Like many of the portable CD players I buy off eBay, my most recent, the D-NE820, came with the original external AA battery case, but without the original remote or wall charger.
The wall charger isn’t that big a deal; I already have several and to be honest I only need one at a time anyway. But the remote is a little more problematic, especially with these later Sony players. Never mind that there’s no track display on the unit itself; a lot of the functions can only be accessed through the remote.
Acquiring one separately normally isn’t a big deal. Lots of sellers put them up for sale separately and they typically run from $20 to (gulp) $50. So like I’ve done in the past, I put in a search for the particular model that came with this player.
Yikes! Survey says, “NO.”
When eBay fails me, I resort to looking on Buyee, a Japanese proxy-buying service that lets someone outside Japan buy from Japanese marketplaces and stores that either don’t ship internationally or don’t readily accept overseas buyers. I got that beautiful orange MZ-N910 MiniDisc player through the service last year. The only downside is the handling and shipping charges. It ain’t cheap…
I found the remote there—as part of an auction that included another 820 player. The current bid was around $10, so I put in a $40 bid (what I was willing to pay for the remote alone), never thinking I’d get it. Well, a few days later I got notice that I won the auction with my bid.
With the customs fee and expedited shipping the total came to around $70, substantially less than I would’ve paid if I’d gone through eBay for just the remote alone. And I figured I could always turn around and flip the player itself since I don’t need a duplicate and easily recoup the $70 since this model (without accessories) generally goes for > $100.
I arrived today
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