My obscession with pre 1980 technology

I am issuing an appeal to my gentle readers.
I'm not a wealthy person and I tend to be a collector. I love things like old 16mm film, reel to reels, old amps, turntables, records, old toys, legos, triumph motorcycles, studebaker cars, Minneapolis-Moline tractors and such ilk.
So I frequently do craigslist searches for things like reel-to-reel and thorens and turntable.
A follower of The Lazy Farmer sent me a link to the dual 1019 which led me to this treasure. (click here)
It is a Sony TC-230 reel to reel. It is owned by the person from which I bought the record player It is a medium to good consumer quality reel-to-reel according to the information I have found. But, it comes with two boxes of decent quality tapes, original packaging, and according to the specs a phono input. So, you could run your dual 1019 through the reel-to-reel. Which is what the nice lady's grandfather probably did.
We had a nice conversation about the tape player and I told her I would give her $100 for it. I said I thought it was probably worth around $150. I noted that it was half of what she was asking but I did not want to be disrespectful and try and cut her down on the price. That was my opinion.
Her grandfather sounds like an interesting fellow as he also had a jukebox at one point in time. I should have asked more about him.
So....a couple days later she emails me and offers me the reel-to-reel at $150. I don't know. I'd have done it the day I bought the turntable. I had the cash right then. After getting the turntable home I realized that sitting in a closet for 40 years is not good on old stereo equipment. On the other hand I have a lot of tapes I want to hear. Plus, I have my uncle's life story who was a CO in Germany in WWI and came to America between the wars. Somewhere there is a cassette of it but I can't find it.
On the other hand it is a huge reel-to-reel. On the other hand is the money. I don't really have it to spend. I am putting a chicken feed add on craigslist to raise some cash and I need to put some of my already view 16mm movies on ebay.
My wife says I agonize over $50 purchases and other husbands blow $$$$ on useless stuff and I should do it if I really want it, but you can go to the poorhouse $25 at a time just as easy as $2000 a transaction, it may take longer but you still end up there.
On the other hand, I am getting a lot of entertainment out of the turntable, static and rumble, and low frequency response, all taken into account.
I think I could get my money back out of it at $150, just by starting it and playing a few tapes and then turning around and writing a different ad. Or by putting it on ebay. I think I'd do it for $100, of course I'd have to drive back to Portland...
I don't know...
If only someone would buy my 100 tons of not very high protein horse hay... or that nice lady whose mother just died would pay me the rest of the $2,400 she owes me, or that fellow who is selling eggs for $4.50 a dozen would pay me the $1,200 he owes me, or my employee would pay me back the $2,000 he owes me, or I would just get a real job....
I think I'm going to have to say no...
I'll think about it today-see if I get any calls about chicken feed.
Any comments are welcome!