THIS IS THE SHORTER VERSION OF THIS PAGE. IF YOU HAVE 3 - 5 MINUTES AND ARE NOT IN TOO BIG A HURRY, YOU MIGHT FIND THE SOMEWHAT MORE COMPLETE VERSION INTERESTING.



CLICK HERE FOR LONGER VERSION OF...

THE BACKGROUND STORY AND THE RULES.





Hello and welcome to my website. Rick Stout here. I'm the owner operator of StereoManuals.com which is located in the USA. An extremely large percentage of our previous customers are very satisfied and highly recommend StereoManuals. A good number of highly respected vintage audio techs and others who post on such sites as quarter million member AudioKarma.org regularly recommend us as perhaps the best source for quality manuals on the planet.



This page is to provide information to you ONLY about items listed in my Printed Reproduction Manuals Catalog pages that do not currently have any description or pricing. The reason for this page is because over recent years, soooooo many folks seem unable to engage their brain while communicating to me via emails by saying who they are, where they are, what they want, etc. I am NOT a mind reader. Soooooo... here we go...



First, quick background, followed by "The Rules".



The background is this. In February 2001, I semi-accidently got started in this manuals business on eBay. Over the next couple of years I became one of the most successful manuals sellers on eBay.



In 2003 I acquired "3 tons" of manuals and nearly all of them had to be put in an off-premises storage location where many still reside to this day. My first website had little real content but began to draw a lot of traffic as word got around that I had these manuals. I stopped on eBay while at the same time being swamped with hundreds of emails each week asking about manuals and I was unable to respond to many of them.



I have NEVER accepted a single $1.00 from anybody for any manual item unless I knew that they have seen a description that included at least the number of pages, construction method, mention of any flaws, enlarged versions of schematics, or any other pertinent information, PLUS an "individually-assigned" quality rating. I REFUSE to provide misleading information. If the repro manual will be Excellent quality, I will plainly say that. If the reproduction item will be shitty quality, I will plainly say that also BEFORE you pay.



Additionally, I REFUSE to flat-rate price the manuals. I know of manuals sellers who basically flat-rate charge $29.99 plus shipping for manuals. You might be pissed off when it arrives and is only 4 pages. I believe you deserve to know if it is 4 pages, or 400 pages before you pay. I start with prices for tiny items at $4.00 with zero shipping and as much as $100.00 for manuals that are 400-500 pages. My average manual sales price over the years has been about $17.00.



In the mid-2000's with part time help from 3 daughters, we were able to do detailed descriptions and pricing for tens of thousands of the manuals. Completing the remaining tens of thousands of manual descriptions and pricing became an impossible task with the loss of help of the daughters and various issues over a few years of dealing with elderly parents sicknesses and deaths.



So the result is that now, many thousands of manual listings on my site have complete descriptions and pricing. However, many additional thousands of manuals remain listed in the Printed Reproduction Manuals Catalog that have no description and no price code. Hence your coming to this page. I will never be adding more manuals descriptions or pricing unless somebody specifically requests it. If any manual listing you are looking at has no description and price, that means you are the FIRST person to ever inquire about it since 2003.



I'm in my social security years. This so-called "business" no longer even produces even a minimum wage income. The reasons are the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, baby boomers dying off, the increase the most popular manuals becoming available on free PDF manuals download sites, and vast numbers of people getting their music on a cell phone. So spending many thousands of hours of my remaining life to do descriptions of items that will mostly NEVER sell is off the table.



The above means that I consider StereoManuals.com to be a "service" to folks, NOT a business. YES, YOU HEARD ME CORRECTLY. I WOULD LIKE TO BE TREATED AS SOMEBODY WHO IS AVAILABLE TO POTENTIALLY PROVIDE A SERVICE TO YOU, not as somebody who is trying to rip you off to make a buck.



I have never believed that "the customer is always right". All too frequently potential customers are very wrong in their their approach to others while apparently sensing no responsibility to communicate as an adult. Over recent years increasingly large numbers of emails I receive sound like messages from a 3rd grader in that so many can't even say what country they are in, or apparently expect me to be a mind reader because they can't even be bothered to say more than "manual", instead of "User Manual" or "Service Manual", or what country they are in. Seriously, give me a break.



The above is an introduction to telling you that if you see something you want that is listed in my PRINTED REPRODUCTION MANUALS CATALOG that is not already described and priced, you need to email me and ask for that information.



If you want the description and pricing for some PHYSICAL printed and mailed item that is listed in my Printed Reproduction Manuals Catalog, I have to take a flashlight and go through perhaps beautiful weather in regular day hours, or possibly through rain, snow or freezing weather in the middle of the night to my off-premises storage location to find and retreive my original to provide you with a physical printed reproduction manual page count, description, pricing, and shipping cost.



That normally takes 15-30 minutes of my time. However, sometimes it might take an hour or more. I'm HAPPY to do that for you, but I do NOT want to do that if you already know that you have a maximum price range of $5.00, or $10.00, or $15.00, BUT you don't tell me that. OR you are only wanting a very cheap or free PDF file, but you don't tell me that. Sooooooo... if you ask me to provide the info, and I provide it, then you reply and say.... "I was only looking for a PDF manual"... Then I have to tell you that pisses me off... because you did not say that in your inquiry and you wasted MY time.



