A few years ago when my record/radio/anything old and wonderful collector friend died, I was told I'd get a crack at everything in the basement by his family. I said to them: Just let me know when.

Heard nothing.

I was looking at eBore one night, and a beautiful RCA microphone appeared on my screen. Looking closer, it was my hometown.

My friend's grandson was auctioning everything. He'd already sold the mammoth record collection of mint 78's (6000+) and had given away the TV film-chain camera, and electronics (which I bought, and set-up and maintained) leaving me with 2 telecine projectors, that were already mine.

The record cutter, wire recorders, 16 channel mixing board, the R to R decks... all gone. The McIntosh power amplifier that I rebuilt and was told I'd get by his family... gone. The boxes and boxes of tubes, for audio, radio and early TV, gone... to the landfill.

The night of the funeral, his grandson started listing stuff on eGray. So much for waiting a week or two before digging into Grandpa's stuff.

I did wind up getting the little Crosley 1930's radio that was in his bedroom, simply because his grandson didnt notice it. Same for the record player that had a stack of 78's on it that he was playing when he had his final heart attack. His family knew something was wrong when the stack of records was not restarted by him, and they went to check on him...

I got boxes of broken 16mm film editing equipment, because the grandson knew I'd want this stuff. He sold the best stuff.

Even after all of this, I still like his grandson. He says he had no idea that I wanted any of that old junk... as he put it.