I took her advice and went for a walk, but didn’t get more than half a block from the office before spotting two large, green dumpsters filled to their brims with paperwork, notebooks, and other office supplies. As I approached, something else caught my eye. Atop the pile of stuff were two fully-stocked, wooden cassette shelves in very good condition.
The very moment I decided to inspect the goods, two other music nerds, wrapped up in headphone cables and iPods, suddenly appeared.
Vultures.
“Anything good?” one music nerd asked.
“Nah,” I replied. “Just a bunch of kids’ music. Must’ve belonged to a day care, or something.”
I was more interested in the shelves, anyhow. I lifted one to test its weight.
“Guys, I feel bad about taking them both. Either one of you want to take one?”
The music nerds looked up at one another, glanced down at my cassette shelves, shook their heads, and continued to scrounge through the bins.
“Cool,” I said, “I’m taking them.”
***
That same day, my cassette pusher man dealer junkie guy, Al of
Scotch Tapes, sent me an e-mail. Subject line: “you are going to [expletive] HATE me…”
Al had also found something useful. Far more useful and more valuable than a couple of old wooden cassette shelves:
A Nakamichi Dragon cassette deck. The queen mother of cassette decks. The cassette deck which still consistently sells for $1000 or more on eBay. In perfect working condition. Al found it at a local thrift shop up in Batchawana Bay, wherever the hell that is. Want to know how much he paid?
He paid a revolting 19 [expletive] dollars.
If Al wasn’t such a sweetheart, I’d be [expletive] pissed. At least I’ve got some shelves to hold all of Al’s pretty cassettes.
