Accidental bonuses with gear purchases

[Major Seven]

Not music related but I happen to also love aviation and aviation history. Several years ago I bought a used copy of Frank Hawks’ autobiography Speed from Amazon used online for $25 because I wanted to read it.
Opened it up to find it autographed to his parents no less… View attachment 5376097It’s a fun read, where he marvels at a future where anyone will be able to get in a plane, just like his Travelair and jump from city to city at over…. 200 miles per hour!!! Lol

I can appreciate that.
I once helped to clean out a house for sale where I found among other albums, a autographed Muddy Waters record.
Then at a tag sale bought a 25cent book about investing. Inside was a $5 bill.
Oh, and another garage sale boxed Beethoven record set that once belonged to Henry Steel Commager.

 

[Major Seven]

I have 2 Guitar Center stories: First, I received a nice Squier Jazzmaster Guitar that I didn't order. Called and reported it and the guy said, "What'll you give me for it?" I think I got it for around $130 or so. It was used, but it looked brand new. Real nice guitar.
Second, I received a brand new Squier Vintage Modified Jazz bass from GC and I called to say I didn't order it (nor did I pay for it) and asked how to return it. The GC employee said it had been ordered by a woman by the name of (well, I don't remember - that was 3 or 4 years ago) and she specified my name and address. I wanted to return it and he said no-it's been paid for and please keep it. I have never figured out who this person was, but she supposedly lived in the Monterey, CA area. I was kind of hoping she'd repeat that act of kindness on all the major holidays, lol !

Anyone old enough to remember a tv show called the millionaire?

 

[Kevin Hailey]

I bought a new speaker cab from Epifani about two years ago.
I’d had it for a couple of days when a second one was delivered!
Did right thing and sent it back.

 

[lowfreqgeek]

My story goes the other way. I sold a Moses Graphite neck many years ago to an overseas buyer. I forgot that I had a set of Gotoh tuners in a baggie in the bottom of the box, even though I specified that tuners were not included with the neck. Those tuners were supposed to go back on my Warmoth Gecko because the Hipshot USA tuners, light as they were, shifted the dead spot on the Gecko to a more noticeable place.

Well, the buyer got a free set of tuners that were in great shape, and I got stuck with an annoying dead spot.

 

[Relsom]

I have 2 Guitar Center stories: First, I received a nice Squier Jazzmaster Guitar that I didn't order. Called and reported it and the guy said, "What'll you give me for it?" I think I got it for around $130 or so. It was used, but it looked brand new. Real nice guitar.
Second, I received a brand new Squier Vintage Modified Jazz bass from GC and I called to say I didn't order it (nor did I pay for it) and asked how to return it. The GC employee said it had been ordered by a woman by the name of (well, I don't remember - that was 3 or 4 years ago) and she specified my name and address. I wanted to return it and he said no-it's been paid for and please keep it. I have never figured out who this person was, but she supposedly lived in the Monterey, CA area. I was kind of hoping she'd repeat that act of kindness on all the major holidays, lol !

Kind of eerie.... sort of reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode...."Button, Button" ....in a way.

 

[DaveParker39]

I had an issue with a Fender Rumble making some popping noises when I turned it on.
Fender just sent me a new one and told me to keep the old one and get it fixed if I wanted.

 

[rojo412]

Speaking of it going the other way, I sold off a LowEnd LEJ bass a while back (amazing bass, by the way). When it sold, I quickly packed it up and shipped it.

Probably should have checked the bag before I did that, as I got a message from the buyer when it showed up there. He said a tuner and "some other stuff" were in there with it. Pretty sure the "other stuff" he was talking about was a doobie or small baggie of the makings of more doobies.

Didn't ask for details, just told him he could just keep it all.

 

[PennyroyalWe]

Around 2017 I bought a Fender hardshell case from a guy on OfferUp. When we were arranging the meet up he said “you can keep the guitar inside too”. Meet up with the guy, open the case, ands there’s MIM strat standard inside lol.
I offered him $100 for the guitar, but he wasn’t having it, just said I can have it free with the case.

So I ended up with a strat and a hardshell for $25!

 

[Kubicki Fan]

I really wish that I could contribute.

 

[covermego]

Anyone old enough to remember a tv show called the millionaire?

I was born in '58, so obviously not when it originally aired....... but now and then, when my folks gave me my allowance, they'd say, "I want a full report". Pretty sure that show was where they got that from.

 

[Major Seven]

Around 2017 I bought a Fender hardshell case from a guy on OfferUp. When we were arranging the meet up he said “you can keep the guitar inside too”. Meet up with the guy, open the case, ands there’s MIM strat standard inside lol.
I offered him $100 for the guitar, but he wasn’t having it, just said I can have it free with the case.

So I ended up with a strat and a hardshell for $25!

This is kind of hard to believe.

 

[mr80htz]

Put some NYXL guitar strings on and there were two bundles in the pack. YOLO

 

[blastoff]

not bass related (base related perhaps).
I bought a telescope mount second hand from a guy across the country. i knew it was already pretty beat up but as i was planning on rebuilding it anyways, i offered a fairly low price. it showed up loose in one big box, very minimal packing material, bent up, cracked, smashed and battered. i was pretty mad, but i really didn't want to deal with opening a case with the courier etc, and the essential parts i was after were in good enough shape still. That, and... there was a brand new ECU wiring harness for a ford super duty or something like that, worth almost more than the mount, just randomly tossed in the box as well. super weird. but... whatever

 

[Hawk256]

In the 90's bought a used case for a Nady wireless system. Got home and saw that it had full diversity system and handheld mic inside. Called the store and the guy was like, "Don't say anything to anyone, someone might lose their job." Maybe a $300 loss for the store but still not sure it's worth someone's livelyhood for an honest mistake.

 

[Five or Six]

I bought a house and got a bunch of free problems.

 

[logdrum]

I bought a house and got a bunch of free problems.

Yep. Mine too '' this is our 24th year in it. One of the positive things we found was a small envelope with only 2 dollar bills ' 28 of them $56. There were also sheep and horse skulls in the shed, so there is that

 

[Rabidhamster]

One time I bought a tube screamer that came with a free German cockroach collection. The thing was so full of tiny little cockroaches they were smashed to death against every inside surface and we’re shorting out traces. That one got parted out and sanitized in alcohol piece by piece.

 

[Five or Six]

Yep. Mine too '' this is our 24th year in it. One of the positive things we found was a small envelope with only 2 dollar bills ' 28 of them $56. There were also sheep and horse skulls in the shed, so there is that

We are 24 years as well. I had snakes every once in a while in the basement until I found how they were making their debut. If my wife would have ever known this we would have only lived here 24 minutes.

 

[P-Belly Evans]

Not quite accidental but.......When I bought my Thunderbird, I was feeling cheeky and asked if they would throw in an epi eb3. Obviously not a chance. However, they must have liked my said cheek and did give me this instead....

 

[Appogee]

I had a bass delivered from Canada. But It arrived with dent where something had penetrated the box in transit.
As I had insured the international transit, they owed me a replacement. I bought a hard case for the replacement to be shipped in, and it was delivered undamaged.
The insurance company told me to keep the original dented bass. Which I then sold for more than the cost of the hard case I'd had to buy. So I ended up in front overall.
(That music store no longer ships internationally, sadly.)