Beomaster 8000: Awesome Find on Ebay!

I often help customers to find a suitable Bang & Olufsen unit on ebay or craigslist, then restore it and then send it on to its new home. Almost like going back to the 70s with a time machine and buying it new at a B&O store...;-). Here the task was to find a Beomaster 8000 in nice cosmetic condition. I always recommend to start any restoration with a nice looking unit, since the value of the finished unit is largely determined by its looks...

Recently a very nice Beomaster came up on ebay including the Terminal remote and the original packaging. It was also sold by the initial owner - always a very good sign! I received the unit yesterday, and it was a happy moment. He had the original box double boxed by a mailing place, and so it arrived in a  huge box under a heap of styrofoam peanuts...not my favorite method - too messy when unboxing and more importantly, the inner box can shift around and individual sides of the inner box can end up dangerously close to the outer box, negating the purpose of the double box. In this case all went well, though.

Here are a few impressions:

As I said, a LOT of peanuts...;-). After I shoveled everything in several lawn bags, I extracted the original box:

then came the moment of truth!:

The original owner's manual! excellent! And then the Beomaster revealed itself:

In pristine condition as advertised! I love it when ebay sellers are honest! In this case it was a very pleasant experience from A to Z. Look at the veneer corners!:

Awesome! Almost like new! The best corners I have seen in some time! Lucky day!