So I was browsing the guitar center used website, not something I do very often at all. I punched in a few of the vintage synth manufactures to see if anything interesting popped up. Moog, no. Oberheim, no. Sequential... A prophet 5 supposedly in excellent shape for $2000 in Raleigh NC. I thought, wow that's a great price if this thing is really in great shape.
I give them a call and go through the usual guitar center BS of getting passed around due to no one really knowing what was going on. I finally talk to a kid that knows of the synth and he says "oh that thing doesn't work, it doesn't turn on". So I said "well what do you want for it" he said he would talk to the manager and call me back. He calls me back and says tells me to give them an offer. I said "not knowing what's wrong with it or if it is all there the best I can do is $500". He says he'll talk to the manager and get back to me. He doesn't call for a couple days and I figure the deal is off but I might as well call and see. So I call the kid back and he says "oh yeah, the manager said $500 is fine".
Fast forward, it arrives today. It looks really nice, the wood is in absolutely great shape, some of the writting is worn down but really a nice looking synth overall. I assume it doesn't work but plug it in anyway and sure enough it doesn't. So I check the fuse to see if it looks bad and the fuse and fuse cap are missing. I check the packaging and they are inside mixed in with the bubble wrap. I put the fuse in and plug it back in, flip the switch and we have lights! Excitedly, I plug some headphones in the output and sure enough, it makes sound!
As for the bad: The contacts need cleaning, a couple of the keys are a little crackly sounding. One of the voices is a bit intermitten but works most of the time. Sounds great!
I'd like to find a deal like that.