SO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not waste my time if you are not willing to be precise about what you are looking for.



Regardless of how the above sounds or the "Rules" below may sound, I am a VERY NICE GUY and I am MORE THAN WILLING AND HAPPY to provide you with excellent service including detailed and accurate replies to your inquires, paying attention to details, and providing product that is guaranteed to meet it's description.







That was the background, Now "The Rules".





#1 - Before you email, engage your brain. You are not talking to me face-to-face. Communicating via email does not mean that I am a mind reader who knows who you are, where you are, what you want, etc. unless you plainly tell me who you are, where you are, and precisely what you are asking about THAT IS LISTED IN MY REPRODUCTION MANUALS CATALOG.



#2 - We are talking here ONLY about items listed in my PRINTED REPRODUCTION MANUALS CATALOG. That means ONLY the items that are listed. If you do not see it listed, then it is NOT available from me as a PRINTED REPRODUCTION MANUAL. Every single item I have available as a printed and mailed item is listed. If it is not listed, then I do not have it.



#2 - If you haven't figured it out yet that the PRINTED REPRODUCTION MANUALS CATALOG is not a listing for PDF files, then let me plainly say... the listings are for physical printed paper products that will be mailed. If you want a PDF file, they say so. Do not waste my time with asking about pricing for an item listed but not described or priced in my Printed Reproduction Manuals Catalog if you think it's a listing for a PDF file. It is not. If what you really are asking about is a PDF file, then plainly say so regardless of whether it is listed in the Reproduction Manuals Catalog or not. I have around 400,000 PDF manuals, but that has nothing to do with the Printed Reproduction Manuals Catalog listings. Just because I have a physical manual, that does NOT mean I am willing to scan it to produce a PDF file because I am not willing to do that. You can see this page on my site for further information...

http://www.stereomanuals.com/man/pdf/index.htm



#3 - Is there some reason you can't simply provide your name and mailing address when you inquire about some manual listing? I am sick of replying to people and being forced to type... "you did not say what country you are in, if not USA or Canada, do NOT pay without contacting me first". Seriously... how hard is it for you to say what country you are in. And God forbid you provide a phone number since some of your inquires could be answered 10 times easier by a quick phone call instead of via an email response.



#4 - If you are somebody who does not have the common courtesy to respond to my reply to at least acknowledge you received the information you asked for... then PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT ME AT ALL because you are wasting a lot of my time. SERIOUSLY.. do not contact me at all. Over recent years, an increasingly large percentage of people think it's fine to ask somebody to supply them with information, but are seemingly unwilling to even reply and say they received the requested information. One of the most frustrating things I deal with is having somebody ask me to provide them information. I then reply and supply the information they asked for, then they will not reply to at least acknowledge that they received the information they asked me to supply.



#5 - This is a reinforcement of rule #4. Some of you reading this think I sound insane. I am not. However, as the older I get, the more frustrated I get with people who rudely abuse my time. What I mean is this. Somebody writes and says, "I want XYZ manual". That is the entire message. They may not have even give the company brand name, or said "User" or "Service" manual, or say whether they saw the item listed on my site or not, or saw pricing or not, or what country they are in, or if what they really want is a PDF file, etc.



I normally repy with all the various necessary responses regarding all the various and obvious info about whether they did or did not see the listing description. pricing, or what country they are in, etc, etc. So then a couple days go by and I receive no response from the inquirer. Because this is email, I have no idea if my reply went to their spam folder, or it got accidently deleted, etc. I normally have no way of knowing if they saw my reply or not.



Because I try to be responsible, after a couple days, I ''resend" the first reply with "2nd ATTEMPT FOLLOW-UP" added to the subject line.. I repeat this every couple of days with 2nd, 3rd, 4th ATTEMPT FOLLOW-UP.



In the "5th AND FINAL ATTEMPT FOLLOW-UP reply. I sometimes add... "Why do you think it's alright for you to contact somebody and ask them to supply you with information, but you apparently are unable or unwilling to at least respond and say you received the information YOU asked me to supply? Please do NOT ever contact me again for anything in the future unless you are also willing to also offer an apology.



This 5th AND FINAL ATTEMPT FOLLOW-UP message apparently pisses off a lot of those folks, because all of a sudden, for the first time, they are able to SUDDENLY see my replies. An AMAZINGLY and UNBELIEVABLY large number of those folks then suddenly notice my 5th AND FINAL reply and respond with something like this...



"I could not reply because I was having heart bypass surgery"



You think I'm joking... sorry, but I am 100% serious. My best advice to you is that if you do not want to suddenly need to have heart bypass surgery, you should not contact me regarding purchasing some reproduction manual.



Yes, that last paragraph was "somewhat of joke", but I want you to know that it's much more truth than fiction.



Bottom line... you contact me with accurate information and I promise to respond to you with accurate information.



If you can not be bothered to follow any of the above "rules', I may just reply with a link the the longer version of this page.



Click Here for my Contact Us page.