Sometimes you get lucky - Fender Super Champ XD

Tell me if you've experienced this before...



You're scouring online classifieds, just because, and come across a piece of gear that:
  1. Has a too-good-to-be-true price
  2. Is something you have experience with/regret selling/know is good for reasons
  3. Is reasonably close to you
You respond with an "I'll take it" almost immediately, willing to forgo the usual questions of conditions and availability. You hit send and wait impatiently for a response...

And you wait... And wait... And wait.

Four days later you receive and apologetic email from a fellow who has developed carpel tunnel syndrome from writing "Sorry, sold to the first person who contacted" six hundred times...

You were number 573.

Well, this isn't that.  This instead is one of those rare victories in life, when the starts align to bring you a seller, a piece of gear, circumstance, and price that is easily the best buy of the year.

The gear? A Fender Super Champ XD.


So there I was one night, mindlessly looking through ads, when I see a Super Champ XD listed for $125 bucks.  Pedal money. I owned this thing's baby brother, the Vibro-Champ XD and thought it was a great grab and go amp, so I was fairly confident in what I was getting here.

I responded with "I'll take it" immediately, but notice that I am 5 minutes after the post went live, so I was likely number 137 in line. Ah well... Nothing ventured...


Not this time.

A lady responds immediately with "great, when can you get it?"

AWESOME!.... Also drats!... It's already 10:30PM and the gear is 40 minutes away. Work in the morning too... She's not going to hold it.

Tail tucked between my legs, I explain it's a bit late for me now, but that I could leave work early to swing by and pick it up as it is on the way (it wasn't). I sheepishly hit send and hope for the best.

"No problem.  See you tomorrow," it read.

Huzzah.


Turns out that the woman was selling on behalf of her husband for a reason that wasn't made clear until I showed up to a really nice, large house backing on to a golf course. From what I could tell, the guy had a stroke, as his arm was hanging at his side, and it was obviously he was trying to hide it. I felt terrible, but once they informed me they were knocking down the large old house because "it is too small", I figured I wasn't changing their life by coming clean on the price.

The woman did note that "these amps must be very popular, I got so many responses..."

"Yeah, pretty popular," I offered.  I didn't want to get into it.

I thanked them and drove away with my like-new Super Champ XD, complete with original receipt.

I'll give a little write up later, but for now suffice to say that it's a pretty solid purchase at $125.



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