The Goodwills in Austin (and Houston) now have employees that recognize good gear and records and if they don't take them for themselves they put them in a bid case which quickly gets out of hand. I have given up on the "chain" thrift stores and found more gold at the mom and pop outfits, especially in the surrounding smaller communities.
As for my best find audiowise, other than a slew of turntables which I did fix up and flip when I was working in a record store in the mid 90's (pre-ebay) my best find was a pair of KLH 20s for $5 and some Pioneer HPM 60s (tweeter was blown in one) for about the same price.
As for the guy saying he was going to buy them, I would have gone to the manager and offered an amount for all of them and see if the guy could match it right then and there (assuming there was some good stuff in there). $50 would probably have done it. On a similar note, Half Price Books was notorious for having the employees take the best stuff (I have several friends who still work there and they use to get some killer rare stuff for cheap). A while back mgmt got wise and now they limit their hold bins and the amount they can purchase. They can also "check" items out which they take home and copy. The quality of their stock has gone up immensely.
As for my best find audiowise, other than a slew of turntables which I did fix up and flip when I was working in a record store in the mid 90's (pre-ebay) my best find was a pair of KLH 20s for $5 and some Pioneer HPM 60s (tweeter was blown in one) for about the same price.
As for the guy saying he was going to buy them, I would have gone to the manager and offered an amount for all of them and see if the guy could match it right then and there (assuming there was some good stuff in there). $50 would probably have done it. On a similar note, Half Price Books was notorious for having the employees take the best stuff (I have several friends who still work there and they use to get some killer rare stuff for cheap). A while back mgmt got wise and now they limit their hold bins and the amount they can purchase. They can also "check" items out which they take home and copy. The quality of their stock has gone up immensely.