Logitech doesn’t make it anymore.

I looked up the K830 on Ebay and holy crap are those things expensive! They sell for anywhere from $100-$200!



About the Ion turntable he is a video I took of it playing a 78



I have the Ion hooked into the CD input of my main record player for double records!
The volume on the video came out a little low so you may have to turn up your volume to hear it decently.
Lots of surface noise but for a 78rpm that is around 75 years old it really isn't too bad. This is after I cleaned it as best as I could.

We recently bought an 1800psi pressure washer. It may sound crazy but I'm thinking about trying to pressure wash a record and see if that would get all the microscopic dirt out from the grooves. If it doesn't shatter it first.

[melancholy]

I’ll need to get a record player soon. There are two video games records I decided to preorder, but I don’t even have a player to listen to them when they release.

[ian]

I'm thinking about trying to pressure wash a record and see if that would get all the microscopic dirt out from the grooves. If it doesn't shatter it first.

I would like to see that. I would REALLY like to see that.

[Calavera]

I'm thinking about trying to pressure wash a record and see if that would get all the microscopic dirt out from the grooves. If it doesn't shatter it first.

I would like to see that. I would REALLY like to see that.

Well then i guess I will have to take a video



I tried some warped records just for the heck of it. First I tried Star Wars which is I'd say medium warped and it played fine. Next I tried this record I have called Dumb Dittys. It is severely warped. Track one and two on the first side wouldn't play without the needle jumping but on the other side they played just fine. I uploaded a video of it playing as I think it looks pretty funny playing such a warped record.

[Calavera]

I got a 10,000 BTU "portable" Air conditioner for free several years ago. You know the kind where you run a hose out the window. Whoever had it before must have had it in their garage or something and got paint all over it. I never really had a reason to use it but for the past several days here it has been super humid with the head index getting up to around 106F(41C). My primary window air conditioner for some reason was having problems with the high humidity. It would keep kicking off and giving me an E8 error.

I got tired of messing with it and decided to get the paint covered AC out of the barn and it works great! I was actually able to get all the paint cleaned off of it. Here is a before and after.



It is kind of funny how the paint protected parts of it from yellowing. Except now it is half yellowed and half white and it is just a bit too big to retrobrite.

[Calavera]

Picked up a really old cassette player/recorder for $8. I don't know what year it is from, I'm guessing maybe the late 70s. The amazing thing is that it actually works! The speed is just a bit slow but seeing how it is probably over 40 years old and most likely has the original belts that is pretty impressive.





Picked up this Xbox One controller in box that looks pretty much brand new for $3. I thought it was a great deal but turns out it isn't what I thought. It has a micro usb plug on top of the controller so I figured it was a wired controller I could use on the PC. Later when I'm looking at it I press a button and it lights up, I then notice it says "Wireless Controller for Xbox One" That is even better I thought! It probably uses bluetooth to connect so I'll still be able to use it on my PC! I look it up online and it turns out that it is a 2.4ghz wireless controller that requires a USB receiver to be plugged into the PC to work. Of course it didn't come with the receiver.


So it is basically unusable. Maybe one day I'll come across a receiver or more likely I can use it for parts for some of my other many controllers. It really sucks it isn't bluetooth. It would have been nice to have a wireless controller for my GF when we play 2 player games.

[melancholy]

Calvera’s last post sums up the evolution of 50 years of technology.

“I bought this really old gadget for a couple bucks that probably survived a war and has easily reparable parts, but doesn’t need them because it still works great! I also bought this new gadget for a couple of bucks that’s new out of the box and has a dozen ways it should work, but it’s missing one tiny irreplaceable piece that renders the entire thing junk!”

[Dr. Zoidberg]

That's true.

The old cassette player is cool.

[Calavera]

Calvera’s last post sums up the evolution of 50 years of technology.

“I bought this really old gadget for a couple bucks that probably survived a war and has easily reparable parts, but doesn’t need them because it still works great! I also bought this new gadget for a couple of bucks that’s new out of the box and has a dozen ways it should work, but it’s missing one tiny irreplaceable piece that renders the entire thing junk!”

I somehow didn't see this post until now but it is great! I don't understand why the controller has to be totally worthless without the receiver since it has a usb plug on it. I could be wrong but don't most wireless controllers work as wired controllers when they are plugged in to charge? That way even if the battery is dead you are still able to use it?

Speaking of wireless devices I recently picked up a Logitech K350 wireless keyboard for $2.


I usually pick up the Logitech wireless keyboards if they are a decent model and in good condition. 99% of them are missing their wireless receiver, but Logitech wireless products aren't useless if the receiver is missing (sort of). It seems that all wireless Logitech products made in the last several years use what is called a Logitech Unifying Receiver. So each keyboard and mouse they make don't require a specific receiver. As long as you have one receiver you can connect up to 6 devices to it. I have one from when I bought my Logitech M570 Trackball mouse. So any fairly recent Logitech keyboard or mouse can be easily connected to it in a matter of seconds.

Even back before the unifying receiver Logitech was good about wireless devices. They used a different kind of receiver like this


I have a couple of these and it seems like all different kind of Logitech devices will connect with it.

So basically having a proprietary wireless receiver is very dumb. Especially nowadays with Bluetooth. With that Xbox controller I did find a random 2.4ghz receiver and tried it with it knowing that it most likely wouldn't work and of course it didn't. So unless I go online and buy the specific overpriced USB receiver for that controller it is nothing but a paperweight. Maybe I can use the sticks and buttons out of it to fix some broken/wore down Xbox controllers I have. At least then I will get some use out of it. Seems a shame to do that to a brand new controller but I'm not paying $20 to get the receiver for a $3 controller.

[Calavera]

Picked up a nice Canon PIXMA printer the other day for $6.




It is a Canon PIXMA TS8120 Wireless Printer/Scanner/Copier. It apparently has only done about 1,250 pages which seems like a pretty low number. So it wasn't heavily used.

It works great and came loaded with ink cartridges that are pretty full.


For those of you who don't know I'm always on the lookout for Canon PIXMA printers that use individual ink tanks for each color vs the ones that just have a single color cartridge. The reason being is that you can get third party ink cartridges for super cheap. Generally less than $2 per cartridge. With most PIXMA printers $20 will get you several full sets of ink cartridges.

The ink for this particular model isn't quite as cheap as other models I have but is still VERY cheap compared to buying OEM ink. The PGI-280/CLI-281 cartridges it uses come in regular,XL and XXL. Here is the print yield document from Canon which tells the difference between them if you are interested. Print Yield for TS8120

For example when printing color photos the regular Cyan will print 80 pages, the XL 187 pages and the XXL 296 pages. So there is quite a difference in the amount of ink that comes in the cartridges between the three sizes.

Back to the ink prices. For a set of regular sized cartridges(not including photo blue) it is $58.99. A standard sized photo blue is $12.99. So
$71.98 for a complete set of ink. For the XL and XXL they apparently only sell them individually. The XLs are $21.99 apiece with the PGBLK being $27.99. So that is $137.94 for a full set of XL ink. Now for the XXL, they are $29.99 per cartridge except for PGBLK which is $37.99! So that is a total of $187.94 for a full set of XXL ink! That is insane.

Now lets compare that to non OEM ink. You can get a full set of all 6 ink cartridges XXL size for.......$14.95 with free shipping! A savings of $172.99. I've seen a few people complain about non OEM ink as if it is bad for the printer to use it. I've been using nothing but cheap third party or whatever you want to call it ink for the past the 15 years or so and have had no problems with it. The ink currently in this printer should last me for a good while if I continue to use it, and when it runs out I won't be spending $190 for a set of ink for my $6 printer. I'll be spending $14.95 which is still double the price of the printer.

Whoever had this printer before me knew what they were doing as I just noticed the XXL ink in it is non-oem ink. I can't imagine who would actually buy that insanely expensive OEM ink except maybe businesses and I suppose people who don't realize a cheaper option exists.


PS Mel if you are reading this is your Goodwill PIXMA printer still working good?

[ian]

Wait a second. You guys get printers with Cyan, Magenta, Yellow... and Mauve?

I have never seen that, I've been getting ripped off mauve in printers for my whole life!

Here was me thinking my Canon inkjets were good with Black/photo black/grey/Cyan/Magenta/Yellow and photos my entire life are missing a whole colour???

It seems.... Entirely redundant to have a mauve ink colour, but I'm not a printer.
I love all my Canon stuff!

[Calavera]

I wanted to post this but didn't think it needed it's own thread so I'll just throw it here. I did a little pour art today on a record. So whadda think? I think it turned out pretty cool looking.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

It looks nice. Well done, Cal!

[Big Boss Man]

It does look cool, maybe cover the label next time so it looks like a special edition coloured vinyl.